Announcement

**Gryphon** · May 17, 2004, 03:17:05 PM

Ahhh! My avatar is gone! Where'd it go? *grumbles* Ah well. I was going to make another one anyway.

13) Please limit your chat speech. It gets REALLY annoying.

Anyone want to post links to Lee's guidelines and things?

**semiramis** · May 17, 2004, 03:50:41 PM

hmmmm.... um.... something you may be confused about: this

**Peter Murray** · May 17, 2004, 06:35:06 PM

1a) It probably shouldn't be a penguin, either .

Question about #11) I always think of spamming as meaning sending junkmail - what does it mean on the forums?

14) No chatting in the shoutbox.

**Agent M** · May 17, 2004, 06:54:12 PM

Penguins are cute. Maybe I should get my penguin back... He wasn't high!

**Birdhead** · May 17, 2004, 08:36:33 PM

I think we should maybe do something similar to this, but more in-depth in one post so it's easier to get all the content. Gryphon's list was good, but it's kinda short and abrupt, and it mixes the genuinely important (animated avatars; one liners) with the less important stuff- the stuff that's more community history oriented, like marniebrown1 to Agent M, or the in-jokes, like VGDawn, or personal ettiquette, like netspeak.

So... in summary, should we maybe split this up a little? I mean, I'm not suggesting utter rigidity of content, here (injokes are funny in the right place) but just to make it more streamlined to read? Detailed explanations are also really important, because if you read a chatty post that tells you not to spam but doesn't explain what spam is, or tells you avatar size limits but not why, you're not going to pay attention to it.

Spam is Stupid Pointless Annoying Messages, and it has different meanings different places. Next to nothing is spam in The Topic of Great Randomness: that's what it's there for!! In Chatter II, spam might be something that's COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY unrelated to anything the thread's about- if you want to start another thread you can. Of coruse, Chatter threads often devolve into other stuff, but it's a good idea if it happens gradually- it's okay to be off-topic so long as at least your first sentence was on-topic, ro soemthing like that.... In the on-topic forums, spam is threads that aren't directly related, however obscurely, to the books; and it's posts in threads that start devolving into in-jokes.

Oh, and in the Newbie FAQ, SPAM would be ALL POSTS ABOUT PENGUINS. Penguins are, like, the epitome of SPAM; they are what spam strives to be.

I don't know, all of what I just said sounds really tough and rigid, but we're not, really, at all... meh. It's hard to explain.

There's another thing for one-liners: if you're going to cost DD $$, we'd all rather we did so because we had something to say. This links in directly with spam- if you haven't at leat thought for a minute about what you're saying you're both
-more interesting (this is always a plus. )
-showing your respect for others- and DD's $$$!!!!
-This also applies to netspeak: it's about taking time to make stuff easier and more pleasant to read. I don't go psycho over misspellings any more, unless they're super-obvious, but I really really can't stand netspeak so I personally will get annoyed and I migth not be the only one... Fear me!!!!

*****EDIT: but wait, there's mroe! She really can talk forever!

I added a bit about misspellings up there, and I have a hard link: the rules for avatar sizes can be found right here, at http://www.youngwizards.net/YoungWiz...atarGuide.html. PLEASE PLEASE read it, because images can really mess up bandwidth (see? They've completely vanished at the moment... :O )

Mm, yeah. I sound like an Evil Oldbie. I'm not, honest! I like newbies, and I'm really friendly, aren't I? Aren't I? *nudges others*

**Kathy Li** · May 17, 2004, 08:41:51 PM

Nice try, Gryphon, but a little rambling, and assumes some prior knowledge. How's this?

The basic rule around these boards is to have fun, and enjoy talking about the YW books with fellow fans.

But the thing to keep in mind is that Diane Duane herself pays for the upkeep of this board, so anything you can do to help keep this board fast and lean are appreciated.

The biggest culprits/gotchas in this regard are:

1) avatars.

Everybody likes to personalize their profiles on the boards, and personality is a good thing. But make sure that before you put a picture up, that you've read the avatar guidelines. Please pay special attention to copyright issues. We don't want to get DD sued for copyright infringement. If you don't have permission from the guys who made the image, don't use the file. If you don't have hosting space for the image you want to use, contact Lee, and she'll resize and host it for you on youngwizards.net.

2) sigs

Please, be considerate of others, and keep your sigs down to four lines or less. (This includes empty lines). Again, keep the bandwidth down by making sigs text-only, please.

3) one-liners, me-toos, etc.

Try to make sure your posts have some substance to them. Posting one liners to push up your post count is strictly forbidden, and may cause the admins to zero out your count. Try and remember a board is a conversation. Contribute. Substance (actual information or opinion), relevance (staying on topic is appreciated, however, see Topic of Great Randomness, below), and style are all things that get you noticed and remembered around here. Try to make sure that your posts can be read by anyone interested in YW. If you're going to have personal one-on-one conversations, reserve them for the chat area, private topics, or e-mail. General netiquette applies.

4) not using pre-existing threads.

Before you start a new thread topic, check and make sure that it doesn't already exist--duplication is a waste of space and time. Use the Search feature to see if what you want to talk about has been discussed. And try to make any new topic broad enough to be an ongoing discussion. Instead of starting a "trees with brown leaves and squirrels running up their North sides" topic, try just starting a "trees" or "plants" thread. Give your fellow board members a little elbow room for discussion.

Who is this Lee person?
Lee is the Board Admin who does the day-to-day overseeing of our craziness. DD Herself, however, also wields an admin password and has been known to use it with wild abandon.

How do I edit or delete a post?
When you're logged into the board, only the messages you've posted will have an additional pencil-eraser-over-a-folder icon. Clicking on this will let you edit or delete the posting. This ability, however, is time-sensitive, and cannot be used on older posts (generally a day or so).

How do I ______ on this board?
Take a look at the general Eve/UBB.x help for directions on how to navigate, post, type in smileys, add photo albums, etc.

What are all these acronyms?
(oldbies, here's where a list might help).
DD = Diane Duane
YW = Young Wizards
SYWTBAW = So You Want to Be A Wizard
DW = Deep Wizardry
HW = High Wizardry
WA = Wizard Abroad
WD = Wizard's Dilemma
AWA = A Wizard Alone
WH = Wizard's Holiday
WAW, W@W = Wizards at War
WoM = Wizard of Mars
ToGR = Topic of Great Randomness

Also, some folk around here are SMS-fluent, so some of those acronyms appear on the boards and chats.

The Chat Area
The chat area requires a password separate from your board password. E-mail Lee directly to request a chat password. DD herself participates in an hour-long chat (usually) on the first weekend of each month. Her business/writing schedule varies, so watch for Lee's posts in "Chat Area Info and Times" to find out when the next chat with DD will occur.

But the chat is available to all board members the rest of the time, for casual small-group conversation. Be aware that the chat log is read every day by either Lee or DD, so if you'd rather they not know whatever intimate secrets you're posting there, e-mail might be a better venue for your conversation.

Also, SigmaChat's help page can give you some general help information. Be aware that some SigmaChat features are turned off in the YW Chat.

The Shoutbox (aka Chatbox or Chatterbox)
The shoutbox on the front page is for letting folks know if you're in the chat or not, and quick hellos and comments. It is not for extended conversations. For that, use the chat area.

The Topic of Great Randomness
Is an exception area to the rule of "try to stay on topic." In the ToGR, anything goes. But it should NOT be followed as a model for how all thread conversations should run.

Be aware, that the Topic of Great Randomness is the ONLY thread allowed in the TOGR area. All other non-YW topic threads belong in Chatter.

But if there's a ToGR, why should we ever stay on topic?
Staying on topic in a thread is basic netiquette. It allows you to find what you want to talk about, and gives newbies a chance to jump in on the action. It's frustrating to go to a thread that's labelled as apples when you're bursting to talk about that new varietal you just found, only to find out it was hijacked and derailed three days ago so that now everybody's talking about pickles instead. If you need to wander, there's the ToGR. But otherwise, try to stay on topic, or guide topics into more appropriate threads. (e.g., "Hey, let's take this over to the ___ thread." is always ok).

Ages
This is an all-ages board, but you may notice that the average age here is pretty young. This said, an emphasis on internet safety, and no-profanity rules are stronger here than on your average board. Be aware that the language-censor on this board has been tuned to Victorian maiden aunt levels, and may cause unexpected hilarity by asterisking out a completely innocent phrase. If it bothers you, you can always ask Lee to tweak the filter.

Why do so many people have multiple names?
It's the nature of cyberspace and the necessity of net-safety that causes many people to use an alias when registering with the board, and then over time, as board members become more trusting, to use "real" or "closer" nicknames, or names from other boards. Don't worry if you're new and can't remember. It's always safe to refer to someone by their login. And in chat, you can always ask what their board login is, if their chat login is different. If you hate the name you registered with and don't want to be addressed by it, you can always mail Lee and ask her to change it for you.

[edited for a typo, and to chatbox/chatterbox to the shoutbox title.] [second edit to link to ToGR and Netiquette guide, and added two other options for one-on-ones, SMS definitions link, SigmaChat help page, general UBB.x help, ToGR warning, staying on topic, using existing threads, names].

**Birdhead** · May 17, 2004, 09:00:58 PM

*points vigorously at kathy's post* Now, THAT's a FAQ. Yeah.
*is in awe*

A few more... details that might want fitting in: along with acronyms, we reference various areas and people colloquially. It can get kinda confusing, especially when you're comparing "chat" with "chatbox" with "Chatter II," or when someone is referred to by a name that you can't see in the user names. So quickly:
The chat room, which is linked to at the top of the forum pages and which you need to get a password to get into, is just like an ordinary chat room and works basically the same way. You should still remember your language there, though, and this is the place you go when you want to talk about absolutely nothing (and make pretty sounds. In moderation.)

The chat box is the scrolling box you can see to the side of the boards when you enter is called the "chatbox," the "chatterbox" of the "shoutbox," depending on who's doing the calling. This is a place where you can say hi to everyone and ask people to go to chat, or tell people briefly that you're in a good mood or a bad mood and why. in effect, you can have short messages here, but the idea is that you don't have full-blown discussion in there, and to keep that either to the forums or the chatroom.

Finally, Chatter II is a division of the forums or boards. It's called Chatter II because the original Chatter malfunctioned after an overload of messages, and you can go here to talk about whatever you want to talk about. But it's not a chat room; it works just like all the other boards and is treated as one.

A final note; although The Topic of Great Randomness looks like a forum, it's really only supposed to have the one topic in it. If you want to talk about random stuff, start another thread in Chatter, not in TTOGR.

Also, a couple of people on here go by their names in Real Life or other names they prefer to their user names. I'm often called Tui; Ewizard11 is almost always referred to as Ella; kli6 is kli or kathy; Rysade is called Dave (mostly by me); crookedfrog13 (who isn't around much actually) is Aundrea; and I think I'm missing some. I know I'm missing some. Anyway, it's not too hard to pick up, we hope.

Some of this is re-covering Kathy's post, but it was kinda unclear and confusing without it- sorry.

**Gryphon** · May 18, 2004, 03:56:18 AM

S'okay. My guide was kinda chaotic.

Acronyms:
TBoNWM ~ The Boook of Night With Moon

Also, some of the people shorten or alter the way they spell a person's view name sometimes. Zgirl and AgentM sometimes turn into Z or M. Aurora=> Aurie. Little things like that. Also, a certain annoying peron *coughcough* keeps calling me skitty. I'm Gryphon now. Oh, and remember to call db_pr Diegowts.

**Kathy Li** · May 18, 2004, 11:39:41 AM

Hey, Gryphon, it takes tremendous courage to put up what we techwriters call "the straw man" (i.e., a first draft target for everybody to hack apart to start clawing your way to a finished document. Most people have a problem writing on a blank page, but once somebody writes something down, then anybody can get the ideas to flow. But somebody's gotta pony up and do the really hard first stab, and that was you!

Tui, I have a more than slight advantage, having written FAQs for internal company websites. The trick is that an FAQ is a "living document." It continues to change and evolve over time. Our problem is that we're used to the board, so we can't see it from a newbie's eyes. So having the new guys come and look over here, and ask questions, will probably give us ideas of where more explanations are needed. Then Lee can consolidate everything, without having to think up everything herself.

Good work on the chat/chatbox/chatter/shoutbox distinctions!

**meteorite** · May 18, 2004, 12:11:17 PM

Going along with the Victorian-maiden-aunt motif...
We have also had a few interesting discussions about politics, religion, and other touchy subjects. Unfortunately, after a few posts, rather than being levelheaded discussions, they often turned into rants of one type or another. As a general rule of thumb, no personal attacks, posts about how people who don't believe in a certain religion, political group, etc. are going to he**, or any other posts of a generally ill-tempered nature. If you want to yell about how someone is bad/evil/wrong (except in a lighthearted fashion {see discussion of Poot}), please carry on in a private conversation elsewhere, or else the Admins may feel the need to smite you. We are trying to keep it civilized and civil.

**nitafan211** · May 18, 2004, 02:26:28 PM

Thankyou guys, ive been really confused with alot of stuff (especially poot) and yall have preety much gone over it. By the way, question, How do yall all know eachother? I mean there is alot of members arent there?

**Kathy Li** · May 18, 2004, 02:40:52 PM

Generally, we got to know each other by hanging out on these boards a LOT. You'll get to recognize who the repeaters are by just hanging out a while. If you're nervous about posting, take the time to "lurk" (i.e., read the board w/out posting) until you feel comfortable with things. Don't worry, though, we're always happy to meet new friends. Jump on in, the water's fine.

Here's a link to a general netiquette guide that covers a lot of the basics.

**nitafan211** · May 18, 2004, 03:28:29 PM

I have been coming here often and posting, but everytime I come, no one is here! By the way, when I post something and I go back to see if anyone wrote something after me, I can't see it. Know what's going on?

**Chani** · May 18, 2004, 03:39:57 PM

Nitafan211...

Sorry, I don't know what is the problem. Ask Lee.

Well, I am here... I seem to have a schedual where most people aren't here either. Just post, I guess. I can't go into the chat room cause I don't have a password yet, so I have the Shoutbox and the Chat/Forum boards... Kinda have to wait for people to reply... keep checking. I hope everything gets worked out.

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