Anyone else bothered by the lack of proof-reading on GalNet News?
- Thread starter Zsokorad
- Start date
Back when I started this thread in December whoever was in charge of GalNet actually did put in more effort to do high quality writing. Unfortunately, it only lasted a week. It went right back to the terrible grammar, bad or missing punctuation, spelling mistakes, and just completely confusing phrases.
On my GalNet archive blog (link in signature), I take the liberty of fixing the small errors when I post them. However, sometimes it's so bad that there's nothing I can do short of rewriting the article from scratch, which I don't want to do because then it wouldn't be an archive.
Here is the worst one that I can remember:
Here are all the questions this article caused:
- Is it Jaques or Jacques?
- Where is Topaz? There are multiple planets named Topaz.
- Where is this previous report about HIP 110620? It never happened.
- Who is Emma Hallows?
- "those very same questions" - What are the other questions? I only see one.
- "same questions the robotic barkeep responded" - Run on sentence.
- Is he a cyborg or a robot? Pick one and stick with it.
But what bothers me more than the lack of effort by Frontier on their GalNet articles, is the apathy that a lot of people show towards it by comparing it to modern news networks. Essentially, people keep saying "Something is bad in real life, so I'm fine with it being bad in fake life." So, we should never strive to do things better then? You're fine with journalism 1,300 years from now making zero advances and actually getting worse?
And that isn't even the issue - it's just an excuse. The real issue is that the lack of effort shows a lack of care for their own product. If I was responsible for the GalNet articles I would be spending hours and hours perfecting each and every one of them; pouring over pages and pages of existing lore and game information; thumbing through dictionaries and thesauri; continuously Googling punctuation and spelling rules to make absolutely sure I got them right. (For example, I had to Google what the plural of "thesaurus" was instead of just making a guess.) But instead, it seems like they just have a random person write up nonsense and toss it into the feed and then go back to coding something.
This ties in with what I'm saying. All of this "lack of care for their own product" reflects poorly on the entire game and on the developers.
TL;DR: Present yourselves like amateurs, be viewed as amateurs.
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Tar Stone
Banned
February 12, 3301 - The Legend Returns
It's been some time since Jaques began his epic journey from orbit around the moon of Topaz into the mysterious places of the great unknown. A week ago we reported that Jacques Station was seen by an intrepid commander in HIP 110620.
What mysteries will the enigmatic cyborg see on his long travels? Emma Hallows, asked Jaques those very same questions the robotic barkeep responded-
"If people want to know my story, they'd best come buy a drink and find out for themselves."
The above is simply atrocious.
It's been some time since Jaques began his epic journey from orbit around the moon of Topaz into the mysterious places of the great unknown. A week ago we reported that Jacques Station was seen by an intrepid commander in HIP 110620.
What mysteries will the enigmatic cyborg see on his long travels? Emma Hallows, asked Jaques those very same questions the robotic barkeep responded-
"If people want to know my story, they'd best come buy a drink and find out for themselves."
The above is simply atrocious.
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I think each daily article has a glaring mistake. At this minute, I can't quote the one for today as it's in French.
LOL, it changed to English before my very eyes. Where were we:
"Congressman Ethan Naylor, the Congressman for Siren"
"I will see it as my job to see that Federal States on the frontier will get the attention they deserve."
LOL, it changed to English before my very eyes. Where were we:
"Congressman Ethan Naylor, the Congressman for Siren"
"I will see it as my job to see that Federal States on the frontier will get the attention they deserve."
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Gak.
SIRIUS EXPLORATION SURVEY COMPLETES
"...logistics officers continue to pour over petabytes of data..."
SIRIUS EXPLORATION SURVEY COMPLETES
"...logistics officers continue to pour over petabytes of data..."
Proof reading Galnet posts
I know the forum doesn't need any more negativity so I'm sorry for this post, but could Frontier please get someone to proof read the GalNet posts a little more carefully. Especially if they contain system names.
One of the most recent posts Launching the Colonies, contains multiple typos which make it next to impossible to locate the target systems.
Wredquia SX-L D7-92 should read Wredguia SX-L D7-92
Gliese 97.2 I can't find at all
COL 285 SECTOR WA-L b9-3 There's a b9-0, b9-1, b9-2, b9-4, b9-5 but no b9-3 that I can search on the map.
If the stories are tied to the Galnet posts it makes it really difficult.
Trying to inject a little positivity into the thread, if anyone else finds the correct systems for those above can they post them as replies please.
I know the forum doesn't need any more negativity so I'm sorry for this post, but could Frontier please get someone to proof read the GalNet posts a little more carefully. Especially if they contain system names.
One of the most recent posts Launching the Colonies, contains multiple typos which make it next to impossible to locate the target systems.
Wredquia SX-L D7-92 should read Wredguia SX-L D7-92
Gliese 97.2 I can't find at all
COL 285 SECTOR WA-L b9-3 There's a b9-0, b9-1, b9-2, b9-4, b9-5 but no b9-3 that I can search on the map.
If the stories are tied to the Galnet posts it makes it really difficult.
Trying to inject a little positivity into the thread, if anyone else finds the correct systems for those above can they post them as replies please.
Have you created a thread in the Bug reporting forum?
Agree -- and <minirant> the grammar and vocabulary also needs a brush-up! I know we all have our own way of speaking and that words gradually change meanings over time but, just as we'd expect the BBC to get it right according to current standards of language, GalNet should get it right too! </minirant>
Agreed. Seeing as FDEV are based in Cambridge (ie. much of the staff will be graduates, it's not just some chavy backwater etc.) one would expect better standards
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I swear i was to get past this one but i would like to note that graduation not always mean intelligence, knowledge or good programmers. Calling non-graduates "backwater guys" is at least disrespectful. I only have high school and i work on a respected software house. Saw older non-graduates kickin ass with more experience in a finger than graduated people. And i'm by no means near that level of those "backwater guys". The best school in life, is life.
Just a rant.
Just a rant.
I think you misunderstood my post, I was neither referring to graduates nor non-graduates, I was referring to the fact that Cambridge is not a backwater (like where I live, for example), therefore most people would expect a certain standard of English language. Apart from that point for what it's worth I agree with you. Anyway, my post was (partly) tongue-in-cheek.
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Then i must say i'm sorry for misunderstanding you. The way I interpreted your words, was erroneous.
No worries. Having read back my post I can see how it might have been misinterpreted (you know how us Brits have a very dry, cheeky sense of humour). Certainly I could do with improving my use of the English language
I'm guessing this is going to be a community goal (or maybe 9 separate ones) in the future and FD are wetting our appetite
It could be worse, you could, like me, do proof reading as part of your job and have every little grammatical error, typo and misplaced apostrophe drive you slightly potty
OP - you might enjoy this one. I know I did:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM&sns=em
And yes, incorrect grammar bothers me too. I'm even bothered that I started the previous sentence with 'and'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM&sns=em
And yes, incorrect grammar bothers me too. I'm even bothered that I started the previous sentence with 'and'.
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I'm sorry. I just couldn't help myself.
"Almost all GalNet News articles (in game) have typos, grammatical errors, run-on sentences, unnecessary (or missing) punctuation and awkward phrasing. Note the past beta articles (namely the Eranin civil war) are correct.
Here are two examples (which really bug me)...."