Rules for Dreams

[DoubleStar3]

The general posting rules and protocols for the Dreams forum are straightforward and apply common sense. Please be courteous of other members and post on topic and you should be fine. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas please forward them to a forum moderator. General site rules as posted in the Misc. Disc. Forum still apply.

Rules for Dreams:

1. This forum is for the discussion of dreams, therefore please post only about dreams. This can take many forms, from simply sharing a dream to seeking a response/interpretation for a dream, or to make a response to another person’s dream. STAY ON TOPIC! Posts that aren’t obviously or directly related to dreams will be moved/edited/deleted. If you don’t have anything relevant to add, then don’t post.

2. Every member has as much right to be here and voice their opinion as you do. We all have differing views. If someone holds an opinion that conflicts with yours respond in a respectful and worthwhile manner or don’t respond at all. No name calling or flaming. If you have a conflict with someone, do it in PM or bring it to the attention of a forum moderator. If at any time you feel that you are being harassed by another member, contact a forum moderator and the issue shall be investigated. Do not take matters into your own hands!



This forum does not lend itself often to debate, however there are times when debate may erupt. If so, debate in a friendly manner rather than arguing.

3. No over use of profanity or overtly graphic descriptions. Remember, this message board is pg-13. Keep flagrant sexual content OFF THE BOARDS. This means you cannot post anything that is overly violent, harmful, or involves killing people. This includes descriptions that are gruesome, bloody, or disturbing. We have a thread available for more violent dreams, but do not abuse this thread! Please post in a responsible manner if you are making a reply in the violent dreams thread. Misuse of this thread will result in it being closed down.

4. If you are posting information from another site please cite the source and provide a link.

5. Check the forum before you make a new thread to see if there is already a discussion going on about your topic. We don’t need twelve different threads all talking about the same thing. If you do not check, and have created a redundant thread, the offending thread may be edited/merged/deleted. If there is already a thread on your topic, but it is over two months old (and has therefore been closed) feel free to start a new thread.

6. If you can not spell or do not speak English well, please post your responses and threads in a spellchecker such as http://www.spellcheck.net/ before you post. If you have excessive spelling errors or type using netspeak ("ur" for "your" or "u" for you) your post will be edited/deleted.



Please use proper Grammar, Capitalization, Punctuation, and Spacing in all posts. Failure to do so will end up in a deleted post, and if persistent, a note to the administrator saying you are not following the rules.



**If for some reason you cannot abide by this, not only will your post be deleted, but if there is a continuance, the owner of the site will be contacted about banning you.

[DoubleStar3]

Common Questions:

Q: Who are the moderators of this forum?

A: The moderators of this forum are Tiamot, DoubleStar3, LV426, and Lord Anubis. If you should have any questions please contact one of us.

Q: Why must I follow the rules?

A: The rules are important to help us get along and to make the site a productive place for all of us. Also, the rules posted in this forum are general site rules. Failure to follow the rules will usually result in deletion of posts.

Q:Why can't I post about a dream that involves me killing another person or involving violence?

A: The moderators realize that we all have revenge dreams involving mauling someone to death, beating them up, and just plain vengence towards another being. They are extremely gruesome sometimes. The reason for not allowing it is because this is a PG-13 site. The moderators are well aware that most of us here are adult enough to handle a gruesome detailed posts, however we still have many under aged members and must be respectful to them and to the law. If you want graphic content, look someplace else on the net. Furthermore, this site does not and will never promote the use of violence against another being. Therefore, you will not be allowed to post a dream about killing people, nor will you be allowed to post a dream that involves violence.

Q: Why are grammar and spelling so important?

A: Werewolf.com is a message board community, and the prevalent means of communication on the site is the written word. This said, correct grammar and spelling provide for a more efficient use of space and contribute to our ability to effectively get our point across. It is very difficult to read and understand posts that are made with multiple spelling and grammatical errors. Not only is it near to impossible to guess what words the author is trying to use, it makes for a post that jumps from place to place, further contributing to a reader’s inability to follow. In addition to this, poor grammar and spelling does not reflect well upon the author. Would you take someone seriously if their post looked like this: “hay, ime a rel wierwof,not afake on lik in tv but aa rel on that can hert yeo relly bad.” Hmm….. raise your hand if you could actually decipher that entire thing. People don’t want log on and have to crack a code each time they read a poorly written post. When your post is decently penned, other members have a great deal more respect for you. On top of that, you’re not going to tork off the mods!

In all honesty the moderators on this site realize that some people just suck when it comes to grammar and spelling. In addition, some of our members are not as well read as others. This is all fine and dandy; we don’t expect everyone to be a walking dictionary. But be aware that being terrible at grammar doesn’t give you an excuse to post poorly written swill. A few misspelled words or incorrectly placed commas isn’t going to get your post deleted, however, if your post lacks any punctuation at all, or you can’t even spell simple words, then we’ve got a problem.

Grammar and spelling are things that hold different importance for different forums. If a reply in a certain thread simply requires a mere phrase, these things are obviously not so important. Hpwever in the DREAMS forum posting tends to rely heavily on descriptions. Proper grammar and spelling help to imbue the reader with a better sense of understanding the author.

If you are one of those people who have worse grammar and spelling than a three year old, we suggest that you get to know and become dear friends with Mr. Dictionary and Mrs. Spell Checker. Don’t be afraid to use these! Firstly, no one can even tell that you have used them; secondly, even MODERATORS use spell checkers!!! We highly recommend that you author your replies in a word document, spell check it, and then cut and paste it into the reply section. Many, many people do this and it makes for a very efficient way to raise the quality of your post. You should also note that the “I have dyslexia” excuse doesn’t work here. There are some major contributors to this site that have dyslexia and they are perfectly able to make decent posts. Besides, even a dyslexic can use a spell checker.

In conclusion, we’re going to make this plain and simple: No one can understand your post if it is full of bad grammar and spelling and it makes you look like an idiot.

For an example of good Grammar, please scroll down and read Grammar 101.


Q: Why is Capitalization Important?

A: Capitalization is important because it helps the eye see where a sentence ends and where another begins. And as stated above with grammar, if you don't use it, it makes you look like an idiot. Not only that, but we've deleted posts for less. Now...

Here are some helpful hints to help you figure out what you are doing wrong.

-The beginning word of every sentence should be capitalized.
EX: She went shopping.

-A name in a sentence should always be capitalized.
EX: She went shopping for Larry.

-The would use of 'I' should always be capitalized. I tend to see a lot of: i went to school. That makes me mad, and I will delete your post if I see this too frequently. The correct way is: I went to school.

-Anything starting with Sir, Mister, Misses, or Mistress should be capitalized. If abbreveating, it would look like this: Mr. Miss. Ms. Mrs.


Q: Why is Spacing important?

There is a space bar in the middle bottom of your keyboard. You know... the long one... Please use it. It is important to use spacing when usuing words, punctuation, and quotations. Otherwise you get a whole bunch of garbage. Now. Here are some examples of when spacing should be used.

-Between Words
The space bar should be used between words. Otherwise a perfectly good sentence will look like: Iwenttoschooltoday. Wrong. You would put a space in between each word. EX: I went to school today.

-After Punctuation
We all have seen those nasty run on sentences. But I think it's worse to have a sentence that doesn't seem to be spaced from one to the next. Now. Here is an example of usuing spacing after a punctuation.
EX: I went to school today. It was fun.

(Please note, most professionals will require two spaces after a punctuation, but we're not going to get bent out of shape if you only put one. However, there has to be at least one.)

-After a quotation
Now, this is where we seem to get confused the most. A space should come after a quotation, not between the punctuation and quotation.
EX: She said, "School was fun."

Note: See Grammar 101 below, on quotations and their uses.

Q: Why is Punctuation Important?

A: Punctuation is important because it helps decipher when a sentence ends and another begins. A few examples of punctuation are: ? . ,
EX: School was fun. Did you think so? I found the lessons very interesting, and thoughtful.

(Grammar 101 donated to us by Gileana. Questions and Answers put together by Tiamot and DoubleStar3. Rules put together by LV426 and DoubleStar3 and Tiamot.)

[DoubleStar3]

Grammer 101

I've noticed that a few people have trouble with punctuation and grammar. With that in mind, I've taken it upon myself (what a burden! :p ) to provide a short little guide to help with Grammer.

Quotations and dialogue seem to give people the most trouble. The one rule for writing conversation is this: Always keep in the ending punctuation inside the quotation marks.

Here are a few examples to clarify.

-

A statement with no speaker. If there isn't a speaker, the quote ends with a period. The same goes for exclamations and questions. As always, the ending punctuation goes inside the quotes.


Quote:
"Hello."
"Hello!"
"Hello?"


-

A statement with a speaker. Notice how the dialogue ends in a comma, and the first word to denote how the word is delivered is NOT capitalized. The sentence ends in normal punctuation.


Quote:
"Hello," said Jill.
Jill said, “Hello.”


-

A more excited expression or a question works the same way. The first word after the speaker is finished is still NOT capitalized, even though the sentence ends in something other than a comma.


Quote:
"Hello!" yelled Jill.
"Hello?" asked Jill.
Jill yelled, “Hello!”
Jill asked, “Hello?”


-

If the dialogue does not contain who is speaking, but rather flows into action, the expression ends in a period, exclamation, or question mark.


Quote:
"No." She frowned.
"No!" She frowned.
"No?" She frowned.
She frowned. “No.”
She frowned. “No!”
She frowned. “No?”


-

An “interrupted quote” is a dialogue sentence with an action in the middle. These are a little tricky as the speaker’s thought flows as if there is nothing in between it. The end of the first half of the quote ends in a comma, while the last half is not capitalized (unless the first word is someone’s name).


Quote:
“Before we begin,” Jill paused briefly before continuing, “we should have everyone sit down.
“Before we begin,” Jill paused briefly before continuing, “Jack should sit down.”


-

A quote within a quote can be fun. The primary expression uses double quotes, while the part being quoted uses single quotes.


Quote:
“The letter said, ‘Meet me at nine o’clock,’ but nothing else,” Jill said.
“The board had ‘Death to Ender’ written all over it,” McKitty noted.


-

Thought sequences are just like quotes without the quotations, and, generally, they are in italics.


Quote:
Jill thought, Jack sure is cute!
Jack sure is cute! Jill thought.

-
I will point out, though, that in some places it is OK to use single quotes for primary quotation and double quotes for secondary.



Quote:
'The e-mail read, "Meet me at midnight," with a smiley after it.'
While this can be confusing as generally the traditional (that is mentioned above) is more commonly used here. As long as your posts clearly distinguish between primary and secondary quotation it should be fine.\


-


Another thing people tend to struggle with is possessives. The whole "'s" can be a little confusing. But you're in luck, my illiterate compadre! Here I am, once again, with another Grammar Read-Me.

Today, class, we will be concentrating on possessives. There are two main types: Singular possessive and multiple possessive. The singular possessive can be broken down into two categories: Nouns that end in "s" and nouns that don't. Possessives are good if you don’t feel like writing, “Such and such belongs to this person” all the time.

Examples below, dearies!

-

A singular possessive without a noun that ends in “s” consists of the noun, followed by an apostrophe and an s.

Quote:
That is John’s duck.
We can visit the park’s playground.


NOTE: This is very similar when the verb “is” is contracted. It only looks the same. They are, in fact, completely different. After all, “John is duck” just sounds silly! Contractions will probably come in another Read Me.

-

A singular possessive that has a noun ending with an “s” simply has a single apostrophe at the end. This is most commonly used with a proper noun.

Quote:
Jesus’ Bible.
Bess’ cow.


-

A multiple possessive shows that a group has possession of something. It is similar to the singular possessive except for the fact that the noun is more often common rather than a proper noun.

Quote:
The kids’ crayons.
The classes’ books.