Message-Id: To: iad@cogsci.ed.ac.uk, shoulson@CTR.COLUMBIA.EDU, nsn@MULLIAN.EE.MU.OZ.AU From: VILVA@viikki21.helsinki.fi Date: 14 Sep 92 15:21:27 EET DST Subject: OFF-LINE: The Condensed Ckafybarja Papers 1/2 Content-Length: 3047 Lines: 62 To Ivan, Mark and Nick lojbab asked me to prepare a transcript and and a condensed version of all the postings concerning the Ckafybarja Project. The transcript contained also the first stories and the ensuing conversations till the end of August but they have been deleted from this version except for the English descriptive material. This is the first version of what is to be a regular posting on the list (kind of FAQ for the project). I tried to preserve all the essential details but this, of course, is just my opinion of what constitutes the essential. I have deleted a lot of material -- mostly my own and lojbab's -- and made some minor changes to the remaining text to make it seem more natural after the deletions. ! I have NOT indicated the deletions -- except in the translation of Nick's Fraktur rant ! The hardest decisions concerned the controversy about the characterization of the personnel. There were quite many postings and picking out the essential wasn't too easy. As far as I can see we didn't actually reach a consensus and we don't really know what the non-netters do think about the questions. Lojbab has sent a copy of the total transcript to Karen Stein but I haven't received any comments yet. The last section concerning Nick's Cafe Newsletter proposal will be eventually removed from this 'FAQ'. Now it is required as background material for discussion. I'm working on a summary which will be posted separately. After seeing the first posted stories I feel we can proceed in a way which will keep most people happy. I think we'll retain the background information and the excerpts from the discussions in this 'FAQ' indefinitely so that people can take them into consideration when using the eventually appended descriptions. Even though many writer's feel they need the descriptions I think in practice these will be mainly used to provide a few reference points to the background and a starting point for the story. This, of course, will vary from writer to writer. We'll try to keep the published descriptions 'decent' and no doubt those writers who don't like the official descriptions will be able to find ways to avoid using them. I'm NOT going to state all this in the summary. I'll outline the descriptions along the original lines as I see no reason not to and then I'll include a separate subsection about the controversial questions and refer to this 'FAQ'. Eventually we ought to have guidelines for the writers in the 'FAQ' pointing out the aspects about characterization and mutual interaction Ivan, Mark and Nick have expressed in various postings contained in this 'FAQ'. ***** I decided to send a copy to all of you who were involved in the conversations so you can check I haven't left away something you consider essential or made changes you don't like. I'm prepared to make all the adjustments you consider necessary before I post this on the list. I've run the text through a spelling checker (US English) but retained obviously deliberate misspellings and Nick's British spellings.