SJ.com Style Guide!!! (running thread)

OK, this should be produced in book form. Anybody know of a publisher who might take it on?

 

April's Fool's The day that dozens of people who stick with one username the rest of the year change their name to something wacky. Genesis of that was March 2004, when 21 wondered what it would be like for everybody to post under another name. I dared her to start, she did, and a bunch of people followed suit. It was suggested it be made an April Fool's tradition, and thus it has been.

 

I think it's perfect we're having this discussion on page 21.

I can't remember who started it. Didn't SFExpress start a book that got nuked in one of the crashes? Someone, I think, started it in response to that, and the second or third post was Poindexter or ArmchairQB killing off the writer by having the ceiling fall on top of him. Then 21 started this post about how it was all a dream and we were off and running with characters who were completely fucked up. It started off as a joke but somehow, the characters ended up serious and well-developed with great back stories. I ended up making Terry a sympathetic (at first) protector of bullies and David the scared, mentally scarred kid he protected.

I know exactly how that storyline was going to turn out. I just coudln't get there. Story of my life.  :-\

By the end, 21, Alma and I were posting there pretty regularly and scaring off everyone else. I've never been quite as proud on this board as I was when alma--a brilliant writer--complemented me on the development of David.

I never intended to scare folks off, but wow, we got serious about that. Our demeanor back then inspired 21's classic line: "Does not play well with others."

I miss that book. And yes, the sex was fucking outrageously good.

 

Then again, you change your name every week, so for you, not such a kick.

 

I was going to wait until five years from now to post this, but ...

tim: Former poster who thought no draft could be analyzed until five years had gone by.

 

Ha, well played.

 

I changed my name to Moderator_1. Even HE fell for it.

btw, you cannot change your name to Webby. Don't think I haven't tried.

 

It was Armchair who kept dropping light fixtures and pianos on the heroes. I am waiting for a brick pizza oven to crash down on one of our current characters.

And major props to Freelance Hack, who carried out the Hoosier tradition of naming our new protagonist 'Evan Seville' in memory of the great Terry Haute.  Boom had point that one out to me.

 

Night crew/day crew: Pretty self-explanatory, though the distinction is usually that the night crew tends to be far wackier than the day crew, though the day crew gets first crack at breaking news, especially industry-related things.

The night crew tends to be responsible for inane threads that drag on due to the prevalence of second-shift AM-paper people, poster insomnia, depression, drunkeness or insanity. The Antarctica thread jumps to mind as an example, and there's many others. There's many night crew regulars that come and go. Dools is like the British Empire, though, the sun never sets on him.

And in my first-ever old fogey SJ rant, which I've criticized others for doing, but will break my own rule and do myself, I'd say the night crew recently fell off lately into a myspace-like funk. But others might not concur.

 

Antarctica thread: A thread started by Football_Bat in the summer of 2005 originally intended to make SportsJournalists.com members forget about the hot summer. It turned into brief, but glorious magic. "Polar bear repellant" Good times.

And one I cannot believe hasn't been brought up yet:

(Going) Brown Bunny: An exceedingly flattering or glorifying piece of journalism about a person or subject. Or, for the Algonquinian set, what halfmiler / fotf would call a "hagiography." Named for the 2003 movie co-starring Chloë Sevigny, who performed an graphic on-screen act of admiration upon Vincent Gallo.

 

I just think it's a different night crew. The days, er nights, of you, me, BYH, dooley, Wingman (who was around for the potty mouth thread), djc3317, etc...is gone. It's just a different group.