Word Guidelines for Wordie

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Seven rules. Here are the details.

1. Exists: The word or phrase must exist in at least one language. If that language is not based on the standard Latin alphabet, transliteration must be done intelligently. Don't just add stuff you made up either, it must be in use by other people. Fudging is allowed when playing with prefixes and suffixes that may not be technically correct, as long as the meaning of the resulting word or phrase is clear.

2. Basic: The word or phrase must function as one single part of speech. For example, no pairing of adjectives and adverbs unless they are commonly used together. Even multi-word phrases must stand alone as nouns, verbs, etc., without further breakdown to more basic units possible. Keep it simple, stupid.

3. Spelling: Always default to the most popular spelling of a word in your country. Americans say "color," Brits say "colour." If spelling is unknown, do a Google search or a dictionary lookup before posting. Wage war against typos.

4. Lowercase: Wordie and capitals do not get along well together. Even proper nouns must be submitted in lowercase.

5. Unaccented: Just the standard Latin alphabet. No accents, no circumflexes, no tildes. If you don't see it on your keyboard, don't use it.

6. Unligatured: No conjoined letters, like the unique characters for "ae" or "fl." See #5... only glyphs visible on the keyboard can be used.

7. Unpunctuated: All punctuation is prohibited, including brackets, parentheses, and curly quotes. The only exemptions are hyphens and apostrophes, though the latter must be represented by the standard typewriter apostrophe, or "foot mark" ('). Spaces are allowed too, if you count them as punctuation.

These are my personal guidelines. You don't by any means have to use them. I have no affiliation with Wordie. But I think these basic suggestions will help the site thrive and be more useful in the long run, to cut down on clutter and reduce redundancy.

December 11, 2006

seanahan commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

These are good suggestions, perhaps we should encourage John to link to these from the front page. They don't have to be "formal" rules, but it would be nice to have simple guidelines to work with.

As for "color" and "colour", what do you propose? Two entries, one for British, one for Americans?

I'm not sure how I feel about the accent rule. I could go either way, but for some, accents are necessary, think "resume".

December 11, 2006

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

That would be cool. I don't want to force anyone to follow these strictly because that takes away all the fun of Wordie and frankly, it's a fairly boring read for the average user. But they do seem like some smart things to consider for those of us who are inclined.

Spelling variations: The way I see it, American and British spellings will both be posted inevitably. We might as well support their frequencies on the site reflecting their frequencies in real life. Flat-out misspellings and typos are bigger concerns than dialectical disputes. And quite honestly, as an American I rather enjoy stumbling upon aluminium every now and then.

I'm also torn about the accent rule. Those characters can be terribly useful. But I am a web designer by trade and eliminating them tends to be very helpful for standardization. We can't depend on them displaying right on every platform, and worse yet, the average user doesn't know how to type them. I think it's in our best interest to appeal to the lowest common denominator in this case.

December 11, 2006

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I love that you've taken the lead on this uselesness, thank you. I'll link to this from a few places, if you don't mind, and this thread can serve as a place for discussion on Wordie usage and guidelines.

Personally, I agree concerning punctuation, ligatures, and spelling, but not necessarily concerning accents and existence.

There are accented word where the accents change meaning -- think pâté and pate. Also, I don't have any problem with people making up words or including commercial nonsense (my current favorite example of which is strappleberry). Words will float into view by being listed or commented on by lots of people (and this will become more the case as I add more interesting views into the data, like for instance a weekly "word cloud", which I'm working on). Nonsense words don't negatively affect the community and the database in the way having multiple version of the same word might. Likewise, I personally don't mind the entering of short phrases (I recently added "piss and vinegar"), though I'll go along with any consensus that emerges on that.

I agree fully concerning ligatures and punctuation. They just confuse things, and prevent words from being indexed properly.

As for casing, the system automatically lowercases everything. Which has probably annoyed a few people, but I thought the nuisance of not being able to properly enter NATO outweighed the confusion that could be caused by having the same word enter the system multiple times, depending on choice of case.

Over time I'd like to make Wordie intelligent enough so that when someone searches for "resumé", the resulting page says something to the effect of "18 people also list 'resume'". Though that may take some time -- this is ostensibly not my full time job :-)

Thanks again, very much, for bringing all this up. I'm pretty hands-off by nature. But to the degree that we need or want guidelines, I think they should be determined by the community.

December 11, 2006

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

John, you'll see in my profile that I'm a hardcore libertarian, so I agree with your "anarchist" approach to running the site. Just because an idea is a good one doesn't mean it should be forced on others. This is a fun site, and legislating this stuff (which is really pretty inconsequential) would just ruin that and annoy people.

When I wrote the unaccented rule, I wasn't sure how the site handled unusual character entities. Looks like it does just fine, so that's less of a problem. I'm still concerned that the average person doesn't know how to type accents though. Heck, I have to look them up most of the time. People are going to type "pate" when they mean "pâté" and there's nothing we can do about that. The unaccented rule at least keeps together the words that are supposed to be the same. I'd rather have one entry for multiple words than multiple entries for the same word.

The word cloud should be great! Can't wait to see it. Any other developments coming down the pike? Perhaps colors? Or colours? :-)

One more thing: Is there a proper use of bracketed words in comments? I've been using them to emphasize terms I think are important or interesting, like a form of subtle italics. Others use them much more sparingly, to indicate a definition or synonym, for example. Perhaps I've gone overboard.

December 11, 2006

dreamiegrl commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Suggestions:

A link on the "your words" page to the homepage so you can see the constantly updated new words.

Also, a Word Nerds section - where you can make friends with the wordiest wordies!

December 11, 2006

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I'd love any way to add users as friends like on other social networking sites. Not sure what features that would activate, but we could think of some. A friends list on each user's profile would be nice for starters. Perhaps a private message system? Collaborative lists to which groups of people can add?

I would also like to be notified by e-mail when someone comments on my profile or lists. Not to burden John or anything... just some ideas to put out there for future reference. Thanks for all the work you do, man.

December 11, 2006

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Maybe it should be made more clear, but the "Wordie" logotype, such that it is, on every page, links to the home page. Contacts/friends and email notifications would be great featrues, I agree. Will get done, someday. Not at all sure which day, though :-)

December 11, 2006

digenis commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

First of all, Wordie is an awesome idea and service! Thanks for making it! Here are a few suggestions I posted on my website and will now post here:

1) Hire a graphic designer. This is probably what most would suggest right off the bat. I’m usually a fan of low-fi design, but Wordie leaves my eyes tired and bored. They don’t have to go all hardcore 2.0 with gradients, reflections, soft shadows, starbursts, and the sort, but a little splash of colour and some nicer menu interfaces would do a lot of good. It would also add a little flare if users had their own avatar, a feature common in most forums and 2.0 services. This could actually be implemented really easily through Gravatar (Globally Recognized Avatar).

2)Build a stronger sense of community. The easiest way for Wordie to do this would be by creating contacts, groups, pools, and other features which would allow users to meet, interact, and socialise with other users.

3)Allow for accented unicode characters, please. This is probably pretty controversial as it could potentially create multiple entries for the same word if different users choose to spell it different ways.

But if you think about it, there are some words that just need a diacritic. For example many English words of French origin, such as: résumé vs. resume; divorcé vs. divorce; exposé vs. expose; chargé vs. charge; and worst of all pâté, pâte, and pate. And in reality, these will be such a minute percentage that it probably won’t create a problem. These diacritics aren’t there for no reason; for Pete’s sake, it’s a site about words, let’s do it right.

4) Allow users to specify which dictionary services are listed to look up words. Right now Wordie displays next to words 8 sources: Ninjawords, The Free Dictionary, Etymonline, Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster Online, Urban Dictionary, Wikipedia, and Google. Quite frankly, several of them are pretty much your standard dictionary and only offer redundancy. Continue listing these as default, but allow users to choose to specify themselves which references are listed if they so desire.

5) Include functionability for non-latin foreign languages. I applaud the creators for using UTF-8 encoding, but right now the Wordie guidelines state that ‘the word must exist in at least one language. If that language is not based on the standard Latin alphabet, transliteration must be done intelligently’. Why must we transliterate? I tested it out and I can add Russian words to my lists just fine using Cyrillic characters. Wordie could be of great use to language learners who want to keep lists of new words they learn.

6) Make a word stream badge on your own site. It would be great if someone would create a tutorial for making a ‘badge’ that would display your most recent Wordie words on your blog or personal website, similar to a Flickr badge. This can done already since you can subscribe to RSS feeds of word lists, but I’m sure the average user hasn’t got a clue how to do it.

I’m sure that these and many other issues will be addressed in the near future.

December 14, 2006

digenis commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Oh, and one more easier thing. In lists of comments it would be helpful to display the date and time that the comment was posted.

December 14, 2006

whatever1013 commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

whenever you get around to it... is there anyway to make a text field that would go at the top? something we could use to add a list definition (if wanted or needed) at the top would be nice. please? :-)

December 14, 2006

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Hi digenis, some great suggestions. Let me address the easiest ones first.

Speaking to #3 and #5, the site supports unicode and always has, and it's fine with me if people use accented characters, or any characters -- check out pâté and this. I think you mistook uselessness's list of his own guidelines for official site policy, which they're not (though I think it's great that he started this conversation and that Wordies are taking it upon themselves to set guidelines for the site). Within reason, people can do whatever they want, in any character set, and I'll facilitate.

As to a word stream badge and more community features, I totally agree and am on it. A badge should come out in the next few days, and a way to create contacts in the next week or two. I'd also like to allow groups, but that will take more doing -- it's just more work for me to build. Which brings us to #4 and #1....

Allowing people to specify dictionaries would be cool, but there are so many other things I'd like to add. Wordie is just me, and with all of the other plans I have for the site, customized dictionary links won't be coming anytime soon. Nor will graphic design. I could cop out and say it's because I can't hire anyone, which is the case. But truth is, even if I could, I wouldn't. I get a wide range of comments about the design, or lack of it, and they span the spectrum. The majority really like the bare-bones aesthetic, though there are some loud dissenters. I like the all-text approach myself, a lot. So I'll try to improve that -- there's a lot you can do with just text. But don't hold your breath for color or graphics. Not happening.

Whatever, just saw your post -- coming soon...

December 14, 2006

angharad commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I dig ligatures and diacritical marks (Indeed I usually initial "æ" for this pseudonym), so I've added several words containing them. Point of Wordie, really.

December 14, 2006

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Lists now accept descriptions, which reside below the name of the list.

December 14, 2006

inkhorn commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Nice addition John!

December 14, 2006

whatever1013 commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

thanks for the list description option! i noticed that the names of lists at the top is in a smaller font size. is that planned? (not complaining, just curious.)

December 15, 2006

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Since I wrote this list, others have made interesting observations that I hadn't thought about. Not that it's an official ruleset anyway, but just the same, I'd like to take a moment to clarify and update it a bit.

1. Exists: I have a very liberal definition of "exists." If more than one person has used the word, it exists. Plenty of words exist that can't be found in the dictionary, and they're fair game. Basically, a Google search for the word should at least return one hit. Don't just type random letters and call them a word, that's junk.

2. Basic: I'm not sure how well I explained this the first time, but the concept still stands. Don't enter an entire sentence, and only use multi-word phrases that commonly go together. "Popcorn chicken" works fine since it refers to a specific item, but "popcorn and chicken" should be listed as two separate words.

3. Spelling: I changed my mind. Spell words any way you want within the context of the "exists" rule. If any other people spell it like that, you're in the clear. Case in point: "shiny" and "shiney" both work. "Shinny," not so good.

4. Lowercase: This one's a moot point, because as John explained, the system converts capitals to lowercase anyway. Except in the case of Synonym, which is weird.

5. Unaccented: Still a hairy issue. I agree with digenis, this is a site about words and accuracy would be nice. But I also think web sites should cater to the lowest common denominator; that is, people who don't know how to type accented characters. Perhaps John could add a set of buttons underneath the "add word" field -- click the "é" button to insert an "é."

6. Unligatured: I stand by this one. Ligatures are fun, but ultimately are just aesthetic. We should enter words in raw form for the integrity of the database.

7. Unpunctuated: This is still important. The system is stripping brackets now, which is nice. But we should avoid all other punctuation, except for hyphens and apostrophes. I'll also add periods to the list of exceptions, because I can see where those might come in handy.

And a quick reminder that this is entirely voluntary! These are just my suggestions. Keep posting your thoughts, and any other ideas for the site, in this thread! Thanks to everyone for being a part of it!

December 15, 2006

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

On each list, it would be nice to see a list of all the people who favorited it. Likewise for each word.

Also, a little alert at the top of each page could inform users when someone comments on their profile or one of their lists, so they don't miss anything. Perhaps in an eye-catching red color?

Thanks again for all you do, John. You've been working overtime on incorporating suggestions into the site!

December 15, 2006

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Was thinking more about ligatures, and uselessness, I'm now solidly in agreement with you. Ligatures don't have anything to do with the spelling of the word, they're more about typesetting -- as you said, aesthetic. And aesthetics are anathema to Wordie :-).

And my apologies to anyone whose skin I just made crawl by using the :-). I used to be one of you, and then one day I just gave in.

Oh, and yes, the links to other lists at the top of a list page were intentionally done smaller -- some people have a lot of lists, I thought it was a little tidier. But it's also harder to read. I can change that if folks would like.

December 16, 2006

whatever1013 commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

the smaller type on top for the lists is good, but i was in a hurry last night at work to find a list and it was harder to read. on the other hand, the smaller type *is* more aesthetically pleasing. the best solution would probably be for me to get new glasses. ;-) (yes, i ;-) with impunity.)

as for guidelines, i have to vote for the anarchy rules. one of the biggest joys of this site for me, has been finding all these silly, made-up words that other people have come up with. (with cuntificate and gaytard high on my list) and if i knew how to link from the comments, i'd link to Thunderfoot's Characters for a Jewish Star Wars as a really hella cool example of creative wordie-ing.

as for features, how about some sort of voting thingy for each word page? (overheardinnewyork.com's "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" comes to mind) something where we could vote for favorites and see the results on the words' page. x people voted (positive response), y people voted (negative response) out of z total responses would be nifty.

another one that comes to mind is the ability to do wildcard searches for words. i don't know if a wiktionary would be practical (since my programming knowledge is nil plus zero) but it'd be fun to do a search for aa* (or whatever) to see how many words beginning with the letters "aa" (or whatever) are in wordie at any given moment.

again, if i haven't said it recently, a huge THANKS for everything you do, John! this site is really a ton o' fun and i can't thank you enough for creating it.

December 17, 2006

shankarganesh commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

why not there be a number next only to the word indicating how many people have listed the word in total?

December 22, 2006

sumit commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Could we have feeds for comments? I'm thinking it'd be nice to be able to track both comments on individual words and comments by individual users. Thanks for the site!

December 26, 2006

toner commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

i like that i can move words between lists. cool.

December 29, 2006

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Per the errata post, comments for words and list can now be tracked with feeds. If you didn't happen to notice the "comment feed" link directly above this :-)

December 29, 2006

toner commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

is there a way to "list all" words in all lists for one account?

December 29, 2006

kalidas commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I would like to include words in my language (Marathi), and there's character support for it. Though these are meaningful to me (and 100 million more), they're meaningless to most English readers. It would be nice have the ability to mark a list as "invisible on wordie home" to avoid listing of these words on Wordie home page.

January 1, 2007

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Kalidas, that's a thoughtful suggestion, but this non-Marathi speaker actually enjoyes seeing words in other languages and character sets float by on the homepage. I may add the feature you suggest at some point, but in the meanwhile, I hope it doesn't prevent you from posting your words.

On a related note, I'll be adding tagging in the next month or so. You, and other Marathi speakers, could tag your words as 'Marathi', and then be able to more-easily retreive all words in that language.

January 1, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

That's got to be a first: a web site that is all tags, introducing tags for each tag. John, you're the man.

January 1, 2007

kalidas commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Right now we have the following readily available options to look up the word

ninjawords | tfd | etymonline | dictionary | M-W | UD | Wikipedia | Google

How about addding Onelook.com? It's powerful and probably the most potent dictionary search on the net.

January 2, 2007

jcreed commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Is there a practical way of imitating del.icio.us's "save this" link? When I am looking at someone else's word list I'd like to be able to click on something to immediately add a word I see to my list without going to another page. I'm not sure of how you'd want to allow selecting which of your own lists it goes to...

January 3, 2007

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Hi jcreed, yep, you can add exiting words to any of your lists. Go to a word page, and you should see a small 'add to your words' link to the right of the word. Click it, and it'll ask what list you want to add to. You can also 'favorite' either words or lists, if you want to keep track of them without actually adding them to your lists.

January 3, 2007

jcreed commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Yeah, that is of course what I've been doing --- my question was about making it possible to add a word without going to a word's page, and choosing each time perhaps the same list from the drop-down, and clicking yet again to actually add it. Not a huge deal one way or another, but it might be a nice convenience, as it is in del.icio.us, to have some slightly more direct mechanism.

January 4, 2007

oroboros commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Here's my two pennies: Wordies ought to be actively encouraged to leave comments for the words they've entered, or look at, that spark particular associations, humorous or otherwise, or, especially if the available definitions from the lexicon links are obscure or non-existent. The more comments there are, the more interesting it is to randomly browse words. It makes the site richer and more friendly to interaction.

January 6, 2007

palooka commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I second oroboros' suggestion to encourage Wordies to leave comments for words.

January 6, 2007

abraxaszugzwang commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I'd like it if the blog widget allowed you to generate a random list from any/all lists.

January 25, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

That's a cool idea. Would be a nice feature for the site too, apart from the blog widget.

January 25, 2007

abraxaszugzwang commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Well, I meant a random list of words generated from one's own lists. But that's also a good idea.

January 26, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I must protest the change from listing all-time Wordies to wordiest Wordies, past 7 days, on the home page. If only because it bumps me down and hurts my pride. Hulk angry!

January 26, 2007

sionnach commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Have I mentioned how awesome this site is? My two cents:

More comments --> more interesting site.

Allowing made-up words --> more interesting site.

I generally try to find two "independent" instances of a word before listing it, though deciding what's independent is a judgement call, since mistakes can propagate across seemingly unrelated websites.

February 28, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I have happily violated every rule on this list, thus making it irrelevant. :-)

February 28, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Even as an irrelevant list, it's great fun.

February 28, 2007

abraxaszugzwang commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I think it would be helpful to have a "comment search" function. Sometimes I want to find my way back to a particular comment or conversation, but just can't remember which word started all the hubbub.

Happy you violated all your rules too, uselessness.

March 2, 2007

abraxaszugzwang commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I can see my comment list fine, but when I click on "See comments made by others," it has been freezing or going to an error screen. Is anyone else having this problem?

March 4, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Same here, AZ. My guess is that the sheer volume of comments on your lists and mine is bogging down the server. Consider it our prize for prolificacy.

While we're on the topic of these "all comments" pages, I think we might want to split them up into pages 1, 2, 3, etc., maybe with a maximum of 100 comments on each. As of now, I have made 763 comments, and all of them show up on the same "all comments" page. That's crazy big. And I should warn you guys that I plan on writing a lot more comments in the future. I ain't gonna stop.

March 4, 2007

chained_bear commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I've had the same or similar problem, esp. when loading large numbers of comments. You're not alone, AZ--and I probably will keep making comments as well.

March 5, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Ditto, ditto, and ditto. Same problem, same possible solution, and I can't stop making comments even if I try. ;-)

I can't see where anyone mentioned this, and maybe it's already on the site and I haven't found it--but how about access to the complete list of Wordies (rather than just the newest or most prolific)? Those who don't post often or make lots of lists seem to drop into limbo.

March 5, 2007

niels commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

With regards to accent characters - perhaps it would be best to allow redirects as Wikipedia does. At the very least Wordies could help by adding links in the comments sections to the correct version.

March 9, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Hmm, it would seem the Wordie server is struggling. I keep getting timeout errors and such. John?

April 16, 2007

zeichensprache commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

It would be nice to have a smarter search function for those of us who can't remember exactly how something is spelled or for those of us, for instance, who would like to find all words beginning with the prefix "un-".

I tried to use parameter expansion, e.g. searching "un*" or "un?", but needless to say it didn't work. This may be a tall order, however, but I think something along these lines would be ideal.

May 17, 2007

zeichensprache commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

also, if there were a messageboard around here somewhere, I could post this:

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-therefore-i-am/article_print

and this:

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/i-chat-therefore-i-am/spiral.jpg

May 17, 2007

oroboros commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Thanks for the "I Chat, Therefore I Am" link. Fun!

May 17, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Yeah, I really wish you could post that link, I'd love to see it... oh wait. ;-) All kidding aside, it was an interesting article and a fun read, thanks for that.

May 17, 2007

whichbe commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Thanks for this awesome site, John. Now I have a place to deposit things from my brain in an semi~organized place. A few requests…

- At the top of wordlist page, there should be a count # for the TOTAL WORDS within.

- There should be a way to reference the wordlists of other users. Like a “Favorite wordlists�? section, under our profiles or somesuch.

- There should definitely be a way to specifically view/feed comments made to words for which one is the first lister. Being a first-lister should be sort of like being a low-level moderator to the word, I feel. And the thing is, just because I add a word into a wordlist, doesn’t mean I want to read anything ever said about it forevermore, ya know?

May 26, 2007

jennarenn commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Hey whichbe, you can actually favorite lists. They appear under your favorites section. I'll use this list as an example.

You'll usually see the creator write an introduction:

The comments section of this list is also a great place to make suggestions for the Wordie site, and discuss Wordie policies in general. Join the fray!

And under this is some tiny writing:

Add this list to your favorites | sort: alpha | order added

In reference to your third request, I don't like the idea of having the first person who adds the word control the conversation. I know that your words are a bit different, because they're created. However, I think that that could easily slide into censorship. There have been prior discussions concerning conversational control, but I can't remember where they are. I seem to remember John falling on the hands-off side of things, but somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

As for your last request, you may have subscribed to a feed for the word. I've never done that, so I can't tell you how to fix it.

May 26, 2007

evin290 commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

My friend had a really cool idea for an addition to the site - a list of users who have the most words in common with you.

May 28, 2007

dain commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

A word of the day feature which pulls from a user selected list would be great.

June 3, 2007

whichbe commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

It would be cool if there were a way to browse 'word lists' in some form... but how could they be sorted? Is there a typological method that could work or is that too daunting?

June 15, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Certainly would be nice if each list could be tagged, or at least assigned a category from a given list.

June 15, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Is anyone seeing this message pop up these days?

Problem parsing comment, probably due to unmatched tags.

When it comes up on my own comments, I've checked them out and see nothing wrong--but then I'm no expert....

July 5, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I've noticed that too, I wonder what it means?

July 5, 2007

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I added the "can't parse" message when somebody (*cough*uselessness) embedded a YouTube video in a comment, and it messed up the front page.

What's going on is the code that creates comment snippets on the front page truncates comments to fit, if necessary. If the comment contains html, sometimes the truncation splits up the beginning and ending tags. That's what was happening when you'd see things like the entire column being italicized--the "start italics" tag would be there, but the "stop italics" tag would be chopped off, and so the italics would just keep going.

So now, it checks if there are unmatched tags, and if there are, it displays the "problem parsing" message. If you click on the "more" button, you should be able see the full comment, because it won't have been truncated on the actual word or word list page.

Eventually I hope to make this smarter, so that instead of not displaying the comment, it'll just remove the beginning tag if it can't find an ending one. But for now, at least it prevents pages from breaking.

By the way, I certainly don't mean to discourage embedding YouTube videos or other fun stuff, I loved that little comment in song. Just want to prevent it from breaking things.

July 5, 2007

oroboros commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Hey John; I notice that the fix still isn't in for the "comments on your comments" feature. Is it going to require a quantum change, like a new server, do you think?

July 5, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Oh. Um. Whoops.

For what it's worth, the occasional YouTube video I've embedded has always stemmed from a secret motivation of seeing if it would irritate you, John. Part of it's just my mischievous side, but the other part of it is an effort to subtly draw your attention to the security risk of allowing users to leave whatever markup they want. If I was more malicious, I could probably employ some pretty gnarly JavaScript or something. MySpace had some trouble with that a while back.

Hope I didn't gum up things too badly for you. :-)

July 5, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Why, u! You mischievous, non-malicious Wordie, you! ;-) Thanks for the explanation, John. I won't worry now that I've horribly mucked up the page when I see that message. And I *have* been able to see the comment itself once I'm off the front page.

July 5, 2007

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

True u, Wordie is hardly secure. I just added a little comment cleaner, which should provide at least basic protection against malicious javascript, and also prevent the inclusion of <form> tags in comments.

I think this still allows videos to be posted. Let's find out...

July 6, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Ha ha, nice choice. ;-)

July 6, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Indeed. Truly a classic.

July 6, 2007

seanahan commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

As long as you can keep out that annoying caterpillar song, we'll be ok.

July 7, 2007

slumry commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

About Wordie etiquette: Is it appropriate to point out a presumed misspelling in a listed word? Always? Sometimes?

Also, is there a way to erase all tracks of an inadvertently entered word?

July 12, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

First question: I think, just use your discretion. There have been plenty of times when somebody says "Did you mean enchantment?" on the page for enchatnment (a made-up example, but you get the point). Usually the response will be "oh, typo, thanks for bringing it to my attention" or something. Just be friendly about it and not one of those annoying spelling cop people. ;-)

Second question: You can remove a word from your list, but it will remain in the database forever. Just forget it ever existed and hope nobody finds it by accident. :-P Though even if someone did, your name wouldn't be associated with the word, so you could still be anonymous. Are you worried about that sort of thing?

July 12, 2007

slumry commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Thanks--pretty much my own feeling about pointing out errors, or presumed errors.

As for the second question, no I am not worried but I don't like leaving verbal clutter around and perhaps misdirecting someone towards a misspelled word. I have seen a few instances where one person makes a common misspelling and others follow.

July 12, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Slumry, you hereby have permission to point out any flubs you see in my words/lists. I *hate* when I do that! :-)

I noticed a lot of "typo'd" words when I played with the random word generator. Coincidence, or do they pop up first? Hmm....

July 12, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

We could always annotate that a word is spelled wrong when we find one. I would do so on the word page, not on a list page, so no one takes it personally. And only for the misspellings that have been added by multiple people. For example... soliloquoy.

July 12, 2007

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Can anyone read this character set?:

http://wordie.org/words/sinjie

I'd like to know if that's spam, or just someone having a spirited conversation with themself. Sinjie is apparently an anime character, so perhaps the citations are quotes.

August 6, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

No idea. The Google translation leaves a lot to be desired, but it appears to be a series of adages. Possibly quotes from the character? It does make me sad to see people on here talking to themselves, but I don't think this is spam, per se.

August 6, 2007

sera commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

It's Chinese. As Uselessness said, the Google Translation is far from perfect, but it gives you a good idea. I can see that one of the posts is from a horoscope site. And I get the idea of this translation better by "trying" to read the Chinese characters.

.....................

请永远积�?�?�上。�?个男人都有他�?�爱的地方，但是�?�?�爱的地方�?�有：�?积�?�?�对生活

It's something like "Always be positive. Everyone has his own -literally "beautiful place"- but the only "un-beautiful place" is to not face your life.

.....................

Anyway, the guy is posting quotes and such. A lot of them are about business and doing well in life.

August 13, 2007

npydyuan commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I have included a couple of external links in some of my comments. I assumed that because it was possible, it was allowed. Are there any thoughts about whether one should warn the reader that a link will leave Wordie, or anything like that? To avoid that jarring "I don't think we're in Wordie any more" feeling?

Also, in case the question is in any way still undecided, I want to voice my support for the text-only, basic site design. Thanks for not succumbing to a bunch of colors and "graphic design" junk!

September 17, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

As a graphic designer, I take offense at that statement! :-P

As for external links, I doubt it's a problem. If John wanted, he could display a little image next to each one to indicate what it is (like on Wikipedia). Or alternately, to preserve the no-images thing, use a glyph of some sort, or perhaps just render those links in a different color from the other ones.

September 17, 2007

npydyuan commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

No offense intended! I actually have great respect for graphic designers. :-)

It's just that a text-based site (or even a text-based flyer or ad) is sometimes just what the doctor ordered for my image-weary brain. In the context of something like Wordie, I think the blankness of it actually facilitates the imagination.

And besides, I think junk has become one of those contronyms like bad. These kids these days!

September 17, 2007

john commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Hey, that's a good idea, adding a Wikipedia-like icon indicating when a link goes off-site.

As for as a policy about external links, there isn't one--lots of us do it all the time. Also, there are no policies.

As someone said on Wordie at some point, Wordie isn't anti-images, it's pro-text, and I think all or mostly text layouts can benefit greatly from professional design. Someday I'd love to have a hotshot, text-obsessed designer improve on my half-assed templates.

September 18, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I beg to differ. I view Wordie as a completely full-assed, pro-text website. :-)

September 18, 2007

rocksinmypockets commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I'd go so far as to say that Wordie is a nice-assed, pro-text website. *grin*

October 26, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I'd second that. :-)

October 26, 2007

chained_bear commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

But does Wordie's nice ass ever need Butt Paste? That's the question. (See comments on uselessness's Winners Don't Do Drugs page.)

October 26, 2007

npydyuan commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

* Everyone's ass needs

BUTT PASTE!

(Must check next Tuesday to see if Butt Paste ad appears here....)

October 26, 2007

uselessness commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Oh no, you're corrupting my list ads!!

October 26, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

What have I done....

*facepalm*

October 27, 2007

pomegranate commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

As a newbie, I have a question on unwritten protocol. Is there a preferred online dictionary for Wordie people? I know it helps to check several, but I am just curious to know if there is a standard.

December 7, 2007

mollusque commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Hi pomegranate, Wordie contains links to many online dictionaries--the series of icons under a word on its page look up that word. I find OneLook to be the most useful. It doesn't give definitions, but points to sources that have them.

December 7, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Pomegranate, I agree with mollusque--seems that every Wordie has his or her favorite reference(s). It doesn't have to be one of the ones for which John has very kindly added icons (although they're sure handy). I think that fact actually makes Wordie more interesting, in many cases. :-)

December 7, 2007

seanahan commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

I usually use AHD, but if I'm on a campus network, I'll use the OED.

December 7, 2007

chained_bear commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

Dude, it's Wordie! There are no standards! WOOOO!!! *on table, wearing lampshade and swinging bikini top over her head*

Seriously, everyone has their favorites, but I can't really recall any heated conversations about which dictionaries are better than others, or anything. I'm kind of a snot about the OED, but even so, it's not the only dictionary in town. Heck, 'tain't even American! ;) Enjoy whatever you like.

I enjoy pomegranates, actually.

December 8, 2007

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

*replacing lampshade, returning bikini top to c_b*

Boy, you can tell it's Saturday.

December 9, 2007

ruzuzu commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

These comments are such fun - part time capsule, part prophecy.

May 22, 2010

reesetee commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

:-)

*sigh*

May 24, 2010

ruzuzu commented on the list word-guidelines-for-wordie

"unpunctuated was added by uselessness and appears on just this list."

March 26, 2014