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Line Breaks

edited July 2006 in Forum Stuff
This is a matter that I cannot simply edit away. There are some people on this forum using line breaks incorrectly, and it's extremely irritating to me. kilarney and blast flame are the most recent offenders.

In sum:

When writing on the Internet, you just leave two carriage returns between each paragraph. Not one. Not three. You start a new paragraph when the subject changes substantially, the point is complete, or the speaker in quotation marks changes. You do not just leave single carriage returns around willy-nilly. It's sloppy-looking, and makes your writings difficult to follow.

Comments

  • Oh noes! People are using carriage returns incorrectly! Teh n00bs!
    ;-)
  • Wat r u taking abut?
    U r aksing fore trubble, Mr Peirod.



    Big trubble,

    (Edit that, you Godwin's Law-inducing punctuation mark.)
  • Yeh. Hu sez wi Get i'm good?
  • ph33r d4 p33rio7z 1337 3d|tz0rz. ph33r.
  • There's something else you all need to know about quoting. When you quote, don't put any line breaks whatsoever after the quote tags. The forum's CSS will take care of everything for you.

    Do not do this:
    <blockquote>A quote.</p></div></blockquote>

    Talking.
    Do not do this:
    <blockquote>A quote.</p></div></blockquote>
    Talking.
    Do not do this:
    [quote]A quote.[/quote]

    Talking.

    Here is what you should do:
    <blockquote>A quote.</p></div></blockquote>Talking.or
    [quote]A quote.[/quote]Talking.
    Do you now see how to comment directly after the closing tag without making spaces or newlines? That is what you need to do. The forum's CSS will make it look nice, trust me. Remember, just use the Preview button. If there is a bunch of extra whitespace, make sure to delete some newlines.
  • Since Mr. Period's profile says that he has moderator privileges - which one of you is it? Scott???

    And if it is you (note: two "enters" used for new thought), do you find yourself arranging things for no apparent reason? Does it drive you crazy if someone moves your toothbrush a couple of inches from its proper resting location?

    I haven't really started a new thought, but yet I hit enter twice. That must drive you crazy!
    And here I hit enter just once. Mwahahaha!
    U r kewl.

  • Do you now see how to comment directly after the closing tag without making spaces or newlines? That is what you need to do.
    Take a rage dump, mon.

    Raaaaaage dump.
  • Kilarney, respect Mr. Period! He brings readability to our wonderful forums. Mr. Period is neither Rym nor Scott.
    I am known only as Mr. Period, simply as I do not wish to reveal my legal name to the Internet at large. The name was suggested, and seems to fit. I have been given full authority by Rym and Scott to correct spelling and grammar as I see fit, replete with verbal lashings as the individual cases may warrant.

    I have promised not to engage in actual conversations here: I am merely a moderator. I will be fair and thorough. I will furthermore never alter the actual meaning of a given post: only the grammar and spelling. I will never delete a post, nor will I editorialize.

    That is all. Pray you fall below my withering radar.
    From this thread.
  • I choose not to care about the amount of spaces between paragraphs or whatnot



    Your better off not reading my responses anyhow ^_^
  • Whatever...

    This is the same type of attitude that the record and movie companies have now about the change in media distribution. Bitch about it all you want but change happens whether you like it or not.

    The very nature of language has been altered enormously by the internet just as it has been by television, radio and the printing press as well as every other form of expression from the beginning of sapience. It is far from a static thing that is "just so", with every deviation from your own tunnel vision concept of the world something to be railed at and condescended to.

    By being such a hard core prescriptivist in the most fluid medium of all time Mr. Period appears to show us that he is closed minded and slow to catch on to the wonders our age has to offer. I would like to think this is not the case. If there is a way to justify the nit being picked in this particular thread as something other than prescriptivism from a subjective standpoint (which is the main fault of prescriptivism in the first place) I'll give him this one. Though I doubt it can be.

    The world of Language is a very large and very fast moving thing. You'd be best served by jumping on for the ride Mr. Period.
  • We brought him on as a mod only so we wouldn't have to deal with ugly or difficult to read posts ;^)

    The way a person types is very indicative of their education, attention to detail, and care. You can tell a lot about a person by the way they communicate. People who cannot express themselves properly do a great disservice to themselves. I can say, for example, that I would never consider hiring a person who had so much as a single spelling or formatting mistake on their resume or cover latter.

    Also, I note that our esteemed Mr. Period doesn't enforce the more pedantic rules of language (prepositions anyone? full formatting syntax?). His only job is to clean up atrocious typing and hideous grammar. Everything we ask Mr. Period to enforce is for ease of readability and aesthetics.

    On a broader scale, language is a method of communication, like a standard. People can deviate from a standard in hopes that their deviation will become a new standard. But deviation alone doesn't cut it, and you assume responsibility for breakdowns in communication when you do so. Using a nonstandard sentence construction may be technically wrong but practically just fine. Spelling common words incorrectly, however, or writing in a way that occludes your point, is wrong in both senses, for it reduces your ability to make known your message.

    The spellings of words in English tell an intelligent reader a great deal about them, particularly their etymology and hints as to their meanings. The seeming superfluous letters in words like through or neighbor aid in quick reading and allow one unfamiliar with a word to hazard an educated guess as to its meaning. The proper construction of sentences allows meaning to be accurately and unambiguously expressed. Several of the logical fallacies that exist spawn from ambiguous use of grammar.

    Following the standard of language is intelligent. Breaking a rule of language knowingly is also often intelligent, provided you understand why you are doing so and can rationalize this decision. Breaking a rule of language ignorantly does nothing but showcase your ignorance or carelessness.

    Enforcing a modicrum of proper grammar and spelling has also done wonders to keep the general riff-raff and trollishness of the intarweb off of our forums thus far.
  • No I don't think that's the reason you have been able to keep out the riff-raff, it's more that your still a cult pheom and haven't gone mainstream to find the Crazies!
  • Now this is just absurd. I've got a doctoral degree, yet my posts are replete with errors. Are you claiming this is a direct indicator of intelligence? Your painting with a broad brush. In my case, it's because I barely have enough time to hammer out the posts I make. I certainly don't have time to proof-read and edit. Needless to say, I'm more careful with professional matters. It's just a matter of priorities (especially for this poor typist).
  • Kilarney, I use that excuse all the freaking time... and well I know I'm lazy ^_^

    But it definitely does not help that it's usually really late at night or really early in the morning when I troll message boards ^_^
  • Mr. Period is comparable to government. He is trying to take away my freedom to post as I choose. I'm surprised that Scrym have not joined in the revolt. Freedom or death!
  • By the way... a serious question:
    Is it correct to say that Geeknights airs "every weekday" Monday through Thursday? I noticed you say this in your close. Shouldn't it be "each weeknight?"
  • edited July 2006
    By the way... a serious question:
    Is it correct to say that Geeknights airs "every weekday" Monday through Thursday? I noticed you say this in your close. Shouldn't it be "each weeknight?"
    The closer is old and busted. We will have a closer of new hotness very soon.
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • I note that people seem to be forgetting that the enter key is their friend. Please form actual paragraphs.
  • In the admittedly short time I've been in this forum, I've found that Mr. Period's alterations have generally been to the point and not overreaching. I haven't ever seen him complain about defamed but traditional parts of English like the neuter plural "they" or the split infinitive, nor have I seen him complain about minor spelling mistakes of the sort anybody could make.

    You're right about the problem with quotes, I hadn't noticed that. It would be really nifty if those extra line breaks were inserted only when they were needed because, though I can use non-WYSIWYG editors, I don't like to when I don't need to. There are of course cases where I would intentionally break the normal convention of having two lines between paragraphs, but those are specific exceptions to the general rule.
  • Do NOT move my cheese!

    I applaud Mr. Period's efforts in making the internet a more readable environment.
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