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Subject:FW: Is "WebTop" a real word? From:Aoidìn Scully <ascully -at- FLEXICOM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 13 Aug 1999 16:51:58 +0100
Yes!! Stamp out unnecessary and ugly new words!! The campaign starts
here!
I propose the first against the wall: 'transitioning'...it's not a word,
people...don't try to pretend it is!!
Aoidin
Sorry, Friday madness...
-----Original Message-----
From: jane [mailto:judydh -at- TOTAL -dot- NET]
Sent: Friday, August 13, 1999 3:44 PM
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: Is "WebTop" a real word?
>> >Is this a valid word, and if so - should it be one or two words? Is
there
>> >another word that would be better?
Uh, two words, and yes, there must be something better.
Now I wish I responded sooner. Nothing makes me foam at the mouth like
new-speak. It is NOT the natural progression of language. It should NOT
become the industry norm.
Although it can be inconvenient to trademark commonly-used terms like
Kleenex and Velcro, it is less insidious than letting a corporate term
become the default for an uneducated or unwitting public. Corporate
colonialism is what that phenomenum is called...
>> It's as valid as any other industry jargon: the more widespread its use,
>> the more valid it becomes.
And this is a trend that we have the power to STOP. WebTop is an ugly,
ugly, ugly word. It is not industry jargon. Here is an example of
software
industry jargon; you should be able to see the difference:
A "Make-new" was performed, consequently the mainline overnights
will
remove
their distribution before starting the build.
While we can't control the drool that some CEOs and marketing
departments
fire off in the private corporate e-mail system and at public
conferences in
an attempt to 'get people happy!' (remember the Sun/Nortel term
"Webtone"?)
about whatever technology they're supposedly developing, we can cut the
jargons, marketing new-speak and other CRAP out of our meaningful text.
This
is especially important since they read our docs when they've already
bought
the product.