The Terry Pratchett Unseen Message Board holds to a very libertarian attitude towards freedom of speech and not deleting posts and users’ comments; conversations conducted here are, for the most part, good and friendly. The main problem the message board will face is that of spam, i.e. dozens (hundreds in some cases) of empty posts for the sole purpose of unbalancing the stability of the community; or unwanted ads by people who join the boards with no other purpose than to leave behind a free link to their business, a business that is often of questionable moral and/or intellectual value.
[list:d398d74193]A Sweeper’s main task is to remove these unwanted posts at the request of the board’s members.

Trolls: the problem of trolls is similar to spam in that it clogs up the boards with pointless posts and undermines the balance of the community; the difference with trolls is that they don’t always start out that way, or it’s more difficult to decide right away if that is what they are. For this reason it is up to the membership of the board as a whole to decide what to do about them; Sweepers are not to take matters into their own hands and go above the wishes of the board members, or act without their permission.

The Sweepers are also here to help guide Newbits (new board members) and assist them with technical difficulties, they may instruct them in the Ways of the board, though it is expected that any established member will also be able to do this.[/list:u:d398d74193]


Members please feel free to add to, correct and dispute any of the above until we have hammered out all the particulars.

Dragon's Kingdom - Stop typing "alot" when you mean "a lot"! - Disappointed

Please add the part that the sweepers will also be there to guide the newbits. And help with whatnots.

That which does not kill me has committed a serious mistake.

[quote:6a65507823="Mynona"]Please add the part that the sweepers will also be there to guide the newbits. And help with whatnots.[/quote:6a65507823]Amended.

Dragon's Kingdom - Stop typing "alot" when you mean "a lot"! - Disappointed

[quote:a079704cc2].. people who join the boards with no the purpose than to leave behind a free link to their business ..[/quote:a079704cc2]

That would be "no other purpose"?

Also I noticed in the "Members Writing's" part of the board:
[quote:a079704cc2]...There aren't any news yet for this topic...[/quote:a079704cc2]

"any news items" or "There isn't any news yet..." Right? (I hope of course that it will be filled with stories soon, but even so...

Edit: Remove random Code

_Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak._

Actually, the plural form is correct. However, morale should be changed to moral. Otherwise, fine.

Mrs G
The Garner who cares.

Thanks for the corrections. The news is right as it is though, as Buzzfloyd said; it just looks a little odd because we're not used to seeing it that way, the plural of new. Like you say, it shouldn't be there long anyway.

Dragon's Kingdom - Stop typing "alot" when you mean "a lot"! - Disappointed

[quote:8f57394f7c="Tephlon"]
Also I noticed in the "Members Writing's" part of the board:
[quote:8f57394f7c]...There aren't any news yet for this topic...[/quote:8f57394f7c]

"any news items" or "There isn't any news yet..." Right? (I hope of course that it will be filled with stories soon, but even so...

[/quote:8f57394f7c]

I think this is a British English vs. American English thing. We treat collective nouns differently.

Cat Clash

So one new, two news?

Right, I read that as "News items".

Blame it on English not being my first language, and American TV.

Cool, free english lessons!

_Light moves faster than sound. That is why some people appear bright, until you hear them speak._

Do you really have one new and many news in America? Tell me you're lying. And don't confuse the Dutch, I like them! :P

I've never heard that, "aren't any news" is grammatically, technically correct it's just that Brits don't use it any more, I didn't realise americans did. Just one of those things I guess

No, it's the other way round. In American English you say, "There isn't any news." In British English you say, "There aren't any news." In British English, the first way would be acceptable, but you would be more correct to say it the second way.

Mrs G
The Garner who cares.

Minor hijack plus rant:

[quote:7a87e20dcd]Originally posted by Buzzfloud:
No, it's the other way round. In American English you say, "There isn't any news." In British English you say, "There aren't any news." In British English, the first way would be acceptable, but you would be more correct to say it the second way.[/quote:7a87e20dcd]

Tell me about it! We learn British English in India, and I keep running into trouble here .. in Minnesota, they speak Minnesotan .. not even American English. Sometimes my students don't understand the words I use .. even when there isn't an issue with the accent.

Heheh! The other trouble with British English as compared to American English is that the rules are not always as clear. There are plenty of things that are unacceptable in American English but are OK in British. We have a lot of ambiguity.

Mrs G
The Garner who cares.

I recently noticed that in a lot of British newspaper and magazine articles, sentences end with prepositions. Even though I know there are times when it is necessary to end a sentence with a preposition for it to make sense, it grates on me when there is another way to word the sentence.

'No news [i:51c0d81b4e]are[/i:51c0d81b4e] good news' just doesn't sound right.

Cat Clash

You can't end a sentence with a preposition, which is why if you're a little kid and your parent brings the wrong story to read to you at bedtime you can't say "What did you bring that book that I didn't want to be read [b:b948ebc311]to out of up for[/b:b948ebc311]?" because that's 5!!

Ahem... :| Sorry about that. I tend to think I'm clever. I'll go hide now... Carry on!