You agree to follow the pre-sign-up rules and the following rules by signing up for an account. Those who do not follow the rules are subject to, but not limited to: moderation, deletion, banning, suspension.
INTRODUCTION:
This mostly goes for new members looking to sign up on the board, but I'm sure it'll be a great reminder/helper for those already signed up.
As with any board, when you sign up, you're agreeing to a certain set of rules that are presented to you. If you feel that you are not up to the task of following these rules and the individual(s) who enforce these rules, you have several options.
(1) Don't sign up, don't have an account, don't post, that's it
(2) Find another forum, elsewhere, outside of Daizenshuu EX to post on
If you feel that you CAN follow the rules and become a regular contributing member of our little community, hurray for you! Despite Julian and myself living in the northeastern United States, we have quite a diverse readership and audience, with members located all throughout the world, various continents, countless countries.
Despite this, remember that we are indeed based in the United States and still primarily write to this audience. As silly (and both generic and egotistical) as it sounds, we write and post in proper English, and expect our forum members to also do so to the best of their ability.
It's very obvious and expected that some of our foreign visitors would still love to be a part of our community, but simply just don't know the strange intricacies of our bastard language... so we're here to help! Here's a few rules to keep in mind when posting on the forum. Why do we ask you to follow these rules?
(1) Well written posts are easy to read
(2) It makes you look better
(3) It makes us look better
(4) DBZ fans certainly need every bit of help they can get to look good to the outside world
So let's get on with some helpful hints!
RULES, REGULATIONS, ENGLISH HINTS:
( 1 ) CAPITALIZATION:
All sentences start with a capital letter. The letter "I" (when referring to yourself, as in "I took a walk") is always capitalized. Don't capitalize the first letter in every word (as in, "Don't Type Like This").
( 2 ) PUNCTUATION:
Every sentence ends with some sort of punctuation. If it is a statement, it ends with a period. If it's a question, it ends with a question mark? Got it? If it's an exclamation or important remark, it ends with an exclamation mark. Great!
( 3 ) GENERAL SPELLING
Please spell-check your posts before you make them. If you have to copy-and-paste your post over to something like Microsoft Word before you post it, please do so. Bad spelling does nothing to showcase your intelligence.
( 4 ) SPACING
There is a space between every word. There is a space after every end of a sentence.
( 5 ) POSSESSION
When someone "owns" something, it it called "possessive." I could say, in reference to Julian:
"Julian's Japanese is improving" *OR* "His Japanese is improving"
Note the added 's to the end of the word in the first example. When a person, place, or thing that you've named "owns" or "has" something, you add "'s" (apostrophe-S) to show it (excluding personal pronouns, which have their own possessive forms). The word "it," being a pronoun, already has a pre-packaged possessive form: "its." Note the lack of apostrophe here. This is important for when we get to the "contraction" form further down.
If the word ENDS with an s, already, add the apostrophe to the end, and do not add another s. For example:
"Trunks' sword was lying on the ground."
(This rule is often debatable and frequently broken, but at least try to be consistent.)
( 6 ) CONTRACTIONS
Often, there are contractions between two words in English (contraction meaning that the words are combined and letters are left out). While this is not always done (and it takes an English-speaker's intuition, sometimes, to figure out when it would sound awkward), it is frequent and frequently done wrong. For example:
"Julian's (Julian is) a real stand-up guy." *OR* "I've (I have) made a nice avatar."
The contraction always takes an apostrophe, no exceptions. The contracted form of "it is" is "it's."
In addition, plural words do not get an apostrophe, which is a common mistake. You would not type:
"I have two computer's."
Instead, you would type:
"I have two computers."
( 7 ) PARAGRAPHS
Use the "Enter" key on your keyboard to create new paragraphs. Paragraphs help to keep your posts looking clean, and to separate different ideas. Here's an example:
( 8 ) COMMONLY MIS-SPELLED WORDSParagraph Example wrote:This is my first idea. I'm talking about a single idea in this paragraph, and I talk about it for quite a bit. I talk about this and that, all related to this single thing. It's quite important, and I'm glad that you're reading it. Thank you for sticking with me on this, because I really do feel you'll learn something.
This is a new paragraph in which I'm talking about something entirely different than before, or perhaps a different aspect of the above topic. See how clean the post looks? Things aren't all scrunched together, and it's simply easier on the eyes. We like things that are easy to read! They make everyone look so much more intelligent.
Here's a few words to keep in mind:
"there" - As in, "My hat is located over there."
"their" - As in, "I went over to their house."
"they're" - As in, "They're taking a trip to Australia."
"your" - As in, "Where is your coat?"
"you're" - As in, "You're coming with me, today."
CONCLUSION:
Thanks for signing up on the Daizenshuu EX forums! Have fun here and on the main site. These rules are subject to change and alteration at any time, and are to be used in conjunction with the main board rules.
I get the feeling that this thread will be for linking to, when certain kinds of newcomers arrive.
(checking grammar..............................OK)
