Wordorigins.org Discussion Forums

Politeness

2008-04-19T18:06:27-08:00

This is a difficult medium to carry on conversations with any kind of sarcasm. “Nonsense is a kind word...” [in the plant names thread] is difficult to read without having access to facial expressions and body language. I’m sure that this point was not offered with venom, but how do we know that?

I find that I post less and less these days and when I do my posts are always loaded with cautionary language like, “I offer this link without vouching for its accuracy in tone or facticity.” I also re-read my notes endlessly to find possible points of entry for those who would find fault.

I also have a sense that there are too many folks too ready to tear apart an offering, but don’t themselves actually start threads here. And yet, starting threads is the life-blood of this discussion. There are a number of folks who ask questions here that could easily be answered by a quick search using the simplest of tools. But the questions themselves usually lead to a spin that only this discussion can bring to the table.

I would recommend that we be more careful in our dissection of the opening posts whether by old-timers or newcomers.

I think that Dr. T has the right approach, again in the plant-name thread, by begging pardon before offering criticism. It seems like such a social excess, I suppose (we should all be big people), but such a courtesy guards against taking things the wrong way which is always a danger in on-line conversations as has been pointed out in various web venues for the last decade or more, maybe even from the very infancy of the internet itself.

Curious about the “characters” box below the compose a message box.

2008-03-27T10:57:06-08:00

A trivial question. Apparently I am allowed 6000. What happens if I exhaust my ~~aliquot~~ quota .?

Site Temporarily Down

2008-03-28T06:44:22-08:00

The hosting service I use lost a power distribution unit this morning and the site was unavailable for some time. It is (obviously) back up now.

I’m sorry for any inconvenience or frustration you experienced in not getting your wordorigins fix.

EZboard strikes again

2008-03-12T21:11:58-08:00

Something weird (and bad) is going on with the archives at EZboard. Most (though not all) of the links in our discussions here that go back to specific threads on EZboard, as well as most of my bookmarks to various noteworthy threads back there, now redirect to this: http://wordoriginsorg.yuku.com/

Edit: Oh great, not only have they broken our links, if you manage to re-find an old thread, all the unregistered users’ names are gone. They’re all just labeled as “Unregistered(d)” now.

what does "close tags" mean/do?

2008-03-15T14:38:03-08:00

what does “close tags” mean/do?

What I miss from EZ Board

2008-01-31T19:37:48-08:00

Apologies up front, but here are my observations.

First, I miss seeing the new threads in order of updating. In other words, when I’m done reading a message, I remember going to the next un-read thread by a simple click. Now we have to go back up to the top of the thread and select the forum and then the next thread. Now they are arranged by the order in which they were created rather than the order created by the newest message.

Second, When entering a thread, all new messages were highlighted in some way in EZ Board. I forget how it was done, but it was obvious that when we went to a thread in which messages had already been read, the new messages were identified in some way (bolded?). I’ve been off for about 12 hours today and there are a whole lot of new messages in old threads. The problem is that I have to read through old messages and struggle remember which ones I had read before engaging the new ones.

Third I use the RSS feed (not available on EZBoard as far as I know), but it just takes me to the top of each topic I select from the RSS drop down menu in my browser. If the topic has 4 pages, RSS only takes me to the top of the first page. I have to then go to the fourth page and then page down to the newest message.

Anyway, FWIW.

Edited for clarification

Reporting Spam

2008-01-29T04:23:22-08:00

Regarding Dave’s comment in the SCAM thread:

Dave Wilton - 28 January 2008 06:35 AM
And in the future when someone posts something abusive or spam, don’t reply to it. I’ll catch it and delete it. If you want to email me, that’s fine, it may make the deletion happen sooner.

I’d rather you not send me a private message. That just adds a step as I don’t monitor it and all that happens is that I get sent an email saying someone has sent me a private message and then I have to go to the private message mailbox to read it. It saves a step to just send an email.

I reported a case of spam yesterday or the day before using the [ report ] option at the top of the post. Is this the equivalent of the private message or does Dave get it directly?

Ban on Religion & Politics

2007-09-07T13:35:52-08:00

4. No political or religious discussions unless they have to do with political or religious terms and usage. (The occasional side comment is fine, but this is not the place to espouse your political views or to save our souls.)

A recent discussion in the “Valor” thread is prompting me to explain the rationale behind this rule of our discussion forum.

Politics and religion can be very sensitive topics. It’s easy to unintentionally offend someone when discussing these topics. (You may say nothing wrong, but someone may read something into your comments.) As a result, any extended discussion of politics or religion will almost inevitably degenerate into a shouting match. Even though most of those who frequent this site are perfectly capable of engaging in an informed and respectful discussion of sensitive topics, there will always be a few who are not.

Since this forum exists to discuss word origins, in particular, and language, in general, most of the denizens here (presumably) don’t want to have to listen to these degenerate and off-topic arguments.

Further, such discussion attracts the lunatic fringe and that just makes things worse. Trust me, there are people who have automated Google searches set to look for terms like “g*n c*ntrol,” “ab*rtion,” “tr*nsubst*ntiation,” etc. and will swoop in and troll the group when such discussions arise.

So, we avoid these topics.

That said, there is absolutely no reason to avoid discussing political or religious language or terms. Such topics are fair game for this group--just don’t make normative statements about various political or religious opinions or beliefs. We can tolerate some degree of the inevitable misunderstanding when it occurs as the result of an on-topic discussion.

Unable to post comments

2008-01-23T16:54:06-08:00

Every time I try to post a comment in the main board, I get “Error Message: Unable to receive your submission at this time.” Is this true for anyone else? (A test comment in the Test board posted OK.)

I don’t see the connection.

2007-11-16T14:25:44-08:00

I was just at Amazon.com, and as usual they toss up several “recommended” items based on past purchases. Most of these made some sense, based on what I’ve bought from Amazon in the past, but I didn’t see why they were recommending the soundtrack album to Across the Universe; I like the Beatles but I don’t think I’ve ever bought any Beatles music or any soundtrack albums from Amazon. So I clicked the “Why is this recommended for you?” link, and it says

Recommended for You
Across The Universe [Deluxe Edition]
~ Original Soundtrack
Our Price: $13.99
Used & new from $13.93

Because you purchased…
Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends (Hardcover)
by David Wilton (Author), Ivan Brunetti (Illustrator)

Is there something you’re not telling us, Dave?