Virtual Verduria Message Board - FAQ
Questions you have have (and as a free bonus, answers!) about the Virtual Verduria Message Board.
What is this board for?
It's for discussing all things Almean, especially for discussions among people learning Verdurian and wanting to try the language out.

We'll see what other issues come up as (and if) the board develops.

Can I post in English? In Verdurian?
The major purpose of the board is really to encourage people to use Verdurian (or other Almean languages). Several crazy but delightful people have made more or less progress in the language. But I think they can get discouraged if the only person they can talk to is me, or if they work with it infrequently enough that reading even a single sentence is a chore.

As with any other language, the key is actually using it. Hopefully this board can increase the motivation, by producing short and interesting posts that will reinforce the basic vocabulary. (Well, if you want to discuss the philosophy of Genremos, that's fine too...)

Personally, I'd suggest writing something, if only a sentence, every few days, in Verdurian. Tell us about yourself, what you're doing, where you live. Make a silly joke. Ask a question.

Don't worry too much about correct Verdurian. I'm not going to jump on you.

It's important to have a sense of there being someone out there, too. So if you don't feel like wrestling with soa Sfahe, post in English.

Can anyone post?
Yah, sure.
Who's hosting it?
I am. That is, it entirely lives on www.zompist.com. I went this route because it's available to anyone who can access Virtual Verduria, it doesn't have ads, it doesn't depend on someone else's server, and I have the code so it can be customized. (Also, I don't like mailing lists...)

I used to use a freeware perl script to administer it; but it broke and I don't know perl so I couldn't fix it. So right now it's a semi-manual process. I have a C program that creates the posting file and does all the fussy and boring bits, and then I copy your posting into this file by hand.

Is it moderated?
In effect, since it's a semi-manual process. No problems have come up, but I'll delete anything that looks like abuse.
Can I put html tags anywhere in my posts?
You can use html in the body of the message. Please note that it isn't tested in any way, so if you mess it up, the message will be screwed up.

To put something in bold, place it within <b> </b> tags. To put something in italics, use <i> </i> tags.

To use äccénts, type & then the letter to be accented then acute, uml, or circ then a semicolon ;. E.g. é is &eacute;.

Can I quote the previous message?
Sure, if you do it yourself. :(
Why didn't my post show up?
Remember, this thing is handled through e-mail. I try to handle board messages promptly, but you will have to wait for me to check e-mail and post any BOARD messages.

After that, though, the most likely reason is that your browser didn't reload the page, it simply pulled it out of cache. Reload the page and it should appear.

Where are the responses?
The old script would keep track of replies within each message file, which was nice. But it'd be more trouble than it's worth to program this in C. So, look on the index page to follow threads and see what messages have gotten replies.

To save some page-shuffling and extra messaging, I often reply to a posting within the same file-- that's the Mark responds: section.

Will you review my conlang?
Very likely, if that was a plural 'you'. Here's what to do:

Put a description of your language up on the Web; then post the URL on the message board. You will hopefully get some feedback from other readers this way. If you do post about your language, please be willing to review projects that other people announce there.

 
Back to Virtual Verduria