The Writers' Block

[Trotterdam]

Some worthwhile reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purebred_dog#Eugenics_and_history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformation_show#Criticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_Dogs_Exposed
I also occasionally ran across texts that made me go "Seriously?" in individual animal breeds' articles, but I don't really remember which ones. It's not a subject I expore all that often.

[The Marsupial Illuminati]

Is there room for an issue about the fat acceptance movement? There a few issues that contain a fat acceptance option, so that's why I'm asking.

[Bears Armed]

How about internship? Do you (you or anyone else reading this post) think that it could make a good issue?

There's already an issue on that subject, focusing on the unpaid nature of the internships.

[Bears Armed]

I'm still preparing my first draft for the 'Masonic Cospiracy!' idea.

Meanwhile, another idea has occurred to me: What about property-owners' rights to do what they want with walls that have been "decorated" with graffiti, if that graffiti is regarded as having artistic merit? This could 'tree' off from the existing issue on graffiti, if the game already tracks decisions made there or the powers-that-be don't mind adding that to the details tracked.
Worth proceeding with?

[Jutsa]

I actually have an issue made specifically to be a reversal to legalizing graffiti, myself,
but I honestly think that both of our ideas could probably coexist.
Even if they couldn't, yours might turn out better than mine, anyway, so go for it.

[Trotterdam]

Hey, Ransium has a new name color!

[Ransium]

Hey, Ransium has a new name color!

Yes hoping to stay active in GI as an IE still. However, I might not be able to be so active and I probably will not be editing issues again for several months at least.

[Australian rePublic]

Congrats Ransium!

[Australian rePublic]

How does an issue for non-binary people in gendered languages sound?

[Singapore no2]

How does an issue for non-binary people in gendered languages sound?

Didn't someone already do that before?

[Jutsa]

Yep. #767: Xe Said, Zhe Said.

[Australian rePublic]

--EDITED-OUT--

[Bears Armed]

There's a dispute going on in RL France at the moment abut what gender to use for any combination of one or more 'masculine' nouns & one or more 'feminine' nouns: Historically, in French as governed by the Academie Francaise, any combination including at least one 'masculine' noun has counted as 'masculine',: Now, however, but it's now being suggested that one or another of several possible alternatives (such as using the gender of whichever noun is listed last in the combination, or using whichever gender has the most nouns -- or maybe the most people/objects/whatever -- in that combination) should become the rule instead.

[Drasnia]

The problem is writing something that is funny enough to be an NS issue while still treating it with enough seriousness while not overlapping with Xe Said. I'm not sure how likely that is to be done either.

[Luna Amore]

The game is in English though, so the dilemma won't have any actual basis to connect the problem. It'd be like an issue bemoaning the problems with a tonal language written in English. There'd be a central disconnect that would undercut any dilemma.

We'd need a disclaimer to explain why the issue was an issue. I just don't see it working.

[Shwe Tu Colony]

This discussion gives me an idea for an issue where a diplomat to a nation with a tonal language screws up in what they say. I wrote a quick description & possible options & effects for it.

During a friendly discussion about tourism with (another nation), your ambassador accidentally raised his pitch in fear several times in a conversation due to the constant reappearance of a spider. Due to how the discussion was spoken in a tonal language, (another nation's) rather incompetent diplomat thought that your ambassador was intentionally changing the pitch of his voice and was declaring war, among other offensive statements. In outrage, their (another nation) has declared war and encouraged embargoes against you.

Option 1: Try to tell them that your diplomat screwed up and to calm down, including the thing with the spider (another nation, however, finds spiders sacred and not frightful at all).
Effect 1: @@NATION@@ is regarded as laughingstock by (another nation) for their arachnophobia.
Option 2: Use the military on them.
Effect 2: Foreign diplomats are careful with homophones when speaking with @@NATION@@ in order to avoid war.
Option 3: Send in additional diplomats per meeting to ensure miscommunication does not happen.
Effect 3: Foreign diplomats need to host meetings in ballrooms for all of @@NATION@@'s ambassadors.
Option 4: Make your diplomats emotionless (so they can't feel the fear that caused the ambassador to raise his pitch).
Effect 4: @@NATION@@'s ambassadors sound like a more accurate machine translator.

After writing this I realized this story could just as easily be told with your diplomat saying near-homophones instead of involving a tonal language.

[USS Monitor]

This discussion gives me an idea for an issue where a diplomat to a nation with a tonal language screws up in what they say. I wrote a quick description & possible options & effects for it.

During a friendly discussion about tourism with (another nation), your ambassador accidentally raised his pitch in fear several times in a conversation due to the constant reappearance of a spider. Due to how the discussion was spoken in a tonal language, (another nation's) rather incompetent diplomat thought that your ambassador was intentionally changing the pitch of his voice and was declaring war, among other offensive statements. In outrage, their (another nation) has declared war and encouraged embargoes against you.

Option 1: Try to tell them that your diplomat screwed up and to calm down, including the thing with the spider (another nation, however, finds spiders sacred and not frightful at all).
Effect 1: @@NATION@@ is regarded as laughingstock by (another nation) for their arachnophobia.
Option 2: Use the military on them.
Effect 2: Foreign diplomats are careful with homophones when speaking with @@NATION@@ in order to avoid war.
Option 3: Send in additional diplomats per meeting to ensure miscommunication does not happen.
Effect 3: Foreign diplomats need to host meetings in ballrooms for all of @@NATION@@'s ambassadors.
Option 4: Make your diplomats emotionless (so they can't feel the fear that caused the ambassador to raise his pitch).
Effect 4: @@NATION@@'s ambassadors sound like a more accurate machine translator.

After writing this I realized this story could just as easily be told with your diplomat saying near-homophones instead of involving a tonal language.

The other nation should probably be Daguo.

[Australian rePublic]

Sounds interesting, but I think that tonal languages all have different types of tonalness. Ensure you specify which type you refer to and base your issues on that

[Jutsa]

Hey, I have a question. Does Issue #502.3 have an alternate counterpart for nations without voting,
or does it just not show up for them, or does it actually appear for nations without voting..?

[USS Monitor]

Sounds interesting, but I think that tonal languages all have different types of tonalness. Ensure you specify which type you refer to and base your issues on that

The issue already explains what the problem was. It doesn't need to go into detail about mechanics of the language. And simply using Daguo as the NPC nation would imply the language is similar to Chinese -- even though those types of misunderstandings in Chinese are less of a problem than people make them out to be. People can usually guess what you meant by context, even if you get a few tones wrong, but I think for issues purposes it's OK to exaggerate the risk of misunderstandings.

[Australian rePublic]

There's a dispute going on in RL France at the moment abut what gender to use for any combination of one or more 'masculine' nouns & one or more 'feminine' nouns: Historically, in French as governed by the Academie Francaise, any combination including at least one 'masculine' noun has counted as 'masculine',: Now, however, but it's now being suggested that one or another of several possible alternatives (such as using the gender of whichever noun is listed last in the combination, or using whichever gender has the most nouns -- or maybe the most people/objects/whatever -- in that combination) should become the rule instead.

Facinating.

[Australian rePublic]

Hmmm, I think I found a work around for my issue

[Trotterdam]

Dàguó obviously uses a tonal language - that's what those annoying-to-type accent marks on the letters are for.

According to Candlewhisper Archive Dàguó is in fact actual Chinese, and Wiktionary backs this up.

There's a dispute going on in RL France at the moment abut what gender to use for any combination of one or more 'masculine' nouns & one or more 'feminine' nouns: Historically, in French as governed by the Academie Francaise, any combination including at least one 'masculine' noun has counted as 'masculine',: Now, however, but it's now being suggested that one or another of several possible alternatives (such as using the gender of whichever noun is listed last in the combination, or using whichever gender has the most nouns -- or maybe the most people/objects/whatever -- in that combination) should become the rule instead.

You could just use both. I mean, we do address mixed-gender groups with "ladies and gentlemen" rather than arguing about whether we should count ladies as also being gentlemen or count gentlemen as also being ladies.

Of course, that's going to get tedious to keep repeating.

[Shwe Tu Colony]

Sounds interesting, but I think that tonal languages all have different types of tonalness. Ensure you specify which type you refer to and base your issues on that

The issue already explains what the problem was. It doesn't need to go into detail about mechanics of the language. And simply using Daguo as the NPC nation would imply the language is similar to Chinese -- even though those types of misunderstandings in Chinese are less of a problem than people make them out to be. People can usually guess what you meant by context, even if you get a few tones wrong, but I think for issues purposes it's OK to exaggerate the risk of misunderstandings.

I'll probably emphasize that Daguo's diplomat dislikes @@NATION@@ & is also incompetent (or maybe only one), so the tonal issue is him intentionally & knowingly not interpreting @@NATION@@'s diplomat, with anyone else in the area confused that @@NATION@@ would declare war in this situation, but Daguo's diplomat insists & successfully convinces that that the tonal rises were intentional. With this lack of opposition, I'll probably get the issue drafted soon. Or someone else could steal it due to me being too busy, we'll see (after posting this, I had the idea for an Easter egg where an issue author starts talking about their idea here & it gets stolen, but that may be too similar to an existent issue).

Although this issue would need to have Daguo be a spider-loving nation for option 1; I presume that would be fine to do?

[Singapore no2]

Has an issue been done specifically as an analogue to the great purge?

Is @@CAPITAL@@gate already enough?