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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words

by davidmathers 18y ago

talboito 18y ago
I don't know if the parent post was edited, but I don't see too many weasel words there.
- SwellJoe 18y ago
  No editing. I'm not known for being subtle in my criticism or avoiding taking blame for the things I say. As you say, I don't think I was avoiding taking any responsibility for my criticism, and I'd welcome arguments to the contrary if anyone would like to defend Chandler. (And note that I'm not calling the developers idiots or incompetent, and never would...we all probably accept that they're smart folks who lacked leadership and specific vision.)
  - davidmathers 18y ago
    I was referring to "appears to be" and "seems to have". Not weasel in the same sense as "people say" but just as content free. Is it just a todo list app, or is it something else/more? Does it have a web-based version, or does it not?
    - SwellJoe 18y ago
      Not weasel in the same sense as "people say" but just as content free. Is it just a todo list app, or is it something else/more? Does it have a web-based version, or does it not? Obviously, I'm not sure, which is why I used the terms. I don't think you actually understand the purpose of my post, which was partly to point out that Chandler has been unfocused from the beginning. I don't know exactly what Chandler is because Chandler has been many things in its 6 and a half year life. I briefly glanced over the project wiki, and gathered what I could without spending an inordinate amount of time there. From what I could gather from the rather verbose, and enterprisey documentation, the things I said seem true to me, but I can't be sure, because I haven't used the project and I haven't followed it in years. As others have mentioned, this is not an encyclopedic article and I make no claims to expertise or authority on the topic. I made comments about my thoughts and opinions and presented them as such, as we all do on a daily basis here. Those comments seem to be interesting to many HN readers, and I'm sorry you don't consider them authoritative enough for a Hacker News discussion. I appear to have now run out of things to say on the subject.
neilc 18y ago
Why is a Wikipedia "style guideline" relevant to a comment on HN? Wikipedia guidelines are for writing encyclopedic content, not for comments on a discussion site.
- davidmathers 18y ago
  It's a general writing guideline, not specific to encyclopedias. It was the wrong choice though because "weasel words" can imply "weakening meaning in order to avoid contradiction" which wasn't what I meant to imply at all. There may be a correct term for the "It might be the case that X, and if so my opinion is Y, but it also might not be the case because I don't actually have any first-hand experience with the thing I'm talking about--just speculation" form of speech, but I don't know what it is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Avoid_weasel_words

talboito 18y ago

I don't know if the parent post was edited, but I don't see too many weasel words there.

SwellJoe 18y ago
No editing. I'm not known for being subtle in my criticism or avoiding taking blame for the things I say. As you say, I don't think I was avoiding taking any responsibility for my criticism, and I'd welcome arguments to the contrary if anyone would like to defend Chandler. (And note that I'm not calling the developers idiots or incompetent, and never would...we all probably accept that they're smart folks who lacked leadership and specific vision.)
- davidmathers 18y ago
  I was referring to "appears to be" and "seems to have". Not weasel in the same sense as "people say" but just as content free. Is it just a todo list app, or is it something else/more? Does it have a web-based version, or does it not?
  - SwellJoe 18y ago
    Not weasel in the same sense as "people say" but just as content free. Is it just a todo list app, or is it something else/more? Does it have a web-based version, or does it not? Obviously, I'm not sure, which is why I used the terms. I don't think you actually understand the purpose of my post, which was partly to point out that Chandler has been unfocused from the beginning. I don't know exactly what Chandler is because Chandler has been many things in its 6 and a half year life. I briefly glanced over the project wiki, and gathered what I could without spending an inordinate amount of time there. From what I could gather from the rather verbose, and enterprisey documentation, the things I said seem true to me, but I can't be sure, because I haven't used the project and I haven't followed it in years. As others have mentioned, this is not an encyclopedic article and I make no claims to expertise or authority on the topic. I made comments about my thoughts and opinions and presented them as such, as we all do on a daily basis here. Those comments seem to be interesting to many HN readers, and I'm sorry you don't consider them authoritative enough for a Hacker News discussion. I appear to have now run out of things to say on the subject.

neilc 18y ago

Why is a Wikipedia "style guideline" relevant to a comment on HN? Wikipedia guidelines are for writing encyclopedic content, not for comments on a discussion site.

davidmathers 18y ago
It's a general writing guideline, not specific to encyclopedias. It was the wrong choice though because "weasel words" can imply "weakening meaning in order to avoid contradiction" which wasn't what I meant to imply at all. There may be a correct term for the "It might be the case that X, and if so my opinion is Y, but it also might not be the case because I don't actually have any first-hand experience with the thing I'm talking about--just speculation" form of speech, but I don't know what it is.