Re: ADMIN: Posting Rules Reminder

[Bob Gembey <bob -at- SUPERNOVA -dot- NL>]

Is the TW list a democratic organization, or is the listserver
administrator an absolute monarch?  If it is a democracy, perhaps, then,
the Posting Rules, like any constitution, should be subject to amendment if
the majority of members agree to.  Now, I have only recently joined the
list, but in the time that I've been here, I've seen quite a lot of
correspondence on "niggardly", as well as the administrator's persistent
requests to drop the issue.  While I personally am not interested in the
streams about "niggardly", it has been my experience that Tech Writers, who
often tend to be lovers of language, do enjoy talking about language and
language usage.

Following parliamentary procedure, I therefore move that we should open a
debate and then vote on whether to amend the rules to allow such
discussions.

Assuming that someone seconds the motion, I'd like to open the floor of the
debate with my personal opinion.

I am against amending the rules.  While I enjoy a good etymological
discussion as much as the next tech writer, I look to this list for
discussions pertinent to my profession, not my hobby.  There probably is a
good list out there for such discussions (see
http://www.knowledge.co.uk/xxx/mpcdir/listserv.htm, for example,
http://www.mit.edu/afs/athena/dept/ling-phil/lex/OldFiles/langlists or
http://www.indigo.ie/egt/langlist.txt, for lists of listservers on various
languages).  You might also want to look at news://alt.usage.english - a
Newsgroup for an ongoing discussion on language issues.  In short, anyone
who just takes the trouble to go to Altavista's "advanced search" and type
in "Etymology AND English", for example, can find pages and pages to
interest him.

So, my vote is against changing the rules.  If the majority agrees, let's
all abide by it.  If the majority disagree, then the Administrator will
have one less rule to enforce.

As I said yesterday, take all political correctness and
pure linguistics discussions offline.

This list is for technical communication issues only.

Folks, think about it. What possible purpose is served
by arguing the uses of niggardly etc. in technical
communication? If it's the right word for the audience,
use it. If not, don't. If you're not sure, don't. What's
the problem?

Thanks!
Eric


POSTING RULES FOR TECHWR-L
     Revised 31 July 1998


     WHAT NOT TO POST
>>     * If it relates to _language use_ but not technical
       communication, it probably isn't appropriate.
       Don't post it.


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