Help us fix old issues

[Luna Amore]

In the issue "Wheels of Misfortune" in the first item of "the debate," the word "ceasing" is misused. It is used to refer to the water pump in an automobile engine. Water pumps do not cease up, they seize up. The correct word should be "seizing." Probably just a typo.

Merged into proper thread and fixed.

[Avaerilon]

Issue #610, "On [LEADER] Could Go To Dàguó"

Option no.4 contains the phrase "if worse comes to worse;" this should probably be "if worst comes to worst," or "if worse comes to worst," but as the character is meant to be based-on a certain British secret agent, the former may be more appropriate (as the latter is AmEng).

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Issue #610, "On [LEADER] Could Go To Dàguó"

Option no.4 contains the phrase "if worse comes to worse;" this should probably be "if worst comes to worst," or "if worse comes to worst," but as the character is meant to be based-on a certain British secret agent, the former may be more appropriate (as the latter is AmEng).

Fixed, thank you.

[Christian Democrats]

Issue #608's description -- "nasty chest infection" should be changed to "a nasty chest infection."

[Luna Amore]

Fix'd

[Tinhampton]

“We need money now,” screams Tom Dredd a student from one of Tinhampton’s top achieving universities.

There should be a comma after the random name (in this case, "Tom Dredd" - the name you will get will vary).

[Candlewhisper Archive]

“We need money now,” screams Tom Dredd a student from one of Tinhampton’s top achieving universities.

There should be a comma after the random name (in this case, "Tom Dredd" - the name you will get will vary).

Fixed, thanks.

[Tinhampton CoN]

“Kill them! Kill them all! Or... you know, just ban them,” opines noted sociologist Agatha Tinhamptons.

The SPOILER ALERT thread says that the @@RANDOMLASTNAME@@ macros can incorporate your nation's name: https://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?p=24683039#p24683039. In this case, I would expect the sociologist's name to be Agatha Tinhampton CoNs, not Agatha Tinhamptons. (Full disclosure: This is a puppet of TInhampton, thus murkying the waters a bit further.)

[Trotterdam]

What it actually does is select random words from your custom fields. In this case, it most likely saw the "Tinhampton's" in your motto and lost track of the apostrophe.

[New Oldham]

Commas needed in issue #210 "Going Postal"

1. “The postal system ought to be privatised,” says Johann Navratilova, Director of PostHaste, a small package delivery company. “All the government is doing is putting the tax horseshoes of hard-working citizens into an outmoded and wasteful system. Private businesses can offer a much more efficient system with less junk mail. A little more expense on stamps is worth that(COMMA HERE) right?”

2. “Uh huh? And what about those in rural or remote areas?” asks Georgina Dodinas, the CEO of New Oldham Mail, the government-owned postal service. “If you privatise this business(COMMA HERE) then they’ll get marginalised and ignored. With a nationalised service everyone can use the system and cheaply too. We provide a good service for our customers and have been doing so for a very long time! The postal service should be nationalised and all competition banned!”

3. “There’s plenty of room for compromise,” says Mike Cheswick, a stamp collector. “How about we just privatise the mail system and allow other competitors to move in but continue with government funding to New Oldham Mail? That way everyone can get their post(COMMA HERE) and the companies can have their own slice of the pie. It’ll require an increase in tax to cope with losses to competition but not too much. I think. To be frank, I just want more stamps.”

[Tinhampton]

A few errors and corrections for Issue #080, the Aliens Wish Peace/Trade Agreement EE:

Aliens have landed in the fields of Tinhampton

The SPOILER ALERT thread lists the word in bold as being "fieds".

"Take us to your kneader!" says Nesnetsirhc nolram, alien lawyer.

If I'm not mistaken, that should read Nesnetsirhc Nolram (with the surname starting with a capital N).

"Them darn aliens thingies are going to take advantage of the situation an kill us all!"

Should read an' (with an apostrophe) or and.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Commas needed in issue #210 "Going Postal"

1. “The postal system ought to be privatised,” says Johann Navratilova, Director of PostHaste, a small package delivery company. “All the government is doing is putting the tax horseshoes of hard-working citizens into an outmoded and wasteful system. Private businesses can offer a much more efficient system with less junk mail. A little more expense on stamps is worth that(COMMA HERE) right?”

2. “Uh huh? And what about those in rural or remote areas?” asks Georgina Dodinas, the CEO of New Oldham Mail, the government-owned postal service. “If you privatise this business(COMMA HERE) then they’ll get marginalised and ignored. With a nationalised service everyone can use the system and cheaply too. We provide a good service for our customers and have been doing so for a very long time! The postal service should be nationalised and all competition banned!”

3. “There’s plenty of room for compromise,” says Mike Cheswick, a stamp collector. “How about we just privatise the mail system and allow other competitors to move in but continue with government funding to New Oldham Mail? That way everyone can get their post(COMMA HERE) and the companies can have their own slice of the pie. It’ll require an increase in tax to cope with losses to competition but not too much. I think. To be frank, I just want more stamps.”

These are style-choice commas. As an editor, I'd have added them to be consistent with previous style. For my UK-based writing, I'd have left them out.
However, there's no rule on these or active style guide, so I hold back from actively changing choices of style.

Note privatise with an "s" suggests a British writer here, which likely explains the aversion to the Oxford comma.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

A few errors and corrections for Issue #080, the Aliens Wish Peace/Trade Agreement EE:

Aliens have landed in the fields of Tinhampton

The SPOILER ALERT thread lists the word in bold as being "fieds".

"Take us to your kneader!" says Nesnetsirhc nolram, alien lawyer.

If I'm not mistaken, that should read Nesnetsirhc Nolram (with the surname starting with a capital N).

"Them darn aliens thingies are going to take advantage of the situation an kill us all!"

Should read an' (with an apostrophe) or and.

1) The spoiler alert thread is wrong, but the issue is not.

2) Checked the code, and it looks like the decapitalisation of the second name is intentional and explicitly coded, in such a way that it can't be by accident. I presume the editor felt the name was more alien with a non capitalised surname.

3) I agree. Apostrophe added.

[Trotterdam]

Note privatise with an "s" suggests a British writer here, which likely explains the aversion to the Oxford comma.

None of these are Oxford commas. An Oxford comma is the final comma in a list of three or more items ("a, b, and/or c").

My personal opinion on all three commas proposed by New Oldham is that they are optional (neither including nor omitting them is incorrect and either way is fairly readable).

[Candlewhisper Archive]

Right you are. I admit, I had a bet on with my wife that if I misused the term Oxford comma, I'd have a Trotterdam response within 12 hours. Cheers for the fiver.

[Leppikania]

A sentence from option 613.4:

Wouldn’t it be fun to watch them like flail around like a pony with its head chopped off?

Either there's some missing commas, or there's an extra "like" here.

[Tinhampton]

Whilst I haven't recieved Issue #092 yet, the SPOILER ALERT! thread tells me that the person who rejects the vaccination in Option 2 is a female ("...Doctors are not always right!" she says.). Shouldn't the @@RANDOMNAME@@ macro at the start of that option be changed to a @@RANDOMFEMALENAME@@ macro?

And in addition, Option 3 on Issue #000 still reads "...says @@RANDOMNAME@@, your brother". Shouldn't the @@RANDOMNAME@@ macro be changed to a @@RANDOMMALENAME@@ macro?

[Drasnia]

Whilst I haven't recieved Issue #092 yet, the SPOILER ALERT! thread tells me that the person who rejects the vaccination in Option 2 is a female ("...Doctors are not always right!" she says.). Shouldn't the @@RANDOMNAME@@ macro at the start of that option be changed to a @@RANDOMFEMALENAME@@ macro?

And in addition, Option 3 on Issue #000 still reads "...says @@RANDOMNAME@@, your brother". Shouldn't the @@RANDOMNAME@@ macro be changed to a @@RANDOMMALENAME@@ macro?

The spoiler alert thread is unofficial and maintained by a regular player not the editors. Any fixes for that should go in its thread, not this one which is for errors in the actual published text.

[Tinhampton]

Whilst I haven't recieved Issue #092 yet, the SPOILER ALERT! thread tells me that the person who rejects the vaccination in Option 2 is a female ("...Doctors are not always right!" she says.). Shouldn't the @@RANDOMNAME@@ macro at the start of that option be changed to a @@RANDOMFEMALENAME@@ macro?

And in addition, Option 3 on Issue #000 still reads "...says @@RANDOMNAME@@, your brother". Shouldn't the @@RANDOMNAME@@ macro be changed to a @@RANDOMMALENAME@@ macro?

The spoiler alert thread is unofficial and maintained by a regular player not the editors. Any fixes for that should go in its thread, not this one which is for errors in the actual published text.

Thanks! (copies and pastes text onto the Spoiler Alert thread)

[Trotterdam]

#618, option 1, "while that isn't the worse possible outcome": "worse -> worst".

[Candlewhisper Archive]

A sentence from option 613.4:

Wouldn’t it be fun to watch them like flail around like a pony with its head chopped off?

Either there's some missing commas, or there's an extra "like" here.

I see what the author was going for here, but I think my edits made the valley-speak style "like" become out of place. Have removed it.

[Candlewhisper Archive]

#618, option 1, "while that isn't the worse possible outcome": "worse -> worst".

Fixed, thanks.

[Trotterdam]

In #613, how does "make photo-manipulation without the consent of the subject illegal" lead to "fashion magazine covers finally display realistic body images following photo-manipulation becoming illegal"?

I know NationStates likes to exaggerate and make you implement stronger laws than you thought you did, but usually it has the excuse of "exact words" and does something that technically matches the option you selected, even if it's not how a reasonable person would interpret it. In this case, however, the option text explicitly states a limitation on the proposed legislation, which makes it weird that the result then proceeds to ignore this limitation.

(I am assuming that most models would, in fact, consent to photo manipulation to make themselves look better. If they don't, the magazines can always fire them and go looking for other models.)

[Australian rePublic]

575.4 "Here, look at this photo of this man whose skin fell off after he got stung" when read in context, sounds like he was stung by a shark

[Candlewhisper Archive]

In #613, how does "make photo-manipulation without the consent of the subject illegal" lead to "fashion magazine covers finally display realistic body images following photo-manipulation becoming illegal"?

I know NationStates likes to exaggerate and make you implement stronger laws than you thought you did, but usually it has the excuse of "exact words" and does something that technically matches the option you selected, even if it's not how a reasonable person would interpret it. In this case, however, the option text explicitly states a limitation on the proposed legislation, which makes it weird that the result then proceeds to ignore this limitation.

(I am assuming that most models would, in fact, consent to photo manipulation to make themselves look better. If they don't, the magazines can always fire them and go looking for other models.)

That's a very good point. I will amend it.

Now reads:

“Here we have thieves and perverts, stealing your likeness and creating obscenity,” declares @@randomfemalename@@, a country singer of dubious talent who claims there have been more downloads of fake nudes of her than downloads of her music. “Every time I go online I see these filthy pictures. It’s humiliating, degrading, and feels like a violation of my privacy and a kind of sexual assault. I guess now you know how it feels too! I know this is hard to police, but you should at least establish the principle that photo-manipulation is illegal, with fines applicable to those who break this law or who distribute these images.”