User:Ewen

Yes, ObserverNY, I have deleted your link to the 'Truth About IB' page from the IB pages on wikipedia. This has been discussed at length. There is no consensus to include the page and you have never offered justification for pushing the link. Do you want to debate it or just keep adding it (and we'll keep removing it)?

Ewen (talk) 14:27, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Barbecue

It's my nature to get annoyed by little mistakes that people make over and over. The first time it happens I get very slightly ticked off. Then I see it again, and again...

'Barbeque' is one such example. I did check before making changes: see Talk:Barbecue#Spelling which cites Australian, British and American dictionaries as prefering 'Barbecue'.

According to the Macquarie Dictionary 4th ed 2005 "The alternative spelling barbeque is much more widely used in Australia than in the US or UK". The dictionary marks barbecue as the head entry and more common... As to the Oxford Dictionary it doesn't even mention barbeque. User:Alex Sims on User_talk:Van_der_Hoorn#National_Variants_of_English. Webster's dictionary Webster's also has barbecue as the headline entry.

English from...	Dictionary	'Barbecue'	'Barbeque'
U.K.	Oxford	Only spelling.	No mention
U.S.	Webster's	Headline spelling.	Rarer alternative.
Australia	Macquarie	Headline spelling.	Rarer alternative.

'Barbeque' may be acceptable in some versions of English, but 'acceptable' isn't 'best'. Why use an inferior spelling that may be acceptable in some countries when we could use the prefered spelling which is correct in all countries? See WP:ENGVAR#National_varieties_of_English and Opportunities for commonality.

Impact

I'm all for modern English but isn't it ghastly when we hear phrases like "This tax change impacts on the lower paid."? There is a perfectly good verb, affect, which is not only well-understood, but briefer: "This tax change affects the lower paid." If you want to emphasise the negative aspects of the effect, what about "This tax change harms the lower paid."? 'Impact' is a noun: There is no need to verb it if you have some sort of vocabulary.

George Orwell (in Politics and the English Language) recommended:

1: Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

"Impact" is a metaphor. In most cases, there is no physical effect.

2: Never use a long word where a short one will do.

Replacing "have an impact on" with, say, "influence" does violate this rule, I admit.

3: If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

Replacing "have an impact on" with, say, "influence" is a 4-1 win for this rule.

6: Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Always worth considering, and my favourite rule.

Incidentally, so far I've had 8 "thanks" and 2 reversions when I've changed an "impact" text, both by the same user.

Other bees in my bonnet

’s	Thi’s user know’s that not every word that end’s with s need’s an apostrophe and will remove misused apostrophe’s from Wikipedia with extreme prejudice.

its & it's

This user understands the difference between its and it's. So should you.

misc

194.81.161.150 Block log

194.81.161.150 Contributions

194.81.161.134 Block log

194.81.161.134 Contributions

Bits of wikimarkup code I can never remember

<font color='#888888'>RGB coding for text</font>

| height = {{convert|5|ft|7|in|m|abbr=on}} | weight = {{convert|12|st|8|lb|kg|abbr=on|lk=on}}

Template:Convert

<ref name=Ben/>{{rp|8–10}} .