Hello Moho! I sincerely hope you are having a good day. Anyway, it is time to get started!
Any readers out there will be needing some explanation of what this blog is. This is a collaborative blog between Moho and I so that we can both have fun and practice our writing skills. The have fun part will be easy, since we both enjoy writing, but the practicing part will require some rules. I will lay them out here, in this first post, so that we may refer back to this post whenever there is a dispute over the rules.
The Rules:
- One must post every day, save for extenuating circumstances when it is agreed upon by both authors that it is necessary.
- In the event that an author doesn't post without a good reason for neglecting his or her responsibility, he or she must perform a challenge set by his or her fellow author. This challenge must be recorded for proof that it was done.
- One's post must always be at least five hundred words in length.
- One must always use proper grammar.
- In the event that a large grammatical or spelling error is caught, be it a typo or not, the author will have to write an additional 50 words the next day, or complete some other challenge issued by the other author.
- One must try to use "affect" and "effect" properly. However, their improper use is expected to some degree.
- One must always use proper spelling.
- One must never use abbreviations, save when they are for proper nouns, or they are latin (i.e. state abbreviations, USA, NASA, and "i.e." are okay, but "lol" and "btw" are not).
- One must correct errors pointed out by readers.
- One must try to consistently use either Oxford commas or Harvard commas.
- One's pronouns must all have unambiguous antecedents.
- One may use "they" as a third person singular pronoun in the event that the antecedent is clear. (Note the corollary to rule one if you don't believe this should be the case. Though it may be "improper grammar", to not use it leaves a sentence feeling awkward and cumbersome.)
Those are the rules that really must be followed, as either Moho and I agreed upon them or they are important to writing properly (or they help to better explain what is allowed). There are, however, some rules that I think should be included:
- All posts should be tagged (blogger refers to them as "labels") for easier navigation of posts.
- Jack will handle all technical aspects of the blog.
- Sentence fragments are allowed where they serve a purpose.
- Comma splices and the improper use of semicolons will be punished by death.
Moho, please let me know which of these other rules should be enacted.
In the future, my posts won't be so boring. I enjoy writing a great deal, and according to some of my friends, I'm actually a very good fiction writer. I'll post a short story every once in a while, but for the most part expect some arguments, news, or even rants.
Yes, this blog was inspired in part by the Vlogbrothers. If you don't know who they are, you should look them up.
Finally, I have installed the DISQUS commenting system. It is very robust, and allows for many more features than the standard blogger comments. You can log in through Facebook or Twitter, meaning that virtually everyone on the internet can post. Please refrain from anonymous commenting (if doing so is even possible). I like to know who is reading our posts.