[Wikipedia-l] Re: Re: Wikipedia English English

[Rowan Collins]

On 23/09/05, Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
> 1) I don't call people I disagree with barking mad, unless they really
> are barking mad.

I didn't say you "always" or "often" did it. I merely pointed out that
it seemed rather hypocritical to complain that somebody was emotional
enough to [presumably deliberately] use all caps in an e-mail, when
you yourself had just got emotional (and personal) enough to accuse
that person of being "barking mad".

> 2) Yes, but how many of them? I never said with absolute certainty
> that all of those were BS examples, only that much of the list was BS.

No, but you did confidently state that "The vast majority of those
aren't even real differences", followed by a set of examples, which
were, presumably, among those which you thought were in fact "BS" -
otherwise what are they examples of? That many of the examples you
picked were then confirmed as differences by other users considerably
weakens your position, does it not?

> None of the examples which I made it clear I was fairly certain were
> universal were objected to

So, the lists linked to weren't 100% brilliant. Perhaps a comment that
"I'm not sure all those examples are accurate" would have been a
better comment? And remember, nobody on this list [as far as we know]
actually *wrote* either of those lists, they just pointed them out as
a convenient example.

> even many of the ones which were
> objected to proved a point, for example "autumn" vs "fall": there's
> one variant that's understood in both places, and another that is only
> understood in one. Which one should be chosen?

That's not proof that there's no difference (which you were, to put it
charitably, strongly implying); it's proof that there is a difference
for which a compromise solution exists. An interesting point, but not
one which warrants labelling anyone "barking mad".

To respond to the implied suggestion that we always use "autumn", I'd
guess it would more of a reader-oriented policy than a writer-oriented
one. In my experience, US writers tend to more commonly and naturally
use "fall", so even if they'd understand "autumn" easily enough, it
might require conscious thought (or correction by other users) to
always *write* it. Not that that's a fatal flaw, just a thought for
discussion.


[I'm not sure arguing about definitions of "troll" gets us anywhere,
so I shall pass over that part of the discussion]
--
Rowan Collins BSc
[IMSoP]