Creative Commons licensed secret society for promoting girls' literacy

AD sez, "Girls Guild is an ancient secret society complete with a mythological back-story set in Atlantis, secret code and handshake, nemesis, and (perhaps) soon-to-be-ubiquitous symbol -- but with a twist: all of the secrets, iconography and legends are available for retooling, embellishment and propagation under a Creative Commons license."

This looks like fun, notwithstanding that Girls Guild appears to be so ancient as to have predated the apostrophe.

Introducing Girls Guild (Thanks, A. D. Ammann!)

[#1 posted by Anonymous, July 9, 2009 5:46 AM]

Clearly it's a Guild of Girls, therefore being a Girls Guild, and not a Guild belonging to Girls, which would be a Girl's Guild.

[#2 posted by Halloween Jack, July 9, 2009 7:05 AM]

Why is an apostrophe necessary? It's not the possession of a single girl.

[#3 posted by MrJM, July 9, 2009 7:14 AM]

Nor is it necessarily in possession of any girls. It is of girls not owned by girls, i.e. it is a descriptor, cf. "dude ranch".

-- MrJM

[#4 posted by Anonymous, July 9, 2009 7:30 AM]

Yeah... it is a version of "Guild of Girls" not "Guild owned by Girls." See "Directors Guild" of "Service Employees International Union" or... or...

[#5 posted by Jenn, July 9, 2009 7:31 AM]

Maybe I'm not looking in the right place, but it looks like the actual content of the site is copyrighted traditionally, but they're using Creative Commons images from flickr: http://girlsguild.org/?page_id=389

[#6 posted by adammann33, July 9, 2009 8:59 AM]

Hey Jenn,

Thanks for the catch -- that copyright stuff is boilerplate that wordpress sticks in automatically and I didn't notice it . . . I've fixed it.

And to the rest -- thanks for defending my lack of an apostrophe!

[#7 posted by Anonymous, July 9, 2009 9:19 AM]

1. Maid ————————– 0 to 10 Award Card Points
2. Baroness ——————— 10 to 15 Award Card Points
3. Grand Baroness ————- 16 to 20 Award Card Points
4. Countess ——————— 21 to 25 Award Card Points
5. Grand Countess ————- 26 to 30 Award Card points
6. Duchess ———————- 31 to 35 Award Card Points
7. Grand Duchess ————– 36 to 40 Award Card Points
6. Princess ———————- 41 to 50 Award Card Points
7. Queen ————————- 51 to 60 Award Card Points
8. Empress ———————- Over 60 Award Card Points

I get that they are trying to get girls excited about reading and building solidarity with each other - but why then model the "merit" system after ancient hierarchy? I sort of wish the creation myth was rooted in the princess learning to read - discovering the vast armies of slaves in the caves below atlantis mining for gold and emeralds to decorate the homes of those above. She slips away into their ranks and organizes a rebellion by teaching them to read - however once fully aware of their situation they decide the best course of action is to sink the whole civilization which they promptly do by digging deep enough to collapse the whole island - killing themselves in the process. the end.

[#8 posted by TroofSeeker, July 9, 2009 10:59 AM]

Gee, Cory, way to throw their secret handshake into public domain!

[#9 posted by Deidzoeb, July 9, 2009 11:19 AM]

Would Scientology grow more quickly or fall apart if they made all their proprietary info public domain instead of copyrighted?

[#10 posted by Anonymous, July 10, 2009 12:20 AM]

A guild of girls is, in fact, a Girls' Guild.

[#11 posted by Anonymous, July 10, 2009 4:27 AM]

I like the idea, but the website is pretty offputting. Marquee tag, in 2009? Yellow text on a green background?

[#12 posted by Anonymous, July 10, 2009 4:35 AM]

"so ancient as to have predated the apostrophe"

That would be, what, 1982? When did Blakes Seven stop? (Best SF series ever!)