Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

en.wikipedia.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 735 posts

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#41

Post by arthurcolle »

ggm wrote: post #20
eru wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And even if there was an Académie, what authority would they have? Eg the French have one, but that doesn't mean they have any moral authority.

Moral, no. But they might influence e.g. textbooks and legal drafting. That ordinateur is not ordinary and l'informatique isn't always very Informative. Unless I am mistaken both English words coming in from the French?

l'informatique, as a French person, has always failed to capture my imagination as the same way as Computer Science. I wish Informatics was what the Anglosphere had selected because I think it sounds pretty groovy

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#42

Post by latency-guy2 »

jmyeet wrote: post #17

The psychology of editors and moderators is fascinating. I see them as being cast from the same mold as bureaucrats. All of them, left to their own devices, will invent work and create obstacles. It takes constant vigilance to avoid such people taking over a site and driving everyone away. I also wonder what the correlation is between such people and being on the spectrum: The need for rules, the comfort and predicta…

Intend all the hate you want, they don't care, they will mandate their world even when it's wrong to do so.

If hate is what would get them to stop, they'd have quit before they began.

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#43

Post by [deleted] »

morsch wrote: post #38
p-e-w wrote: post #10

The justifications given in that essay leave a really bad taste in my mouth: > I believe using "comprised of" is poor writing, because > It's completely unnecessary. There are many other ways to say what the writer means by "comprised of". It adds nothing to the language. That's true for many, many other words. In fact, most instances of definite and indefinite articles "add nothing to the language", since the actual…

Articles obviously add information: is it a specific, known house you are going to ( I'm going to the house ) or a non-specific/not previously referred to ( I'm going to a house )? When it's your own house you're going to, you could argue the definite article wouldn't add anything, and the phrasal verb to go home drops it (ie. I'm going home ), though adding an article is possible and changes the meaning ( I'm going…

[deleted]

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#44

Post by 000ooo000 »

So if most readers are not really confused by the incorrect usage ("comprised of") and they understand roughly what is being said through context, and no readers learn the correct usage of "comprised" because this editor is simply erasing it.. then what is actually being achieved here? If the editor were correcting the bad usages then I would likely consider this a service to the public but as it stands they're just perpetuating ignorance. In any case though, I think I agree with those calling this a waste of time, time that I think would be far better spent reworking articles for https://simple.wikipedia.org/.

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#45

Post by ggm »

arthurcolle wrote: post #41
ggm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moral, no. But they might influence e.g. textbooks and legal drafting. That ordinateur is not ordinary and l'informatique isn't always very Informative. Unless I am mistaken both English words coming in from the French?

l'informatique, as a French person, has always failed to capture my imagination as the same way as Computer Science. I wish Informatics was what the Anglosphere had selected because I think it sounds pretty groovy

L'academie get to wear cool robes, pretend togas. Did the French just invent "Les Coupeurs de la Pierre"? Did they kill la Voiture électrique?

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#46

Post by rbirkby »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #3

This definitely falls deep into the pedantry zone. Lots of modern English uſage was once wrong and has become normalized. The language doeſn't have an Académie calling the ſhots. It inevitably evolves, warts and all.

Is the abomination that is “I’ll revert on that” a wart?

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#48

Post by netsharc »

000ooo000 wrote: post #44

So if most readers are not really confused by the incorrect usage ("comprised of") and they understand roughly what is being said through context, and no readers learn the correct usage of "comprised" because this editor is simply erasing it.. then what is actually being achieved here? If the editor were correcting the bad usages then I would likely consider this a service to the public but as it stands they're just…

"I upgraded my breaks and my car slows down a lot better now.".

Spot any mistakes? Do you understand what I mean in context anyway? So is it fine to use "breaks" when I mean "brakes"?

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#49

Post by chx »

nicklaf wrote: post #5
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #3

This definitely falls deep into the pedantry zone. Lots of modern English uſage was once wrong and has become normalized. The language doeſn't have an Académie calling the ſhots. It inevitably evolves, warts and all.

Pedantic, perhaps, but within the purview of an editor of an encyclopedia enforcing a style guideline!

Except there is no such thing. To quote.

> Wikipedia does not have a policy or guideline on whether "comprised of" is welcome in the encyclopedia.

This is nothing less but one person trying to punch way above their weight in shaping the English language.

Re: Wikipedia user edits over 90k uses of “comprised of”

#50

Post by arthurcolle »

ggm wrote: post #45
arthurcolle wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

l'informatique, as a French person, has always failed to capture my imagination as the same way as Computer Science. I wish Informatics was what the Anglosphere had selected because I think it sounds pretty groovy

L'academie get to wear cool robes, pretend togas. Did the French just invent "Les Coupeurs de la Pierre"? Did they kill la Voiture électrique?

I wish I got to wear robes
Post reply on HN