User talk:Nohat

Various
Hi Nohat,

I tend to agree with your points about the differences between Wiktionary and Wikipedia. Whereas anyone can knock together a reasonable article on what they know on a particular subject, the average user is not capable of writing a good dictionary entry, largely because this requires a lot of additional knowledge.

That said, Wiktionary has been making good progress, and there are many of us on board who know a bit about lexicography and are able to bash weaker contributions into shape.

I very much appreciate the note you have added to some of the rhymes pages about flapping. For an awful moment, until I'd looked at one of the pages, I thought you might have slapped in "ladder" and co. alongside the "latter" et al. Thank you. This was a variation I had over looked, and I have noted it to add to future pages containing t's.

Could I ask you link "flapping" to the Wiktionary article, rather than the Wikiepdia one? If it doesn't exist yet, I can provide one from the Wikipedia content.

As for correct English, there is a semi-official policy here to mark "incorrect" usages as "non-standard" (eg, "til" for "till" and "alright" for "all right") and to provide usage notes where appropriate. I think this strikes a fair balance between proscriptivism and whatever the other one is (it escapes me for the moment). After all, users consult dictionaries to find out correct usage, even though lexicographers write them to show how words are used.

Thank you again, and please do continue to contribute. &mdash; Paul G 09:04, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)