Re: Writing English.

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On Sat, Nov 23, 2013 at 10:29:19AM +1300, Rolf Turner wrote:
> On 11/23/13 10:17, inode0 wrote:
> >On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Rolf Turner <r.turner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>Just read some stuff on this list about "spins", a concept which had
> >>not previously impinged itself upon my consciousness.  So I went and
> >>had a look at the spins.fedoraproject.org page. It started off by saying
> >>"What is a spin? Fedora spins are alternate version of Fedora, tailored
> >>...".
> >>
> >>For God's sake, people!!!  That's "alternative versions"!!! Alternate
> >>means "every other" or "every second".  Alternative means "available as
> >>another possibility".  Saying "alternate" when you mean "alternative" is
> >>sloppy, lazy thinking and irritates and confuses the reader.
> >>
> >>Why can't computer geeks learn to write English correctly?
> >In American usage this is acceptable and common.
>     But wrong nevertheless.  It conflates two quite distinct ideas, blurs
>     the meaning and diminishes the language.
> >But if it bothers you
> >that much why didn't you just correct it on the wiki in a fraction of
> >the time it took you to rant about it here?
> 
> Why so hostile?  Why "rant"?  The page that I looked at
> (spins.fedoraproject.org)
> did not appear to be a Wiki nor to be editable by the user in any way.
> Anyway, my mission is to enlighten people. If I'd just corrected it,
> no-one would've noticed.

Another English major heard from.

I assume you're aware that languages evolve over time in accordance with
common usage.

-- 
Bob Holtzman
Your mail is being read by tight lipped 
NSA agents who fail to see humor in Doctor 
Strangelove 
Key ID 8D549279

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