I have spoken frequently and loudly of my concerns, and I am glad we are working to fix them.  The immigration rate has dropped by a full 50% since the last government, which is disastrous.  I hope we can come up with some recommendations.

Thank you again, by the way.  Without your help, this would have taken drastically longer and I never would have caught all the errors.

All fixed!

@Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC , this one is all set and cleared, I think.

Since two of those are not problems with my Talossan, but rather minor errors, I'm going to call it six.

Wait, actually, what's the process for getting changes to the language at this point?  Can we change "pastürevent" to present tense?  Then it will be only five!

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on July 10, 2025, 01:22:34 PMThanks Baron, that is what I am hoping to work with Iac on. Hoping to get an audio recording of him reading it in Talossan with English subtitles. It would be an entry in the culture video series, Currents, on Fora Talossa.

Oh, I get it, sorry.  I thought it was funny you wanted that specific story and that it had already been translated, but I see I misunderstood.

For the commentary of the Coletx and especially His Majesty @King Txec , I present a draft of a style guide for Talossan society.  Many of our citizens come from countries that do not have a king, while others come from countries where that's currently a little ambiguous.  These folks are often not familiar with Commonwealth conventions about things such as address and titles.  These conventions are adapted here to reflect Talossan principles and traditions.  Obviously, none of this is ever required... it's intended to just be a guide to good taste, not a law.  There's no lèse-majesté in Talossa!

This is just a first draft, and I'm sure I made mistakes... please feel free to chime in on what you think is appropriate or common practice!


Customs of Address for the Nobility
When referring to His Majesty the King in formal writing, it is appropriate to write of "His Majesty the King" in the first instance, and thereafter refer to His Majesty as "His Majesty."

Example: "I would like to ask leave of His Majesty the King to present further information to the Ziu about His Majesty's plans for expanding our territory."

When conversing with His Majesty, it is appropriate to address him as "Your Majesty" or "Your Grace."  In each form, both words should be capitalized.

Example: "Your Majesty, I think you left your hat on the metro."

When referring to a member of the peerage in formal writing, it is appropriate to write of their title and name in the first instance, such as "the Baron Hooligan," and thereafter write of their title alone, such as "the Baron."  Do not capitalize the article.  If more formality is desired, then "His Lordship" or "Her Ladyship" may be appended before the title and name.  In each form, both words should be capitalized.

Example: "The best person to present information on that topic would be His Lordship the Baron Hooligan, and I would ask the Baron to do that now."

When conversing with a member of the peerage, no special form of address is required.  If more formality is desired, then their title may be used.

When referring to a knight or dame in formal writing, it is appropriate to write of their title and name, such as "Sir Ian."

When conversing with a knight or dame, no special form of address is required.  If more formality is desired, then their title and name may be used.


Customs of Address for Government Ministers
When referring to the Most Honourable Seneschal in formal writing, it is appropriate to write, "the Most Honourable Seneschal" in the first instance, and to write "the Seneschal" thereafter.

Example: "I would like to ask leave of the Most Honourable Seneschal to present further information to the Ziu about the Seneschal's plans for expanding our territory."

When referring to a member of the Cabinet in formal writing, it is appropriate to write, "the Right Honourable," their office, and then their name in the first instance, and thereafter only their office or their name.  If more formality is desired, then append "S:reu" or "D:na" before their office or name.

Example: "The best person to present information on that topic would be the Right Honourable Minister of Immigration Ian Eschemplar, and I would ask the Minister to do that now."

When referring to civil servants in formal writing, including members of the Chancery and Permanent Secretaries, it is appropriate to write "the Honourable," their office, and their name in the first instance, and thereafter only their office or their name.  If more formality is desired, then append "S:reu" or "D:na" before their office or name.

When conversing with a government minister of any office, no special form of address is required.  If more formality is desired, then their office may be used.


Multiple Titles and Honours
Given the frequency with which one may accumulate ranks, titles, and postnominal initials over time in Talossa, it is considered to be in poor taste to employ all of them.  It is more common to only employ the rank or title of highest dignity in the Table of Precedence.  It is also common to use both a noble referent and someone's government office, should they possess both.

Example: "I would like to particularly thank Her Ladyship the Right Honourable Seneschal for her contributions this year."

The only times all honours should be employed are occasions of the greatest formality, such as the granting of an honour or an appointment.


In the Halls of the Ziu
In the legislature, it is inappropriate to use titles of nobility or knighthood, since it tends to unjustly privilege the bearer.  It is good form to omit titles when sponsoring or co-sponsoring a bill, submitting a party list, or when referring to oneself or others in an address to the Ziu.  His Majesty the King is the only exception to this rule, both because the Crown is a formal member of the Ziu and because his sovereignty is inextricable from his person.

Contrariwise, it is always appropriate to use titles of Government rank in the Halls of the Ziu, since it signifies the honour of government service.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on July 09, 2025, 11:05:43 AMWill do, I'd love it if we did gather more works from Talossans. I am hoping to work with someone for a translation of Andy Weir's The Egg story on Fora Talossa. And the Library of Talossa led me to that.

Just remembered this, and not sure if I'm misreading, but Iac translated "The Egg" years ago: https://wiki.talossa.com/L%27Uol

So if you wanted it, there it is.

Okay, I think I'm all done.  @Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP , I have a pretty good feeling about this... it is my great hope that you find no more than five errors!

https://talossan.net/lesson-five/

Quote from: Leonardo Miguel Carvalho Marques on July 10, 2025, 09:30:39 AMI agree that it's not the right approach. So from now on I'm going to respect that orientation

Awesome!

Do you have a favorite poem or short story?  Maybe there's a Talossan version in our library!

Yes, I would hope you would exercise that power whenever it was necessary.  Someone who starts posting a ton of spammy things from AI and ignores a warning, or someone who is abusive to others, or the like.  Stepping in to stop misdeeds is very different from the secret pre-screening power you initially proposed.

It's sort of like how I approve of police officers stopping someone from shoplifting, but I'd oppose them pre-screening shoppers before entry into a store.

Why do you think it wouldn't work to just ask?  It seems like Leo here was pretty embarrassed and quit as soon as he was called out.

I'm a little skeptical that we need to escalate so fast.  I guess I'm open to the idea, although I have no idea how you could write such a law.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on July 09, 2025, 06:39:23 PMIt still means that people are free to ignore it and spam Witt for two weeks until they get terminated. By that point it's already too late.

Doesn't the MinImm have a pretty free hand to discontinue applications (Lexh.E.5)?  They could do it in that circumstance pretty easily, I think.

It could look like this, as part of the standard introduction on Witt:

---

---

BE ADVISED: You should not use any LLM or AI to help you communicate.  We want to hear from you, not a computer.

If you use ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok, DeepSeek, or another AI to write your posts, you will probably not be admitted to the Kingdom of Talossa.

---

---

I just think our first instinct to an approaching problem shouldn't be a law, but... like, let's just try telling people.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial, UrGP on July 09, 2025, 06:20:28 PMI mean, if we dont filter GPT users beforehand, that means they can spam Witt for two weeks and worsen the experience for everyone else. There's gotta be a better way than this.

But this has barely been a problem... one guy has posted several posts.

I think there's certainly things we can and should do, but I just don't know that we need any laws.  I mean, the Government could pretty easily give an explicit warning not to use AI.  I'd be happy to write it.  We need a toes-to-toupee review of the immigration process already to try to deal with the current crisis, and our onboarding of prospective immigrants should be included.

I guess I don't 100% understand what that could look like.  Isn't the remedy exactly what happened: a citizen telling them that we'd rather hear from them personally, and then (if they keep it up) no two people petitioning for them?

I always assumed that the time they spend with us before a petition was meaningful: get to know them a little as a person, understand some of what their behaviors are and how they speak, and then either admit them into our community or decline to do so.

We have pretty wide freedom of expression, and there's no law against using an LLM to generate your responses.  However, they usually make mistakes (like just now).  And while they might have very long responses that look impressive, they're not really you.

We'd love to talk with you directly, instead, even if your English isn't perfect. :)

Quote from: leo.miguel.marques on July 09, 2025, 10:39:26 AMAs a citizen,

Are you a citizen, Leo?  I thought you weren't yet a citizen.  Is ChatGPT a citizen?