On 11/23/13 10:17, inode0 wrote:
On Fri, Nov 22, 2013 at 2:54 PM, Rolf Turner
<r.turner(a)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