Writing English.

[Rolf Turner]

On 11/23/13 10:17, inode0 wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Rolf Turner <r.turner at auckland.ac.nz> 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.
Psigh!

     cheers,

     Rolf Turner