Hello, dear GS house club members!
I have been thinking long about the wide subject I want to bring for discussion.
It's basically about the written messages originated from the club for its members.
Usually we know nothing about the new people who arrive in the club.
We don't know their culture, technical qualification, english language proficiency, roleplaying experience, learning skills, mood, hormonal balance, et cetera.
From my own experience of being a warden of the club I can tell that many new comers get lost and confused while reading even those clearly well written rules somehow.
That situation isn't making me laugh loud and hard at them, instead it's making me think what could be arranged to make it all clear for the widest audience possible.
There I think we might consider using direct instructions.
Thus we might assume the reader to be an active participant, which is interested to know the story and wants to know what is he or she allowed/supposed/expected to do next.
Direct instructions will meet those assumptions while letting the reader know the activities disclosed within.
I would personally form the sentences as list of distinct activities and their status.
For example, most of the rules notecard text might be formatted as lists of grouped activities like
"Activities you may not do"
"Activities you should not do"
"Activities you may do"
"Activities you should do"
"Activities you must do"
Also I belive that would be fair to let the reader know which group of activities will cause a ban, or eject, or warning to them.
Some activities have their status dependent on the status or rank of the member.
And I would definitely put a few of direct instructions within the end of the rules notecard saying something like "And now click the zone rules board, take GS titler and wear it, and then click the computer near of the hunting board".
Let us discuss this paradigm of laying out the rules and other messages.
I am very curious to know everyone's opinion about this idea.
I would just like to note that whole the idea comes purely from trying to make it all more accessible and adaptable for our new comers.
Also I am planning to create monthly posts in this blog with toplists of the misunderstandings and confusions from our new comers that have surprised and even shocked me personally mostly.
4/21/2010
4/07/2010
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