oggbashan
Dying Truth seeker
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2002
- Posts
- 56,017
The end of a contest has reminded me that we have established some traditions in the Author's Hangout that could be usefully listed to aid newcomers.
1. All newbies are treated courteously and politely until they become established regulars. They are allowed to ask questions that have been asked many times before without incurring any penalty for their temerity. Just-Legal is their official defender and she will savage anyone mistreating a newbie.
2. Svenskaflicka's name must never be abbreviated so that it appears that she is not female. Svenskaflicka means 'Swedish GIRL'. Anyone shortening her name to the first four letters would be safer putting their head in a lion's mouth.
3. I am responsible for running the Last Place (tm) Contest in parallel with the normal contests. The winner of the coveted Last Place is viewed with awe by other authors for reaching such an abysmally low score. The competition for Last Place is as hard fought as that for the first three places even though the so-called winner actually wins nothing except the kudos of adding the claim to their signature.
4. I seem to have taken over responsibility for starting the support thread for each contest.
5. I have to write an entry of 15 x 50 word stories for each contest even though such an entry will never be placed.
6. The Author's Hangout does not belong to any of us. It belongs to a mythical singleton author who is unnamed. We just use the space.
7. Answering 'The Question' i.e. 'How long before my story is posted?' used to be the preserve of MathGirl who is no longer posting. The answer must always include some improbable timescale.
8. This one is not always observed. Political threads should make clear in their title that they are political. If it is not immediately obvious from the title, the word (political) should be added. This warns those of a nervous disposition to stay well clear because in political threads otherwise courteous and well-mannered members of the AH become vicious and nasty in their level of debate. However much virtual blood is split in a political thread, the combatants can meet in other threads and converse amicably. No one is ever convinced to change their views in a political thread so the arguments are essentially pointless.
I could continue. However I think that there are many other AH traditions that can be added to this thread and I leave it to the rest of you to inform newbies what there are, or to invent new traditions.
Og (Who hadn't mentioned sheep - until now.)
1. All newbies are treated courteously and politely until they become established regulars. They are allowed to ask questions that have been asked many times before without incurring any penalty for their temerity. Just-Legal is their official defender and she will savage anyone mistreating a newbie.
2. Svenskaflicka's name must never be abbreviated so that it appears that she is not female. Svenskaflicka means 'Swedish GIRL'. Anyone shortening her name to the first four letters would be safer putting their head in a lion's mouth.
3. I am responsible for running the Last Place (tm) Contest in parallel with the normal contests. The winner of the coveted Last Place is viewed with awe by other authors for reaching such an abysmally low score. The competition for Last Place is as hard fought as that for the first three places even though the so-called winner actually wins nothing except the kudos of adding the claim to their signature.
4. I seem to have taken over responsibility for starting the support thread for each contest.
5. I have to write an entry of 15 x 50 word stories for each contest even though such an entry will never be placed.
6. The Author's Hangout does not belong to any of us. It belongs to a mythical singleton author who is unnamed. We just use the space.
7. Answering 'The Question' i.e. 'How long before my story is posted?' used to be the preserve of MathGirl who is no longer posting. The answer must always include some improbable timescale.
8. This one is not always observed. Political threads should make clear in their title that they are political. If it is not immediately obvious from the title, the word (political) should be added. This warns those of a nervous disposition to stay well clear because in political threads otherwise courteous and well-mannered members of the AH become vicious and nasty in their level of debate. However much virtual blood is split in a political thread, the combatants can meet in other threads and converse amicably. No one is ever convinced to change their views in a political thread so the arguments are essentially pointless.
I could continue. However I think that there are many other AH traditions that can be added to this thread and I leave it to the rest of you to inform newbies what there are, or to invent new traditions.
Og (Who hadn't mentioned sheep - until now.)
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