NationStates

The issues have just been updated with a load of fixes - spelling, wording, stats, validities, macros etc. However, I'm sure there are other errors out there, and we'll probably add plenty more misteaks to the game in the coming months.

Therefore, if you think there's something in an issue that needs to be changed or fixed, post here to let us know.

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Edit from Candlewhisper Archive, 2017:

Please use this thread only for reporting visible objective errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation and for suspected problems with validities, macros and the like.

Unexpected stat effects from option selections should go here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=370351

Complaints about the narrative or structure of the issues should be discussed in their own threads. Start in The Writer's Block, generally.


On American / British English:

NS doesn't use a single style guide, but the editors have a certain agreement on style elements that we stick to.

One decision that has historically been made is that neither British or American spellings or grammar are considered to be dominant. Instead, an Issue should be in the spelling and grammar of the Issue's author's home nation.

This means that spellings should be internally consistent within an issue, but need not be consistent across the whole issue base.

Before you report any spelling or grammar error, it's worth checking if it is a British/American thing.

I just received the Organic Outburst issue, and the issue description looks like this:

"After a recent left-wing broadsheet exposé of agricultural practices, an outburst of public paranoia has stirred up the organic foods debate."

I am using Safari on an iPod touch. I'm fairly sure that exposè appeared as normal before, so is this some sort of bug or does my iPod not support special characters or something?

It'll be a problem with your ipod touch/browser. The text of the issue is fine.

Sedgistan wrote:It'll be a problem with your ipod touch/browser. The text of the issue is fine.

I'm using Firefox on Windows Vista and getting the same text bug.

Hm, yeah - you're right. That needs sorting.

one question about the fixes:

is there any old issue that was changed significantly?
like more/less options? were any options or problem-phrases changed so they got a complete new meaning? (or were they only rephrased a bit at most)?
are the issue-numbers still the same?


in short: can i still blindly take Ballotonia's issue-list and pick "option 3" on "issue number 126" and be sure that i still go in the same direction on the same issue?

No options were added or removed, and the numbering of issues and their options remains the same. Any changes to wording were just to fix mistakes, rather than to change the meaning of the option.

The statistical effects of several issues were modified - I can't really say any more than that about it.

Sedgistan wrote:No options were added or removed, and the numbering of issues and their options remains the same. Any changes to wording were just to fix mistakes, rather than to change the meaning of the option.

The statistical effects of several issues were modified - I can't really say any more than that about it.

many thanks, it's all i needed to know.

Since I'm rebuilding my entire issue spoiler list anyway, here's some remarks for consideration:

Option 3 of "#042: Turn Down That Racket, Say Morality Police", propoganda should be propaganda.

Option 3 of "#047: The Great Wall of @@NAME@@?", "lets just say" should be "let's just say" (contraction of "let us").

Option 2 of "#049: Diving For @@CURRENCY@@s", "Nevermind" should be "Never mind". Same for option 2 of "#057: Electronic Plague in Forcefield!". As one word it's outdated English and means "attention": "Pay no nevermind to that."

In option 4 of "#040: Hukd on Fonix Workd 4 Me!", a term is spelled "fancy-shmancy", while in option 3 of "#053: Orbital Armageddon?" is is spelled "fancy-schmancy", with an extra c. I have no idea which one is correct though .

Option 2 of "#062: Oh, The Angst!", genepool should be two words: gene pool.

Problem description of "#066: Transsexual Demands Recognition In Chosen Gender", anulled should be annulled.

Option 4 of "#070: Purge The Infidels!", the plural possessive gets an apostrophe: "peoples' lives".

Problem description of "#077: World To End, Or Possibly Just Mark Anniversary", capitalize: Easter.

Option 3 of "#081: Close Encounters Of The Sci-fi Kind?", "lifeforms" should be either "life forms" or "life-forms".

Problem description of "#082: AI Researchers Rally For Android Rights", arrisen should be arisen.

Problem description of "#071: Minority Group Demands Language Recognition", "several thousands strong" should be either "thousands strong" or "several thousand strong".

Option 2 of "#104: Public Loudspeakers Shrill With Controversy", minature should be miniature.

Option 1 of "#116: Soda Sales Hits New 'High'", hallucenogenic should be hallucinogenic.

Option 2 of "#120: Two Parties For Too Long?", stastician should be statistician.

Problem description of "#128: Ban The Burka?", affliation should be affiliation.

Option 2 of "#157: Sergeants Are Too Nasty, Say New Recruits", the word "be" occurs twice in a row: "I should be be given".

Option 3 of "#168: @@NAME@@ Plagued By STD Epidemic!", seperate should be separate.

Option 4 of "#179: Mad @@ANIMAL@@ Disease Outbreak!", refridgerators should be refrigerators.

Option 3 of "#187: @@NAME@@'s Underclass Drowning In Debt", representitive should be representative.

Option 4 of "#196: Violent Violetists Protest Artists", idolotrous should be idolatrous.

Option 4 of "#202: Guns Or Butter?", "it self funding" should be "it self-funding". Detail, but required to not read "itself" in there.

Option 2 of "#205: No More Broccoli, Beg Meat-Eaters", joe should be spelled Joe.

Option 1 of "#209: Students Demand Financial Aid", accomodation should be accommodation.

Option 2 of "#222: Terrorists Strike City Centre", scaremongerers should be scaremongers.

Option 2 of "#251: The Trouble With Hobos", co-ordinator should be coordinator.

Option 2 of "#273: Is our children learning?", has a space before the final closing " character. I know, I know, nitpicky detail
EDIT: same for option 3 of "#296: Come On Baby, Fight My Fire".

Option 3 of "#281: Free Internet For @@NAME@@?" twice uses two single quotation marks where a double quotation mark was intended. So ' ' instead of ". It doesn't show up clearly in proportional fonts, but in a text file it really sticks out.
EDIT: also happens in all options of issue "#278: Relief is Coming... in Four to Six Weeks", options 1, 2, and 3 of issue "#286: A Whale of a Problem", option 3 of issue "#288: Super-Sized Pizzas Recipe For Disaster?", and option 4 of issue "292: Tourists Wearing Out Their Welcome?". EDIT: and also options 2, 3, and 4 of "#294: Ghost Riders on the Sly".

Ballotonia

Those are awesome - thanks! Well... the errors aren't awesome, but the fact you've pointed them out is

Also, they're all Sirocco's fault >_>

* Option 3 of Issue #287. See red text.

Issue #287: Maxtopians Demand Return of the King

Some two hundred years after its original removal by a team of archaeologists from Christian Democrats, the Maxtopian government is demanding that the mummy of ancient monarch King Maxbari IV, currently on display at the Christian Democrats National Museum of Antiquities, be returned to its homeland.

1. "Maxbari IV was the greatest king of Ancient Maxtopia," says Maxtopian Ambassador Colin Nagasawa, presenting you with a copy of 'Ancient Maxtopian History for Dummies'. "His importance to our cultural heritage cannot be underestimated! It is a disgrace that his body was ever stolen in the first place. By rights, the remains ought to be returned to their rightful owner. While we're at it, how about returning that collection of Third Kingdom golden tiddlywinks too?"

2. "Their cultural heritage? What about OUR cultural heritage?" demands Lars Nagasawa, president of the Imperial Christian Democrats Historical Society, waving a worryingly convincing replica battle axe. "The foreign artifacts filling our museums are vital trophies of our imperial history! Our archaeologists went through hell and high water to get that treasure, and it'd be an insult to their glorious memory to give it back! Besides, have you seen the state of Maxtopia's 'museums'? The king would be destroyed in a week."

3. ''Am I the only one here the was taught to share as a child?'' asks @@random_name()@, your Minister of Poor Compromises, ''We want him, they want him, well there's enough of him to go around. Let's King Solomon this bad-boy! Cut him in half from head to toe, slap each half on a mirror and like magic, there's two King Whathisnames! Everybody walks away happy.''

4. ''Where does it end?'' asks a notoriously crotchety old man. ''We give these foreigners their king back and before you know it people will be coming out of the woodwork demanding their relics back.'' He pauses to hack something up into a handkerchief. ''What we need to do is send a message. A message that will stop anyone else from asking for their artifacts back. We need to publicly destroy the king to let Maxtopia know we won't take any of their guff!''

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On a completely different note, the use of the name "Norma Roe" in option 2 of Issue #268 annoys me. It's obviously a real-life reference to Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe" from the 1973 case Roe v. Wade), who's now a pro-life activist. McCorvey doesn't support "the right to choose" as depicted in the issue. There normally aren't real-life references as explicit as this in issues, and I think it's in bad taste. In my opinion, "Norma Roe" should be changed to @@RANDOMNAME@@; or the reference to the real-life abortion controversy in the United States should be made less explicit (e.g. the name "Doe Bolton" would be better because it refers to a case name instead of a person).

Christian Democrats wrote:3. ''Am I the only one here the was taught to share as a child?'' asks @@random_name()@, your Minister of Poor Compromises, ''We want him, they want him, well there's enough of him to go around. Let's King Solomon this bad-boy! Cut him in half from head to toe, slap each half on a mirror and like magic, there's two King Whathisnames! Everybody walks away happy.''

It makes me sad that 5 Issue Editors and 3 Issue Mods missed this

I blame Sedge

The doubled single quote thing is my fault. Figured it was a quick way to avoid smart quotes that no one would notice. I'll change it in future edits, but you're probably going to see 'em in four more issues already in-game. :oops:

Well, more of a mistyped bit of code in Option 3;

'Am I the only one here the was taught to share as a child?' asks @@random_name()
@

Also, 'the' should be 'that'. That is all

Lordieth wrote:Well, more of a mistyped bit of code in Option 3;

'Am I the only one here the was taught to share as a child?' asks @@random_name()
@

Also, 'the' should be 'that'. That is all

Make it "whom", not "that"

Ballotonia

Sanctaria wrote:It makes me sad that 5 Issue Editors and 3 Issue Mods missed this

I blame Sedge

It wasn't missing during review. My guess is that an errant keystroke in the wrong window right before submission accidentally deleted it.

We're trying to poke an admin for a quick fix on this one. It's just too glaring.

That one has been fixed.

Frisbeeteria wrote:

Sanctaria wrote:It makes me sad that 5 Issue Editors and 3 Issue Mods missed this

I blame Sedge

It wasn't missing during review. My guess is that an errant keystroke in the wrong window right before submission accidentally deleted it.

We're trying to poke an admin for a quick fix on this one. It's just too glaring.

Actually Fris, if you check the sekrit lair, it was in before review

In Issue #146 "Evolution: Truth or Witchcraft", option 1 and 2 has gender bias.


Obviously not all lawmakers in every NS nation are male or use the object pronoun "him".




Obviously not all lawmakers or Darwinists in every NS nation are male.

Rastynhaven, that's really thoughtful of you to show the corrections as well as the problems. Thanks!

Issues 41 and 60 says "Supreme Court", while Issue 271 says "High Court". Not a big deal, but that nagged at me

Silver Steps the Second wrote:Issues 41 and 60 says "Supreme Court", while Issue 271 says "High Court". Not a big deal, but that nagged at me

I don't think it's much of an issue; afaik, in the US anyway, High Court is synonymous with Supreme Court. Granted in most countries, such as where I live, they are different courts, but like I said, I don't think it matters much

Issue #237, Option 3 wrote:"I agree," chimes in Johann Catholicism, an anti-drug campaigner, waving a banner which reads 'Don't Be a Fool, Drugs Aren't Cool'. "Did you ever stop to think that our foreign neighbours might have the right idea? A zero-tolerance attitude to the drugs issue is what this country needs! Death to the dealers!"

I don't believe it's appropriate to use the name of a religion in the name of a person in an issue. Furthermore, the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty. According to paragraph 2267 of the Catechism:


Also, no one ever addressed this concern:

Christian Democrats wrote:

Issue #237, Option 3 wrote:"I agree," chimes in Johann Catholicism, an anti-drug campaigner, waving a banner which reads 'Don't Be a Fool, Drugs Aren't Cool'. "Did you ever stop to think that our foreign neighbours might have the right idea? A zero-tolerance attitude to the drugs issue is what this country needs! Death to the dealers!"

I don't believe it's appropriate to use the name of a religion in the name of a person in an issue. Furthermore, the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty. According to paragraph 2267 of the Catechism:

Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

Also, no one ever addressed this concern:

Christian Democrats wrote:On a completely different note, the use of the name "Norma Roe" in option 2 of Issue #268 annoys me. It's obviously a real-life reference to Norma McCorvey ("Jane Roe" from the 1973 case Roe v. Wade), who's now a pro-life activist. McCorvey doesn't support "the right to choose" as depicted in the issue. There normally aren't real-life references as explicit as this in issues, and I think it's in bad taste. In my opinion, "Norma Roe" should be changed to @@RANDOMNAME@@; or the reference to the real-life abortion controversy in the United States should be made less explicit (e.g. the name "Doe Bolton" would be better because it refers to a case name instead of a person).

Perhaps the use of the religion it makes it ironic and thus achieves the tongue-in-cheek style of the issues.

As to the abortion issue, I don't think the majority of NSers are so aware of the history of American abortion jurisprudence that they know that very minor factual detail.

Christian Democrats wrote:no one ever addressed this concern:

No one addressed either concern because those names are not in the issues themselves. In both cases, you had an unlucky draw on the @@RANDOMNAME@@ table. It's quite possible no one else in the game ever saw that combination in that place, nor ever will again.

I'm not guessing, by the way - I just looked them both up.