Chill out, Stan. I was what is known in Ireland as 'taking the piss', a bit of ironic mockery. (Oh God, you are not one of these boring people who don't 'do' irony and are to a sense of humour what George W. Bush is to linguistic dexterity?)
The point I was making is that it is American arrogance in the extreme to think - ' we use the word 'movie' therefore wikipedia must use the word 'movie' and any references to the word film we will replace with the 'right' (ie American) word'. Some people use movie, some use film, as with British English versus American English, leave it in whatever language the original author used. Some time ago, a European wikian wrote about a film made in Europe that because of legal problems never got a release in the US. It never have been released there, but still someone tried to call it a (movie) not a (film) until a group of bored Europeans, inspired by GWB, decided to wage their own war for the liberation of the word 'film', collectively telling the annoying renamer to shag off and Americanise something else. And he reacted to their defence of a non-US title the way George W. reacts to anything french these days. He hit the roof with a stream of 'how bloody dare you . . . ' type responses.
Put bluntly, Stan, this is wikipedia, not americopedia. If you want respect from non-Americans, show their language and spellings some respect. And get a sense of humour.
JT.
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At 09:13 AM 5/4/03 +0100, JT wrote:
Chill out, Stan. I was what is known in Ireland as 'taking the piss', a bit of ironic mockery. (Oh God, you are not one of these boring people who don't 'do' irony and are to a sense of humour what George W. Bush is to linguistic dexterity?)
Taking the piss means you were being rude to him, and now think you're allowed to be rude because he didn't think it was funny. No. Taking the piss, like many forms of humor, only works if all involved agree. The phrase you're looking for is "I'm sorry, Stan, I didn't mean to offend you."
james duffy wrote:
Chill out, Stan. I was what is known in Ireland as 'taking the piss', a bit of ironic mockery. (Oh God, you are not one of these boring people who don't 'do' irony and are to a sense of humour what George W. Bush is to linguistic dexterity?)
George III's linguistic dexterity may be seen as the product of a bisinistrally forked tongue.
Ec
You don't see the irony of saying that because Americans use the word, we aren't allowed to us it on Wikipedia? That because it's an Americanims, it's de facto wrong? Sounds like anti-American arrogance, to me. This is really, really, really, getting old. Fine, you don't want Americopedia. What about anti-Americopedia? Why don't you go off to your little corner of Europe and start your own?
Zoe
--- james duffy jtdirl@hotmail.com wrote:
Chill out, Stan. I was what is known in Ireland as 'taking the piss', a bit of ironic mockery. (Oh God, you are not one of these boring people who don't 'do' irony and are to a sense of humour what George W. Bush is to linguistic dexterity?)
The point I was making is that it is American arrogance in the extreme to think - ' we use the word 'movie' therefore wikipedia must use the word 'movie' and any references to the word film we will replace with the 'right' (ie American) word'. Some people use movie, some use film, as with British English versus American English, leave it in whatever language the original author used. Some time ago, a European wikian wrote about a film made in Europe that because of legal problems never got a release in the US. It never have been released there, but still someone tried to call it a (movie) not a (film) until a group of bored Europeans, inspired by GWB, decided to wage their own war for the liberation of the word 'film', collectively telling the annoying renamer to shag off and Americanise something else. And he reacted to their defence of a non-US title the way George W. reacts to anything french these days. He hit the roof with a stream of 'how bloody dare you . . . ' type responses.
Put bluntly, Stan, this is wikipedia, not americopedia. If you want respect from non-Americans, show their language and spellings some respect. And get a sense of humour.
JT.
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Zoe wrote:
You don't see the irony of saying that because Americans use the word, we aren't allowed to us it on Wikipedia? That because it's an Americanims, it's de facto wrong? Sounds like anti-American arrogance, to me. This is really, really, really, getting old. Fine, you don't want Americopedia. What about anti-Americopedia? Why don't you go off to your little corner of Europe and start your own?
Zoe,
Please don't act this way, it isn't helpful.
Everyone please remember -- we're all individuals working together out of a love for the project. Don't make the mistake of letting our personal interactions track world sentiment. This means...
If you're mad at George Bush, don't take it out on Americans. If you're mad at Jacques Chirac, don't take it out on the French.
The fact that world tensions are high between some American and some European politicians really has very close to zero relevance to our lives here on Wikipedia.
Assume the best of others, so that they may assume the best of you.
--Jimbo
On Sun, May 04, 2003 at 05:57:26PM -0700, Zoe wrote:
You don't see the irony of saying that because Americans use the word, we aren't allowed to us it on Wikipedia? That because it's an Americanims, it's de facto wrong? Sounds like anti-American arrogance, to me. This is really, really, really, getting old. Fine, you don't want Americopedia. What about anti-Americopedia? Why don't you go off to your little corner of Europe and start your own?
I think you must have replied to the wrong message or something, since the one you did reply to bears no relationship with what you say here. It doesn't say that "because it's an Americanims, it's de facto wrong", it says "leave it in whatever language the original author used". That may or may not be a good idea, but it's certainly not "anti-american" in any way, shape or form.
PS, can you not reply at the *bottom* of quoted bits? And snip irrelevant bits on your way down? It'd make things much more pleasant to read.
james duffy wrote:
The point I was making is that it is American arrogance in the extreme to think - ' we use the word 'movie' therefore wikipedia must use the word 'movie' and any references to the word film we will replace with the 'right' (ie American) word'.
If anyone actually held that opinion, it would indeed be American arrogance in the extreme. But I don't see any evidence that anyone here has said or implied anything of the sort.
I'm actually personally leaning towards 'film', but I don't see any reason to think that 'movie' is a horrible choice that insults the world.
Let's cut each other some slack. :-)
--Jimbo
james duffy wrote:
Chill out, Stan. I was what is known in Ireland as 'taking the piss', a bit of ironic mockery. (Oh God, you are not one of these boring people who don't 'do' irony and are to a sense of humour what George W. Bush is to linguistic dexterity?)
On the contrary, if you look at my work, you'll see there are quite a few jokes in my comments. I've even put a couple jokes in wikipedia itself, but they're so subtle it will probably be years before anybody finds them. And indeed I'm familiar with 'taking the piss', but when the Irish I know do it, they put a big grin on their faces at some point, and unless you're a net newbie, you should know that if you're not intending to be taken seriously, you need to add the smiley face. I've been on the net for 21 years now, and I have *never* seen any writer so deft that he/she could be ironic without using a smiley face and not have it be misinterpreted.
In addition, you have a habit of arguing passionately and at length about issues so picayune that I find myself thinking "he's got to be kidding" and looking for a smiley face somewhere in the comment, but no, you're apparently completely serious. So my conclusion is that when you sound rude and arrogant, you really mean to be heard that way, and that you're not sufficiently aware of other cultures to realize that what might be OK to say over a pint in the pub sounds a lot different to someone on the other side of the planet reading it on a Monday morning.
The point I was making is that it is American arrogance in the extreme to think - ' we use the word 'movie' therefore wikipedia must use the word 'movie' and any references to the word film we will replace with the 'right' (ie American) word'. Some people use movie, some use film, as with British English versus American English, leave it in whatever language the original author used. Some time ago, a European wikian wrote about a film made in Europe that because of legal problems never got a release in the US. It never have been released there, but still someone tried to call it a (movie) not a (film) until a group of bored Europeans, inspired by GWB, decided to wage their own war for the liberation of the word 'film', collectively telling the annoying renamer to shag off and Americanise something else. And he reacted to their defence of a non-US title the way George W. reacts to anything french these days. He hit the roof with a stream of 'how bloody dare you . . . ' type responses.
I have no idea who this person is that you're talking about. Criticize my statements straight-on, don't try to tarnish my reputation with somebody else's misbehavior.
Put bluntly, Stan, this is wikipedia, not americopedia. If you want respect from non-Americans, show their language and spellings some respect. And get a sense of humour.
Well, that's sure breathtakingly arrogant on your part. Calling you on chronic rudeness, and the excuses you make for it, is hardly the same as disrespecting non-American language and spellings.
Stan