Grammar as fascism

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Amokxy
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Grammar as fascism

Post by Amokxy »

Some of my proposed posts have been rejected because of grammatical reasons, I think. It seems presumptuous of this place to do so, considering that grammar is part of philosophical play. For instance, the insistence of certain kinds of capitalization. I am posting more words now because concision is not valued here. Btw, I did not capitalize 'grammar', it was done automatically.

It seems that contacting scott is impossible.
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Burning ghost
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Burning ghost »

It takes a while for your posts to go through.

If posts have been rejected (for any reason), I assume the mods would contact you and tell you why?
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Albert Tatlock
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Albert Tatlock »

does being asked to make an effort to make your posts comprehensible really amount to fascism?
Alias
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Alias »

Everything somebody doesn't like is "fascism".
You get a yellow card for choke-holding an opposing player in a soccer match?
Fascism!
You lose a chess game for moving the rook diagonally>
Fascism.
Grammar-bot does its job?
F******
And every complaint is "philosophy".
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Sy Borg
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Sy Borg »

No posts have been rejected for grammar issues of late that I can remember. Different mods have different approaches and I would rather trust than micromanage. However, in this instance I'm sure Burning Ghost is correct.

Note, I never tell members about the posts they reject. Rather I act like a silent knife in the dark - like 99.9% of other mods on the web. This reduced my workload by a factor of ten, which matters if one's paypacket is zero.

Concision is valued on the forum but not "single word" or "meaningless" answers.

And Alias, thanks - the overstatement in public conversation is underwhelming. I especially liked 'And every complaint is "philosophy"' (generally, no reference to the OP). There's a remarkable number of malcontents on philosophy forums. Negativity, of course, is not "deeper" or "more profound" than positivity. It's just a more defensive approach.
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Burning ghost
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Burning ghost »

Greta -

A big problem with this site is that mods act silently like a knife in the dark. I find it hard to believe there are so many rejected posts that you cannot spare 10 seconds to explain the problem with a post?

Just copy and paste the post, send to the person who sent it and, if needed, highlight the problem area.

I think there is a certain hostility being thrown at a potential new member of the site? Why? Simply reduce the paranoia (which may not be paranoia considering the history of the mods on this site not exactly flooding me with confidence.) Spectrum made other complaint in the past about his posts being rejected because of the subject matter (I admit although Spectrum may word some items rather "clumsily"/"badly" he at least is willing to explore topics without worrying about offending someone.)

If the person here is complaining about rejection then maybe they've been too verbose rather than having muddled grammar? If we have to write purely in prescriptive grammar then that is a problem. I wouldn't be surprised if posts were rejected simply because they go over the heads of the reader from time to time.

note: I could point to several OP's made by mods that are verging on being nonsense/meaningless.

As for "Fascism" ... kind of a funny comment :P

Some words from Orwell I read recently:
... even the people who recklessly fling the word "Fascist" in every direction attach at any rate an emotional significance to it. By "Fascism" they mean, roughly speaking, something cruel, unscrupulous, arrogant, obscurantist, anti-liberal and anti-working-class. Except for the relatively small number of Fascist sympathisers, almost any English person would accept "bully" as a synonym for "Fascist". That is about as near to a definition as this much-abused word has come.
- Tribune, 24 March 1944
In this respect if a new member has their first OP rejected I can understand if they feel victimized or bullied. A simple polite suggestion would go a long way IF their post has actually been rejected. Other than that I can only suggest patience and perhaps a more prominent reminder for new members that posts take time to be accepted.

I don't in anyway think it is fair to simply reject a post and leave a potential new member hanging.

It is what is what it is! We can only try and do better (or worse.)
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Steve3007
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Steve3007 »

I think "Grammar as fascism" is the wrong way to write it. It's the application of the rules of grammar that is the point here. The concept of grammar itself surely cannot be fascism. I think a better title would be:

"The arbitrary, overzealous, or excessively strict application of the rules of grammar, by moderators, without due consideration for the purpose of those rules in rendering the text comprehensible is somewhat analogous to elements of the political movement known as Fascism."

Anything less than that should be culled, ruthlessly.

Also: As Greta says, the moderators don't get paid anything so we should probably go easy on them. I turned the job down, so would consider myself to be on extremely thin ice (while simultaneously living in a glass house and throwing stones) if I criticized them.
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Burning ghost
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Burning ghost »

Why should we go easy on them?

If a bad job is being done then why not point it out. Work, free or otherwise, is still work. If it's deemed work of poor quality then I think it makes sense to say so.

Whether anything gets done bout it is entirely up to the community and mods together. If I am personally very unhappy then I would leave. I am not that unhappy about it, but think it worthwhile saying things could be better in some areas without much extra effort.

In regards to the OP I am assuming it is simply down to lack of patience and that the post has not caught the eye of a mod yet ... if not I would be interested to see what the fuss was about?
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Steve3007
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Steve3007 »

It seems that contacting scott is impossible.
I think, as the founder of our movement, Scott is now a semi-mythical figure. Did he ever really exist is a literal sense, or is he just a metaphor for something? We might ask ourselves rhetorically. He's a bit like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now.

-- Updated Mon Oct 30, 2017 9:22 am to add the following --

Burning Ghost:
Why should we go easy on them?
Fair point. Not getting paid is no excuse. Let 'em have it.
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Burning ghost
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Burning ghost »

Steve -

All those opposed to public floggings say "Nay!", all those for, say "Aye!" :D haha!
AKA badgerjelly
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Re: Grammar as fascism

Post by Alias »

If you must have flogging, or caning, or spanking - better public than secret.
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