YWS Bill of Rights

Well said. This should be a sticky in the Welcome forum, or the Information Desk.

-Jared

Well said. This should be a sticky in the Welcome forum, or the Information Desk.

Hear, hear!

Nice job, Evi. Love it. Line-by-line translation of the bill of rights. Brilliant. XD

Seriously, this needs to be a sticky. XD

Nicely done.

'ear, 'ear!

Nice job, Evi. Love it. Line-by-line translation of the bill of rights. Brilliant. XD

...I'd love to swoop in and steal all of the credit for this, but, alas, it was not Evi who wrote this. Wonder why you said that Dreamer?

But, I agree. This was very well-written and informative. Much truth can be found in this, and it puts onto paper everything we believe as YWSers.

Lovely job, Shina.

xD Thank you everyone ^^

Gah!

I mixed up your avatars. Painfully ashamed of myself. *shakes head* Sorry, Angel. I'm an airhead.

But still. This is awesome. XD Sticky, I say!

Oh my gosh, this is brilliant! Very clever! *memorizes*

This is as good as our real one. I don't see many errors either. This was amazing. And, there was repetition and parallel structure. I'm sorry this review is short; there's not much wrong.

We the people of the Young Writer’s Society in order to create a safe internet environment free from discrimination, unfairness, dishonesty, and spam; to encourage young writers to be creative, imaginative, and productive in their writing; to help young writers be more confident in themselves and their writing; and to build positive self esteem and ambition of all who join, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the Young Writer’s Society.

Unfairness is a very vague term, the sort of thing that could be manipulated very easily. Better to not include it.

1. All members have freedom to express their own opinions, ideas, thoughts, and dreams freely without fear of unfair judgment or theft as long as all the thoughts they propose do not threaten, harm, bully, or offend others and as long as all they pass as their own work is rightfully theirs.

The last part is redundant as you've already specified that it is your own work in the first part. Two things bother me though.

1. Unfair Judgment: What qualifies as unfair judgment? What you consider unfair judgment, what I consider unfair judgment? What Nate considers unfair judgment?

2. The part about not offending others is also troublesome. Who exactly should we not offend? Many authors believe that free speech includes offensive language as well as non-offensive language. To quote Ray Bradbury:

"Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/Four Square Gospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme."

2. All members must respect the rights of their fellow members as well as respect the rights and authority of their superiors as well as appreciate the rights of their inferiors.

Appreciate the rights of their inferiors? The only person who can be considered superior is Nate. Moderators, Jr. Mods, Greeters, and Instructors are only there because they accepted a volunteer position. That doesn't make them superior. There are no inferior members.

3. All members have the right to review, critique, and edit other member’s work as long as: a) the work is posted in order to receive reviews, b) they use proper and civilized language (meaning no chat speak or foul language), and c) they are completely honest and unbiased.

Edit is the wrong word, only moderators and the author can "edit" a given work.

Also, c) is entirely subjective. Define "honesty" an "unbiased." There are a lot of white lies in critiques.

4. All members have the right to post as many times as they wish anywhere they wish as long as they have high enough authority or position to post there.

No. They don't. Period.

5. All members (no matter what position) are to follow, respect, and abide by the rules as long as the rules are in place.

What's with all the focus on position? It doesn't matter, so why mention it? Also, "abide by the rules as long as the rules are in place" sounds really weird. The last part probably descends into gobbledy-gook.

6. Members with positions with enough power to change the rules may do so as long as they have permission from the administrators or site owners/rule makers.

Um... this is not true. Again, the focus on positions and authority. Without definition, it is meaningless. It also makes it look like the authority figures changes the rules at a whim, which isn't the case. Also, there are no "rule makers." Admins propose the rules to mods, who discuss it. Policies are created jointly and behind closed doors. It can take years for rules to be made or changed. Not whimsical at all and that is a good thing.

The whole thing is wrong.

7. All members have the right to criticize the rules and the rule makers on the site without fear of their account being frozen or being banned from the site as long as they use proper language (meaning no chat speak or foul language).

Not really. Some members have defended serious illegal activities and they have been banned as a result. Members that encourage illegal activities are banned, period.

8. All members have the right to change and or apply positions with permission from the superiors.

What? They can apply and they can retire, but why is that is that in the constitution? There is an obsession with volunteer positions and that is not important. In the end, a color is just a color. What matters is what you are.

9. All members have the right to turn in or point out any members who fail to abide by the rules.

True. But, point out? This implies a more serious infraction.

10. All members have the right to use the YWS effectively for their own benefit as long as it is for a positive reason and as long as it contributes to an overall friendly society.

More subjective language. It means nothing and prevents nothing. For all we know, there is a usergroup that is actively plotting world domination. That usergroup is SPEW.

I think there are enough flaws in this document to prevent it from being adopted.

Griffinkeeper wrote:I think there are enough flaws in this document to prevent it from being adopted.

xD Trust me Griffin, all governments have flaws and all rules have loop holes . Just think outside the box on any rule no matter how seemingly perfect and you'll find something right. The reality is that nothing is fair in reality. That's the just the way it is no matter how many rules that aren't "subjective" we make.

Naturally we live in an imperfect world. That is no reason to create an imperfect document. If rules are to be created, they should not be created simply to be exploited when it is convenient. To do so would be recklessly irresponsible.

The fact that something happens does not make it right. It just means that it happened.

Hear, hear! (I just had to say that )

It is a perfectly imperfect document... Just like any other constitution ever made.

Therefore, I propose a message to Nate to settle the efficiency of this bill for good.

All in favor of my absurd and abrupt idea post: hear! or He's right or anything else that works in the same way.


I myself like my idea... And the bill.

(what was that about the user group planning world domination?)

I was going to say the same thing Grif did about the 'inferior, superior' matter. But now I don't have to.

So, even with all the pointed out issues, I appreciate that you have taken time to create this kind of document. It shows how highly you think of YWS, which is great.


Demeter
xxx

This is basically glorified fanfiction, why are the moderators paying so much serious attention to it?

Not really. Some members have defended serious illegal activities and they have been banned as a result. Members that encourage illegal activities are banned, period.

What defines illegal? What's legal in one country may not be in another. Unless YWS follows the law code set by the United Nations, I don't see how this works out.