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Since I was the first person to wade in with an opinion on this subject,
I'd like to make some qualifications rather than have a blanket response
lingering around.
NOTE: The following explaination, while directed toward language, is
based on any subject that gets discussed around here.
If you believe that there is a solid chance that a particular discussion
between one language and another's spelling has to do with--and not with
just a passing relationship--technical communication, than I don't think
that anyone will mind a discussion of it...as long as it doesn't digress
into a general discussion.
For instance...you may produce manuals for an international audience and
want to discuss software that does translation. These are tools that
many technical communicators use. We may have opinions about their
effectiveness, integrity of the target language, etc. A discussion on
these lines I believe, would be appropriate.
However, to have the discussion wander into the the latin source of a
word, it's travels through middle english and french/german/canadian
culture would not be appropriate since there are lists out there that
handle this discussion better.
What is appropriate is based on its context, and just as we edit our
work for subject content in the real world (where they pay us for our
opinions), we should be able to edit our online discussions.
Fabien Vais wrote:
>
> I agree with Michael Lewis. I will abide by the decision Eric made, but I
> find it unfortunate that we cannot discuss differences between the Canadian
> and American spelling of words. Technical translators are certainly
No animals were injured in the creation of this message.
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