Infosphere talk:Manual of Style

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Oxford!

I'm an Oxford comma man, myself. It helps with clarity. Personally. --Buddy 06:04, 16 August 2008 (CEST)

Well... me, not so much, I prefer non-Oxford British English. Mainly because Oxford has a strange love of the -ize spelling. Which I feel is in too much love with the Z letter (which, by the way, is pronounced "zed" to avoid confusion with the letter C), and I suppose the non-Oxford comma rule is more familiar to Danish, which is my native language, so I guess I am biased. But aren't we all? --SvipTalk 11:24, 16 August 2008 (CEST)
It's all phonetic! I'm totally not getting into it! "-ize" is how it's pronounced, thus, how it should be spelt. But English isn't much for phonetics, anyway, which is why "Them" isn't spelt "Dhem" (or Ðem), which would be proper. And, the argument for "Zed" is flawed. These are the same people that tell us "Aluminium" is the proper way to spell Aluminum, because it conforms with the other elements, but then they go and say "Zed" when NO OTHER LETTER sounds like that. If the alphabet were pronouced "A Bed Ced Ded E Fed Ged..." then it would make sense. But it isn't and it doesn't. The end. And now we're completely on a tangent!~!!!! --Buddy 01:09, 18 August 2008 (BST)
If you'd bother check Wikipedia, you would have learnt; "In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed (pronounced /zɛd/), reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta." Hell, it is "sæt" in Danish (sounds just like 'zed') for Z. And it is Aluminium. The argument for -ize is that it comes from Greek. While that is technically true, it went through French first, where it was changed to an -ise spelling. Gotta respect the Frenchies. But let's face it, Buddy, Z is hardly a natural letter in Latin. Latin didn't have it. It is directly imported from Greek. But I suppose you don't like Greeks, eh? --SvipTalk 02:11, 18 August 2008 (BST)
Oho! I'm not going into it! English is a terrible language. But then again, that's what happens when you force an alphabet of 26 letters onto a language with forty (or so) sounds. You get approximations and stupid spellings galore! It is agreed by linguists that the only un-accented English is spoken in the western US, thus "Zee" is correct. And it's aluminum. Unless you buy rings made of Platinium. "The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) adopted aluminium as the standard international name for the element in 1990, but three years later recognized aluminum as an acceptable variant. Hence their periodic table includes both, but places aluminium first.[33] IUPAC officially prefers the use of aluminium in its internal publications, although several IUPAC publications use the spelling aluminum." The whole concept is retarded. Meh! --Buddy 02:52, 18 August 2008 (BST)
Clearly, you are referring to linguists in the US, there's a wide variety of accents over there, including the west. Obviously, if a lack of accent exists, it's somewhere in the UK. Both 'i's in aluminium are pronounced. Are you saying El is a non-unique? - Quolnok 11:43, 18 August 2008 (BST)
When aluminum was invented/discovered, it was spelt aluminum. Hence, it's aluminum. Brits can't change it and then say that's the right way to spell it. Not that that's stopped them before. "The earliest citation given in the Oxford English Dictionary for any word used as a name for this element is alumium, which British chemist and inventor Humphry Davy employed in 1808 for the metal he was trying to isolate electrolytically from the mineral alumina." And "Californian English" is the only non-accented English. Period. Ask a British linguist if you must. =Þ [edit]: Also, the letter "B" comes from "Beta", thus, it's pronunciation should be "Bed" as well. --Buddy 21:54, 22 August 2008 (BST)
Are you trying to apply logic to English. Good luck, sir. Cause I know you will fail, badly. Languages are a mess. But it would be wrong to for me to use some parts of American English and some parts of British English. I pick one, and stick to that. I am not saying that British English is always necessarily the correct one. Also, the quote you quoted seems to defy your original statement about aluminium. Well, except he spelt it "alumium"... my God, was he drunk?! --SvipTalk 01:16, 23 August 2008 (BST)
I believe that, like everyone else back then, yes, He was drunk. What were we talking about again? Hmm... Oh yes: I like commas! *runs off* --Buddy 20:10, 23 August 2008 (BST)

Transcripts

So I inadvertently caused an issue with the Manual of Style. It reads that "While any English variant is allowed, our transcripts appear only in British English due to the language of their creator." While that is correct for most of the transcripts, Season 6 is different. Svip wrote the transcript for The Late Philip J. Fry, Jasonbres wrote In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela, and the first third of The Futurama Holiday Spectacular and several writers worked on Rebirth. Even assuming that Jasonbres and the 3 other writers are European, the real problem is the fact that I wrote the other transcripts. While I'm not sure how big of a problem this will cause, I am okay with someone editing the transcripts fron AmE to BrE just for the sake of continuity with the other transcripts. Teyrn of Highever 00:44, 31 March 2011 (CEST)

I guess that my real concern is people assuming that I used BrE based on the Manual of Style and causing a semi pointless cycle of edits and reversions. Teyrn of Highever 00:46, 31 March 2011 (CEST)
I originally wrote that to avoid people editing the transcripts already existing. Though, I also liked the idea of further consistency on the matter. However, I have begun to care less on the subject, and I find it more important for people to actual write transcripts rather than worry about which variant of English they write in. Such restrictions are not what we need to encourage editors. --Sviptalk 03:15, 31 March 2011 (CEST)
The thing is, the only transcript that isn't finished is the Holiday Spectacular, (interesting that I finished most within days but can't even begin to muster the interest to start the Holiday Spectacular). Since the transcripts are done, I am leaving it up to any potential editors to change them to BrE if they choose to do so. Teyrn of Highever 03:33, 31 March 2011 (CEST)
Do you think the rule should be amended or removed then? Transcripts aren't edited much anyway, but a protection keeping non-users from editing them would also fulfill the same purpose. Teyrn of Highever 03:33, 31 March 2011 (CEST)
Actually, there is already such a restriction. But I guess I was worried that someone might suggest the transcripts should be in AmE due to the origin of the show. Keeping the rule might not be a bad idea, though, especially since it is not that effectively enforced and it could prevent future disputes. --Sviptalk 03:41, 31 March 2011 (CEST)
If we are going to keep the rule, we just need to figure out how to modify it to encompass the differing dialects. Also, I know that Space Pilot 3000 has protections but the whole point of this discussion is my additions to the season six transcripts could cause problems. Teyrn of Highever 04:22, 31 March 2011 (CEST)