Official "Public Consultation" Phase

[Peter Jackson]

Martin, s/he works only in the nominative. What are you going to do about him/her, his/her, his/hers and himself/herself? Also, the notation doesn't make sense: / is commonly used to indicate alternatives, so here it suggests the s is an alternative to the h, rather than an optional addition, which would normally be indicated by brackets, (s)he.

I repeat my earlier point. The plural has ben used in English in the sense of common gender singular since the 14th century. Why invent new oddities? See my piquet article for an example of how it works in practice.

Anyway, this level of detail can presumably be left to the EC.

[Martin Baldwin-Edwards]

Well, we can hardly use the plural when we mean one person. Of course, the / is not a standard usage, but why should that matter? I disapprove of plural forms that confuse and muddy meaning, simply to appease the lobby for political correctness. Such a policy is backward looking and completely inconsistent with a scientific view of the world. It would make social phenomena even less precise and increase the gap between social sciences and natural sciences. No, I oppose policies that appease the social conformists among us, when they actually damage communication and thinking. I endorse them when they are intellectually neutral or, preferably, forward-looking.

[Stephen Ewen]

Here's a really well executed example of a web org implementing the DMCA: https://www.dropbox.com/terms#dmca

To reiterate, by U.S. law, CZ must do this to be afforded the protections of the DMCA, and whether CZ views itself as a service provider is a fundamental question that should probably be addressed in the Charter.

[Dan Nessett]

Here's a really well executed example of a web org implementing the DMCA: https://www.dropbox.com/terms#dmca

To reiterate, by U.S. law, CZ must do this to be afforded the protections of the DMCA, and whether CZ views itself as a service provider is a fundamental question that should probably be addressed in the Charter.

Per the Legal Status section of the charter, Citizendium is owned and operated by the Citizendium Foundation. I believe legal issues such as conformance with the DMCA are properly handled by that legal entity. Citizendum itself does not have legal standing.

[Peter Jackson]

Another problem with s/he: how do you pronounce it?

[Martin Baldwin-Edwards]

Ahaha, it's only for written documentation. No sane person actually *speaks* politicalcorrectese

[Hayford Peirce]

Martin, as much of a grammarian and nitpicker that I am (ie, a pain in the neck to most of the people here), I *do* think that most reasonable people, at least in the States, have agreed that the neutral plural ("them") can (and should) be used to refer to the singular subject in order to skirt over the gender problem.  I don't really *like* it, but it seems to me to be an acceptable compromise.  I think that the NYT "usage" writer in the weekly magazine had an article about this fairly recently.

(Years ago I flew into a rage [more or less] when a lady copy editor working on one of my *novels* changed about a dozen "hims" to "him or her" in the course of the book.  I complained bitterly to the editor and he both reprimanded her and changed things back.  So I'm well aware of the issue!)

[Martin Baldwin-Edwards]

The same is true in the UK, Hayford. However, I do not accept that losing one of the few remaining grammatical forms that we have retained in modern English (i.e. the singular/plural distinction) is some sort of progress. The only possible result is greater ambiguity and confusion with a language that is even less precise than it was just 20 years ago. As I stated in an earlier post, kowtowing to the political correctness lobby is not a priority when considering what is the primary function of language -- to communicate. Therefore, I am resolutely opposed to this deliberate destruction of our language because "wimmin" don't like the default masculine forms. It is up to them to devise a functional alternative.

[Daniel Mietchen]

Just came across this draft of a Memorandum of Association for a soon-to-be-founded Wikimedia India. Possibly contains some food for thought for us too.

Edit: link corrected.