writing conventions

User:xalbo: Some conventions used when talking about Lojban in English, for instance on IRC or in mailing lists. At least, these are the ones that I usually use.

• {…} is used to quote Lojban text. Alternatively Lojban text is written in bold.
• *{…} is used for incorrect Lojban text.
• ?{…} is used for questionable text (either a subject of debate, or to quote without asserting correctness, for instance, asking a student what, if anything, the text would mean).
• !{…} is used for text that parses, but has a surprising or wrong meaning (one not intended).
• […] is used to indicate words (usually terminators or {cu}) that can be included or omitted without changing the parse.
• -…- is used for quoting rafsi, like -mib-, the rafsi for {mi}
• "…" is used for quoting English. The *, ?, and ! modifiers can be applied if needed.
• ⟨…⟩ is used for quoting sequences of characters. "No, you couldn't use ⟨la⟩ in a cmevla pre-Dot Side."
• † is used to qualify a statement, to mean "This isn't actually true, but it's close enough for the current purposes." "cmevla can only† be used as names, but not all names are cmevla."
• ‡ is used for "I don't know whether this is actually precisely true or not, but it's close enough for now." "You use ZOI, then any‡ Lojban word as a delimiter…" (Really? What about {bu}? What about {si}? What about {fa'o}?)