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as most of you know im trying to get my advice up on something personal but im soo confused ok people on her say make it personal i did then some people said use evidence but then its not personal and brakes the minti code

y is that??????

Although I don't report much in the way of advice, (I prefer to email the author if they are regularly online - or not an habitual offender), I am anal about advice being ORIGINAL, and REASONABLY FACTUAL (at least to the author's knowledge), not an email, and not a poem (with the exception of original ones that provide a message/moral/lesson).

Well, a while back in September I got to talking to another member about it, and I put together this list and emailed it to her.  I have been feeling guilty about it ever since, as I prefer to take the direct approach, and be honest - even if it annoys people.  So, even though it will probably annoy people - and confirm that I am too anal, here is that list. 

The list is no reflection of my opinion of any of the authors, it is just to show what sort of advice isn't advice in my opinion... However, I have since come to the conclusion, that I am too quick to judge in this area, and as everyone else thinks it's advice - then who am I to say it isn't.

However, have people had a really good look at what is being passed off as advice?  When is it alright to steal other peoples intellectual property and claim it as your own?  NEVER and why would you?!?  Well that is what plagiarism means, and there are a few instances of that below.  When is it ok to copyright other people's work?  NEVER ever!  There are also a couple of examples of that below.

Other than the comment feature, which I love, the other reason I think Minti stands out from it's peers is because it contains 'advice by parents, for parents'.  I define that as being advice written by parents, not advice cut and pasted by parents.

No offense to anyone who has posted a lovely email, or poem to share with us; I believe we need to start a group to showcase this email advice, on the following proviso:  It is deemed valid, and not a hoax; it does not breach copyright in any way; the sources are cited to avoid plagiarism.  When moving those advice postings, all the great comments that went along with them could also be cut and pasted.

Emails (presented as emails)

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/4938/HousefiresGot-this-email-and-thought-it-important/ 

by Cookclan

Snopes says this is false, so does Hoaxslayer and a few other Minti members

 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6204/What-it-means-to-be-a-Mean-Mum/

by Wolonfab

This is just a cut and paste of an email from Kidspot

 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/7361/Lock-your-car-doors-whle-driving-or-at-petrol-stations/

by angelicarose

Another hoax email – confirmed by hoax slayer and a few other Minti members

 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6073/Signs-of-a-stroke/

D: by natelz1

Another email that does the rounds… Apparently the advice is true – though the story is somewhat embellished.

 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/2953/Dusting-Can-Kill-You/

by LaRenae

Another email that does the rounds… Unfortunately this tragic advice is true – though the dust off is actually compressed gas – not compressed air.

www.minti.com/parenting-advice/3819/Stolen-Store-Cards/

by LaRenae

There is an element of truth to this email, however it only applies to cards that you can use for online or over the phone purchases.  See Snopes.

 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/1622/The-Price-of-Children/

by Tammy13

As it states, it is an email, the monetary figures are debatable, and it really belongs in a blog, not advice, even though it is nice - it is not original .

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/5281/Memo-to-Mums--Dads/

by Gypsie

Nice sentiment, not parenting advice though.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/5612/The-Price-of-Children/

R: by Kellzacar

As it states, it is an email, the monetary figures are debatable, and it really belongs in a blog, not advice - even though it is nice,  it is not original and it has already been posted by tammy13 in September 2006.
This email was voted not in breach, but has since been deleted by the member.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6746/WHY-WE-SHOULD-HAVE-A-GLASS-OF-WARM-WATER-WITH-DINNER/

R: by tassiebiarch

Snopes have this listed as false; urbanlegendsabout.com list it as false; hoaxslayer list it as false as well.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/7758/SWEET-POISON-A-MUST-READ-this-could-be-making-your-children-sick/

by robynyum

Snopes list it as false; hoaxbusters list it as false; There are a few other sites that list this as a hoax, and if you look up more scientific sites, they will explain more about the levels of aspartame used in sweeteners and what is approved in different countries. 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6073/Signs-of-a-stroke/

D: by natelz1

Another email that does the rounds… Apparently the advice is true – though the story is somewhat embellished.

Emails (not cited as emails)

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/8296/Strokes--Do-you-know-what-to-do-or-look-out-for/

R: by kellzacar

The first half of this advice is from personal experience, however the 2nd part is basically cut and paste from an email (see Signs of Stroke, listed below in the email section).  The information within the email part is factual - however the source is not cited.  The email in question was posted in May 2007 by natelz01.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/7552/ICE-Campaign-In-Case-of-Emergency/

by Kellzacar

The first 1/3 is the authors personal forenote, the remaining 2/3s are basically cut and paste directly from an email.  This email contains factual information, as the ICE campaign was started in the UK in 2005, and many versions have circulated since around the net and in blogs etc.  It is not credited as an email, and it is not original advice.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/7031/A-Once-In-A-Lifetime-Opportunity------/

R: by Kellzacar

This email is a hoax as pointed out by other minti members, and an admin member also commented that it should be in a blog... It is not cited as an email (which it is), and is not  original advice.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/5236/Email-Safety-Advice-SO-VERY-VERY-IMPORTANT/

R: by Kellzacar

With the exception of the introduction, about 80% of this advice is actually a direct copy and paste from an email that circulates, and is also posted in various blogs on the internet.  While it is good advice, it is not original advice.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6591/Australian-Police-MUST-READ-a-must-for-all-parents/

by Kellzacar

While the information about the alternative emergency number 112 is correct in Australia - it is not some big secret as advised.  The rest of the story is an urban myth that originated in the USA.  There are various versions of it that have been making the rounds for a couple of years.  This has been pointed out by 3 other Minti members also, and is listed on hoaxslayer, snopes and family.com.au.  It is not original advice and the source is not cited.

Poems

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6732/Poem-Shadows-of-Loss/

by LisaPetrarca

This is touching and original, it is a good bye to her little brother… It doesn’t contain advice, however it could help other people who are grieving - blackwidowkate recommended putting it on the Minti Memorial Wall (group), a good idea.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6738/Parenthood/

by Kellzacar

An original poem, very nice, but not really advisory in anyway... Should be in a personal blog, or the poems group.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6161/MUMS-THE-WORD/

R: by jd2

This poem is on Jo’s mug – the author is unknown.  It is nice, but it doesn’t contain any advice and isn’t original, even though it is nice.

 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/7205/Babys-Words-another-poem-/

R: by belinda03

This poem is by Frank Greg – you can email it to friends, however if you wish to use the poem on your web page you are meant to contact the author – he would probably want to be given credit for his work too.  I think this advice posting breaches copyright.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/6171/A-freindship-poem-for-minti-friends/

R: by anonymous

Original posting was from jd2; she wanted everything deleted, however this didn't get voted off?  This is the link to the site of poems by Jean Kyler McManus - I think this advice posting breaches copyright.

 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/7178/For-All-Mothers-/

by belinda03

This poem has been passed around by email for a few years and is now appearing on plenty of other blogs and websites online.  It isn’t original and it isn’t advice – not sure who the author is.

 

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/2648/A-woman-should-know/

by mrsbrown4701

This poem has been passed around by email for a few years and is now appearing on plenty of other blogs and websites online – the uncredited author is Maya Angelou.

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/4362/A-must-read-for-ever-parent/

R: by skylee

This poem was written by Samantha Reynolds in 2000. At the time her daughter was 7years old and neither she nor her daughter had ever used crystal meth which is the original version of the poem (not tick).  It could be construed as advice, however it is just another one of those email poems that go around and is obviously not original.

Do you think that it is harsh, or that it is ok to do now and then?  Well think of it this way, would you like it if it was YOUR intellectual property being posted without your permission, and someone else took credit for YOUR work?  How would you feel?  What would you think of that person? 

Do you think that it is targeting people to single out their advice postings?  No it doesn't, it is about the advice articles, not the authors.  There are advice postings and blogs all over this site in regard to copyright, plagiarism and citing your sources - ignorance is not an excuse.

At the moment, there are still a lot of advice posts that should clearly be in Q&A, and some that should clearly be in either a personal, or group blog.  Personal opinions and experiences are a part of providing advice - for of course you agree with and understand your own advice.  Merely venting or providing your personal opinion without providing a solution or course of action that is helpful isn't advice.  I feel these postings detract from the genuinely helpful and original advice articles that have been posted.  As a collective group of advice, it brings down the total value of information produced by site members. 

Some advice about particularly traumatic experiences and how the writer dealt with them are advice - for those experiences help other people who may be in the same situation, but are afraid to speak out, or seek help.  It also helps the rest of us to have empathy for people in those situations and perhaps to recognise the signs that someone may need assistance.

People shouldn't have to sift through to find the real advice when they click on 'read advice' they would already have done that on a web based search.  When someone looks for advice on Minti, they should know that they are getting advice that is going to be of assistance to them.  Be it parenting advice or information about the site itself and online communities that will help them to get the most out of their experience on Minti.

Minti's profile is growing daily, and increasingly, when you google a parenting concern, it is Minti advice that features highly on the first search page.  It is because of this that I think we need to raise the standard and tidy up the advice section, so that we can be taken seriously.  Even if people choose not to join Minti, they should feel that if they need good advice, or want to recommend an advice site to someone else, that Minti has good quality, down to earth, original, positive, helpful advice.  It should be easy to read, presented in a format that is easy on the eye, and we should take note of the little red line that appears under incorrectly spelt words, and try to get that right too - whenever possible, we all make typos - however they can be edited later.

All the articles in the Advice section are a reflection of the people who make Minti tick - us, the members.  The same can be said for all the comments that belong to that advice - so we need to try not to resort to swearing, or personal attacks.  ANYONE can read the advice section and vote on the advice - let's hope that it is advice that shows Minti in a good light.  We owe it to each other and certainly to the team that created Minti to keep this in mind at all times.

The votes don't necessarily reflect this either, as there are sympathy votes for all sorts of stories and poems that are very touching and great to read, yet they aren't original, and should be in blogs.  Many people when advised that their question should be in Q&A are just leaving it in advice - then to top it off, they get sympathy votes, so that question gets a high ranking as advice - and keeps popping up when you do a search on that topic.  We need to keep that in mind when voting - it does affect the listings when people search for advice.  Let's all work to maintain the integrity of Minti Advice and keep using our emails, lounges, personal blogs and group blogs for our general personal opinions, poems and emails.

I don't like reporting questions that are in advice, or things that don't look original etc.  However if people keep insisting, can we devise some sort of generic, friendly, explanatory email that gets sent to them giving them say 48hrs to re-post it in the appropriate forum?  If they don't take that option, they could be sent another one to say that it has now been re-posted in Q&A if appropriate, and since we can't post it to their blog, we could start another group to store what someone wrote and they can choose to repost it somewhere else if they choose?

I am going to email this to Angie and Clay anyway, as I really think it is something that needs attention.  I myself tried to do a soft sell on this by writing about how fun it is to write advice, then linking to all the other great articles on writing advice, however I don't think that is enough on it's own.  Perhaps we should change the write advice page and make put this, ' Click here if you already know how to write a parenting advice article for Minti.' At the bottom of the page, and the note about Q & A at the top? 

Has anyone else had any thoughts along these lines, or does anyone have any suggestions about how this can be approached without upsetting anyone? 

Structure, part 1 - Sentences.

There are 4 things that are needed in order to create a line of words that can be called a sentence.

The first thing is a capital letter for the first word.  This is used as a visual cue to allow the reader to see where the sentence starts.  The second thing is a full stop, also called a period, at the end.  This is a visual cue to allow the reader to see where the sentence finishes.  Without these two things, each sentence would run into each other and we wouldn't be able to tell them apart.  I have copied and pasted a paragraph from an advice I wrote here to give as an example.  I took out the full stops and capital letters.  Have a look and see how it just doesn't look right and can tricky to read:

if you have some money to spare, get a very cheap and simple camera one from a 2nd hand store for two to five dollars is perfect so long as it works show your very young child how to press the picture button, and if it has manual film advance, how to wind on the film don't show them how to use any other buttons and tell them they are not to touch any other buttons that they might break it if they do is a good workable excuse if they want an explaination don't take any particularly valuable photos in doing this and be prepared for the camera and film to accidently end up destroyed - hence why you don't use a good one don't let the child know that there is film inside, don't let them know that the camera can be opened, and very carefully tape-up any buttons that might allow access to the inside of the camera

We need to be able to tell once sentence apart from another because each sentence seperates the minor topics in a paragraph. It allows our brain to absorb one piece of information in the paragraph before we have to be confronted by the next.  This is where the other two things that are needed in a sentence become important.  One of these things is the subject.  Every sentence has a subject, that is, what you are writing about.  Sometimes the subject can seem a bit vague, but you will always find it is in there somewhere.  The other one is the predicate.  This tells you something about the subject.  It might tell you what it looks like, what it is doing, where it came from, or why it is.  It doesn't matter so much if the subject is first in the sentence or the predicate is first, so long as both are together; and separated from the subject and predicate of the next sentence.

For example:  The cat sat on the mat.  The cat is the subject.  The fact that it sat is the predicate.  That it was a mat it was sitting on, well, my memory on this isn't perfect, but to my knowledge it is part of the predicate, because we are talking about the cat and what the cat is doing.  The fact that it sat on a mat instead of a pillow is not so important.

The shortest sentence we can come up with is simply two words.  For example:  I am.  I is the subject = me, myself.  Am denotes a state of existance, which indicates what the subjects does, thus it is the predicate.  If we were to write 'I am' from the opinion of someone else, we could write 'she exists'.  She is the subject, and exists tells us something about the subject, so exists is the predicate.  Of course, most sentences are much longer than these ones, but it gives you an idea how vague a subject and predicate in a sentence may seem, yet how obvious it is once pointed out.

I have copied and pasted another paragraph, from the same advice I took the other paragraph example I used, here and then highlighted the subjects in each sentence in bold and put the predicates in italics so you can see what I mean:

Check at the end of each night to see if they have used up all the film in the camera.  Once the film is used up, take it out and process it.  You may end up with absolutely nothing, you might end up with something wonderfully amusing or interesting.  My boy at the age of two took photos of the dog's food bowl, the ceiling, the window lock, three views out one window - one of which captured someone walking past, and five he took of himself.

If I took out all the words in bold, you would have no idea what i was talking about.  The same goes if I took out all the words in italics.  Try reading only the bolded words, or only the italic words, and you'll see what I mean.

We can combine two or more sentences using appropriate punctuation, as such, we may end up with two subjects and two predicates in one sentence, but that's a bit more complicated than I care to go into here, as it requires knowing the punctuation that can be used and where and when to use it.

Using a capital letter at the start of a sentence, a full stop at the end, and having each sentence contain a subject and a predicate, allows the reader to follow and absorb each little block of information in an easy to read manner.  This allows the information to, like blocks, build up and be understood, so the reader can see the full picture.  Without it, the reader might be too focused on the little details, and end up with a 'can't see the forest for the trees' problem.

Most of us can write a sentence without any problem.  The most common mistake is simply not using capital letters and full stops, as we tend to naturally give out information when we talk, in the same way that we would absorb it.  As we tend to write the same as we speak, the predicate and subject tend to naturally fall into place.  Capital letters at the start and full stops at the end tend to be the biggest problem.  Not using them it makes it look like we are running too many sentences into one huge one, so that each sentence has half a dozen subjects and predicates that are all different, and that can get very confusing to read.

Just like the information I gave in the last blog here, writing each sentence correctly - or close to it - may seem trivial, but it can make a big difference.

Grammar, part 1.

Nouns: These are words that give the names of things.

• Common nouns are the names of common objects, and they start with lower case letters.  Examples:  cat, pipe, computer, road, person, city, or block.
• Proper nouns are the names of specific things such as people and places.  Proper nouns always start with a capital letter.  Examples: Wendy, Minti, New York, Pacific Ocean, Sesame Street, or Neptune.
• Collective nouns are the names of a group of things.  Like common nouns, common collective nouns start with lower case letters.  Examples of common collective nouns: flock (of sheep), mob (of kangaroos), pile (of pebbles), collection (of cd's), library (of books), school (of fish), group (of people), assembly (of people), band (of musicians).  Proper collective nouns, like proper nouns, use capital letters and are the names of a very specific groups of something.  Examples of proper collective nouns:  Government, Council, Administration, Minti Groups.

If we were to be talking about a dog, then we would be using dog as a common noun.  If we were talking about your pet dog named Fido, then dog is a common noun, and Fido is a proper noun.  If we were talking about governments of the world, governments is a common collective noun.  If we were talking about the Australian Government, Government is a proper collective noun.

If this helps you understand nothing more than when to use a capital letter, you have learned something valuable, because sometimes a mix up can be caused if you use a capital - or don't use one - in the wrong place.  For example: You have two cats, one named Fluffy and one named Kitty, and you write the sentence, "My little fluffy kitty cat drank my coffee." you could be talking about either of your cats.  If you wrote, "My little fluffy Kitty cat drank my coffee." you are refering specifically to your cat named Kitty.  If you wrote, "My little Fluffy kitty cat drank my coffee." you are refering to your cat named Fluffy.

Little things like this can save a lot of problems with regards to making yourself properly understood when writing.  It may seem trivial, but the English language is full of such little quirks.  When you get 30 trivial little things like this and put them together, you have a significant difference between making yourself understood and confusing everyone.

For those of you that are looking for something to write, I'd love to see some more light-hearted advice on Minti, even some that are very comical and funny to read but still encompasses seriously important advice.  I'd do some myself but now that school has started, I doubt I'll have much time to write advice for a while, and when I do it'll be probably relate to things I'm studying (dong child studies) so may be quite serious.

Some potential ideas: 

Something about dealing with the embarassing situations kids get you into, things they say and do, etc; but write it in a way that we can all laugh at.

Explaining the birds and the bees to a child written in a very light-hearted and easy-to-read humourous manner.

Helping a child overcoming difficulty and the frustrations involved, again, in a lighter perspective.

Just hoping to inspire someone and would love to read some advice that will make everyone laugh.  It's hard to keep a sense of humour as a busy parent, but surely someone can succeed in doing it.

Rachel just updated the Minti editorial guidelines here.

Does anyone else use the related advice links when reading something they are researching?
Alternatively, do people add the links in this section as routine? 

I have just been doing links to mine this evening, but was just wondering if they are used by others etc.  It has been great doing these links and browsing so many more articles than I had so far seen.
Peace
EF.x 

Am I the only one that has a problem with people writing sad stories in the advice section. It seems lately that sad stories score well in the voting for advice. You just have to tag on one or two vague lines of advice at the end and you receive votes of 4 or 5. I mean hey when someone has just shared a story about a loss or tragic experience what hard hearted person is going to vote neutral or lower.

While personal experience is a good thing to use to back up advice, I feel that sharing personal stories is better done in a blog unless you have some specific advice to give as a result of it.

While I have written a little about my miscarriage in my blog or in comments on the site to me it just seems wrong to use the story of how and why it happened to try to score a few votes. What do other members think?

What an honour!

I havent been on Minti that long - but the time that I spend here is always a pleasure!

I definately agree with doing a spell check before posting anything - the odd mistake is of course ok! but I was reading an article that somebody wrote - and it was very difficult to properly understand. So two big thumbs up from me for SPELL CHECKING!

Again ... thanks for inviting me to this group! Ive been busy of late - which explains my late reply to the initial invitation - my most sincerest apologies for my tardiness!

Have a great night Minti pals!

xx

Sandi!