google=great spell checker. It will figure out what you are trying to spell most of the time.

Pedro Martínez, actually, I usually just open up word and use it's spell checker.

Voilà...a dictionary...

Summertop: I keep this non-volatile storage device next to my computer for helping me with my spelling. It works really good, though certain words can give me trouble still. I'd be willing to bet you have one already.

It's called a dictionary. :)

And believe me, if you don't know how to spell rendezvous, you won't find it easily in the dictionary.

grenv:

grenv: Too funny...yes that is correct

grenv: nail on the head...

Summertop: I think it means "I have no idea how to spell this word, but did I guess right?"

Summertop:

Bry, yeah basically it means "Did I spell that correctly?"

Pedro Martínez:

Bry: I noticed that some people use it when they're not sure about the spelling...

Summertop: I've seen this quite a bit recently, but what does (sp) mean?

BIG BAD WOLF: It'd be nice to be able to edit the subject line for a message that you're going to save, wouldn't it? Or, if not edit it at least be able to add a line to it so that you might be able to describe it.
How's about some folders in the message box with one of them tree type links so that I could put them in my own categories and not even have to worry about it? And also be able to order them as I please?

Before long we could have a regular e-mail service here and Fencer's game site could compete with AOL and Yahoo! :)

Still, I like the idea of improving the message box area for saving the messages.

BIG BAD WOLF, it can also be annoying in a db where multiple discussions are going on. Sometimes it's ambiguoius (sp?) which discussion they were posting a reply to.

Summertop: I agree with that - I have a bad habit of not cleaning up my message box often, so I'm in the process of doing that now. Most messages and such I can delete right away, but for each one without a subject - forces me to open them again to see if I need to keep them or not.

BIG BAD WOLF, Along with your second request...One of my "pet peeves" is post without subjects. I like it when there is a warning that your post doesn't have a Subject. But, alas, I feel I am very much in the minority here.

First Request: It would be nice to have an option to not recieve the messages that some BIG BOSSES send to all their users. Now this option is nice since not all users read the fellowship boards much, but for someone who reads the boards, getting a 2nd notice about an event in the message box is just a lot of extra junk. (Just got done clearing out about 15 of those messages from different fellowship over the past few days.) So an option to turn it off would be nice. [and we can still read the message on the fellowship boards]

second request: Would be nice to be able to sort the message box like you can other tables. That is click on "subject" to sort all messages by subject - or by user.

It's cool, Reza.. :-)

rod03801: Sorry1 I must have been typing when you posted that.

What right now came to my mind is that we are not answering ANY of the questions Pedro mentioned!

The question being answered is : What is the players last action?

And now, it is absolutely correct to say "logging out" since it can be used as a noun to mean "to log out."

It IS interesting, but please, let's try to get back to Feature Requests. It's more of a grammar discussion now. General Chat, or Members Only would be great places to continue this. Thank you very much. :-)

playBunny: Interesting case! I really want to learn something about your grammar so if I say anything wrong, please mention it to me.

According to you yourself, it is wrong to say logging out because it is an instantaneous thing so continuous tenses don't apply.

But in your own message you say : "Logging out is an instantaneous thing so continuous tenses don't apply."

So how come you use a continuous tense?

And secondly, I think it's just like you're reporting something, a fact, to for example, to the police.

If they ask you " what were you doing?" you say "looking out through the window."

You are no longer doing that but you say it because at that time you were!

I think it's quite the same here. Even if the last action of a player has been done ten years ago, I think it is right to say "logging out" since at that time, he/she has actually been logging out!

Pedro: Thanks for that list of possibilities for "logging out". With only those two words to go by I would expect to be answering number 4, "What is he doing?" and it is a strong expectation. I suspect that you are using other cues/knowledge to make you interpret the phrase in a past tense.

But what I want is for the language to be answering a different question:
7. What did he do?
"Logged out"
Logging out is an instantaneous thing so continuous tenses don't apply.

But in the case of "browsing the main page" I'd prefer it to depend on the time. If it was yesterday or ten hours ago or one hour ago or ... [some arbitrary but reasonable limit], it would be "browsed the main page", or "played Bg vs Someone", and the ing form would be used for the recent past/present.

playBunny: Thanks for the reply. So here you have your problem with the part "no" that is written after the sentence.

I thought you were saying the sentence itself, no BKR will be affected by this tournament, had some sort of a problem with it.

Now I see your point. Yes, my knowledge of English grammar says that's not a nice combination!

Hi Reza,

It's the whole thing:

Contrast:
Unrated games (no BKR will be affected by this tournament): no

with:
Rated games (BKR will be affected by this tournament): yes

Which do you think most people would prefer/find easier? The first one is a form of double negative and, while correct, is not the best style.

playBunny: Now that is all about grammar, perhaps you could explain to me what's wrong with "no BKR will be affected."

If that's wrong then all I have learned about these thing is wrong!

Then possibly 'No application forms needed' , 'No man is allowed in.' and many other sentences alike are wrong too, huh?

"Logging Out" is an incomplete sentence. You can't say, if it is a past perfect continuous tense, past continuous tense, present perfect continuous tense, present continuous tense, future perfect continuous tense or future continuous tense. Definitely not if you have just these two words. You have to take circumstances into consideration. I mean what question does the "logging out" answer? Is it:
1. What had he been doing?
2. What was he doing?
3. What has he been doing?
4. What is he doing?
5. What will he have been doing? or
6. What will he be doing?

If you resolve this, you'll get an answer what tense, supposedly, the "logging out" is.

My opinion:

It's past continuous tense, question No. 2, "What was he doing?" The "logging out" tells you what was the respective person doing at the time a) you clicked on his profile b) of his last presence on thsi website c) of any other action YOU did that brought you to this kind of information.

furbster: I've allways been a member . I just didn't have a paying member status - some patriotic feelings tricked me into it now

playBunny: All I asked for was a definition other than "most recent thing the user did". I say that is the only possible interpretation and therefore it isn't ambiguous.

QED

It's not ambiguous.
Not in your mind. Probably not in most minds. The possibility for ambiguity exists, however. Can you accept that possibility or must you deny it?

What else could it mean?
Read all these messages again Grenv and you may understand what I'm trying to say.

Over and out.

playBunny: It's not ambiguous. Action is clearly referring to the most recent thing that the user did on the site. What else could it mean?

Walter: Indeed. I've seen those on the game pages. "No, no BKR will be affected". Now that's just awful, lol. I almost put in a feature request for it a day or so ago. The other one's not too bad because "Private" and "send invitations" go well together while the negation would involve "Public" with "Doesn't require invitations", so they're about balanced.

Paulo: Lol. That's when my worries would start - I don't know any other language well enough. :-(

grenv, ah grenv: What page did you see your quote on? On the Friends page the Last Action column has the date and time - which is, as I've already mentioned, not readable at a glance. The Action column has the ambiguous "Logging out" text. On the board pages there's no mention of Action - merely "Logging out" under the opponent's name. Ambiguous or what!

yay paulo, your a member \o

Just pick another site language that isn't so complicated and your worries are over

playBunny: We've had this same thing pointed out in the wording of whether or not you will have invitations sent out or rated games in a tournament that you're creating. Since you have Pawn membership and can't create tournament, I'll tell you now so you won't be confused when you become a paying member and are able to create tournaments. You may view tournament pages and are allowed to join one tournament, right? Go to a waiting tournament page. you'll see the column with the various parameters that the creator can choose from. The two that have the convoluted speach I'll paste here:

Unrated games (no BKR will be affected by this tournament): no
Private tournament (you will send personal invitations): no

I bet you'd word these sentences differently being the English speaker that you are, wouldn't you?

And what about viewed game? That implies that I am no longer viewing, even though I might be. The time is important either way.

playBunny:
Nice try, but it says:

Last Action: Logging out

It is not ambiguous in the slightest.

Luke: For some reason the Powers That Be'ed (tense? lol) decided that children in English schools didn't need to learn English grammar. You, as a European learning English as a secondary language, got that benefit. I can't, therefore, say whether you're right or wrong to claim "logging out - no tense".

Let me ask you, though, what tense is implied by:
Action: Logging out

Regardless of any technical terminology, that, to me, is clearly in the present tense. Other interpretations may be possible but any strength for them is very low - in the sense that with the word "ball", for example, people are far more likely to assume spherical object rather than to gather into a roughly spherical region (eg. planetary debris balling together to form an astral body, or balling wool).

And it's fine if you disagree, for that will highlight my original point that "Logged out" is better because it's unambiguous.
;-)

Luke Skywalker: I was trying not to say the obvious, but you are correct. And from a non-English speaking country as well.

We should do a better job of teaching English in countries where it is the main language it seems.

So I believe we've established that the sentence: "grenv's last action was logging out" is correct.

The alternative
"grenv's last action resulted in him being logged out" is clumsy at best.

playBunny: you may speak english, I learnt its grammar in school:
logging out - no tense
is logging out - present continuous tense
was logging out - past continuous tense
logged out - past tense

Sure grenv, we both speak English, but Brainking's Action is terse.

"Logging out" - Present tense.
"Was logging out" - Past tense.
"Logged out" - Past tense.

playBunny:

Q: What were you doing?
A: I was playing.

This is not present tense!!!!

BerniceC: Me thinks you don't understand what I'm saying. It's nothing to do with 7 day limits. And who cares? Well obviously I do and you don't. Thanks for your contribution.

grenv: The present tense is being used for a past activity. Reading dates and times is not an at-a-glance kind of activity.

well it could be a pre-requisite to come to the feature requests board and log what you were doing at a certain time...PlayBunny...who cares??? if they were here today....today is enough...if your game with the person has a 7 day limit....check back in 7 days :(...too much information needed from Fencer and not enough people paying for membership seems to be a problem :) pay your dues and get the "good bits"

playBunny: I think this is correct, the last action was logging out. Besides, the date and time are there.

This is a very minor one, lol, but it gets me every time.

The Action shown for players answers the question "What was the player last doing?" and the answer will be "Logging out" or "Browsing..." or "Playing..." etc.

I would much prefer it to be in the past tense and answer the question "What did the player last do" - ie, "Logged out", "Browsed ..", "Played ..", etc.

If you wanted to get fancy you could use a present tense for actions done initiated in the last, say, 10 mins. [All except the logging out - once done that's done. This is the one that most gets me: What? still logging out?]

A more important reason for this feature is that it's hard to tell at a glance whether the last action was recent or hours or days ago. Maybe you'd even want (lol, like you want a todo list 100,000 items long!) to go as far as using colours to indicate recency.

Are we ever going to be able to challenge another fellowship to a tournamnet? This would be similar to team tournies but it would be one fellowship vs. another fellowship tournament. The challenge could be given by a big boss, manager, or team captain.

After I create a new tournament, BK takes me to the list of tournaments. It would be much nicer if bk would take me to the tournament I just created. That way I could sign up for my own tourny.

that's part of the game clay. the people with the higher ratings are the ones that have figured out how to stay around the longest. what difference does 500 points make when all the bids are that high?