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Because the creator of gifs telling the world how he pronounced it made such a huge difference :) Not sure I'll bother to reprogram myself from “png”, “pung”,

Because the creator of gifs telling the world how he pronounced it made such a huge difference :) Not sure I'll bother to reprogram myself from “png”, “pung”, or “pee-enn-gee”.

naikrovek 1y ago
When someone makes a baby, you call that person by their real name with the correct pronunciation, don’t you? So why can’t you do that with GIF or PNG? People that create things get to name them.
- airstrike 1y ago
  Because PNGs won't answer back when I call them by some "correct" name.
- pixl97 1y ago
  Depends... You'll commonly call someone by their pronounced name out of respect, forced or given. In a situation where someone does something really stupid or annoying and the forced respect isn't there, most people don't.
- AllegedAlec 1y ago
  > People that create things get to name them. And if they pick something dumb enough other people get to ignore them.
- freeopinion 1y ago
  A parent may name their baby Elizabeth. Then even the parent might call them Liz or Beth or Betsy or Bit or Bee.
- eviks 1y ago
  First, it's not a baby, that's a ridiculous comparison. But also, no, not universally even for babies, especially when the name is something ridiculous like X Æ A-Xii where even parents disagree on pronunciation, or when the person himself uses a "non-specced" variant
- dspillett 1y ago
  There is a huge difference between inanimate objects/classes and babies. Don't personify inanimate objects, they hate that! On inanimate objects: Aluminium was first ratified by the IUPAC as aluminium⁰, with the agreement of its discoverer Sir Humphrey Davy¹, yet one huge nation calls it something else… On people: nicknames are a thing, are you saying those are universally wrong? But yes, when a person tells me that they'd prefer their name pronounced a different way, or that they'd prefer a different name entirely, or that they don't like the nickname other use for them, you can bet your arse that I'll make the effort to use their preferred name+pronunciation in future. ------ [0] Though it should be noted that aluminum was, a few years after, officially accepted as an alternate form. [1] He initially called it aluminum in the first paper.
  - naikrovek 1y ago
    Let people name their offspring, both biological and technical.
- account42 1y ago
  You are aware that kids generally don't get to pick the nicknames they end up being called and their parents definitely don't either.
LocalH 1y ago
I've said "jif" for almost 40 years, and I'm not stopping anytime soon. Hard-g is wrong, and those who use it are showing they have zero respect for others when they don't have to. It's the tech equivalent to the shopping cart problem. What do you do when there is no incentive one way or the other? Do you do the right thing, or do you disrespect others?
- pwdisswordfishz 1y ago
  Linguistic prescriptivism is wrong, and people who promote it are showing they have zero respect for others when they don't have to.
  - LocalH 1y ago
    I agree that language is fluid. However, when it comes to names, I think people should have enough respect to pronounce things how the creator (or owner, depending on the situation) of the name says it should be pronounced. Too often people will mispronounce someone's name as a sign of intentional disrespect (see Kamala Harris for a fairly recent prominent example) and I cannot get behind that. You see a similar disrespect in the hard-soft discourse around the pronunciation of GIF. A lot of people use the hard g and mock the creator for thinking that soft g should ever have been right. Naming is probably one of the few language areas that I think should be prescriptive, even while language at large is descriptive.
    - Analemma_ 1y ago
      I don’t think technical standards merit the same level of “deference to the creator” as personal names. People are wrong about standards they created all the time (ask me what I think about John Gruber’s “stewardship” of Markdown) and should be corrected, a standard is meant for all. Obviously the pronunciation of an acronym isn’t anywhere near as important as technical details, but I think the principle holds.
      - asadotzler 1y ago

Because the creator of gifs telling the world how he pronounced it made such a huge difference :) Not sure I'll bother to reprogram myself from “png”, “pung”, or “pee-enn-gee”.

naikrovek 1y ago

When someone makes a baby, you call that person by their real name with the correct pronunciation, don’t you? So why can’t you do that with GIF or PNG? People that create things get to name them.

airstrike 1y ago
Because PNGs won't answer back when I call them by some "correct" name.
pixl97 1y ago
Depends... You'll commonly call someone by their pronounced name out of respect, forced or given. In a situation where someone does something really stupid or annoying and the forced respect isn't there, most people don't.
AllegedAlec 1y ago
> People that create things get to name them. And if they pick something dumb enough other people get to ignore them.
freeopinion 1y ago
A parent may name their baby Elizabeth. Then even the parent might call them Liz or Beth or Betsy or Bit or Bee.
eviks 1y ago
First, it's not a baby, that's a ridiculous comparison. But also, no, not universally even for babies, especially when the name is something ridiculous like X Æ A-Xii where even parents disagree on pronunciation, or when the person himself uses a "non-specced" variant
dspillett 1y ago
There is a huge difference between inanimate objects/classes and babies. Don't personify inanimate objects, they hate that! On inanimate objects: Aluminium was first ratified by the IUPAC as aluminium⁰, with the agreement of its discoverer Sir Humphrey Davy¹, yet one huge nation calls it something else… On people: nicknames are a thing, are you saying those are universally wrong? But yes, when a person tells me that they'd prefer their name pronounced a different way, or that they'd prefer a different name entirely, or that they don't like the nickname other use for them, you can bet your arse that I'll make the effort to use their preferred name+pronunciation in future. ------ [0] Though it should be noted that aluminum was, a few years after, officially accepted as an alternate form. [1] He initially called it aluminum in the first paper.
- naikrovek 1y ago
  Let people name their offspring, both biological and technical.
account42 1y ago
You are aware that kids generally don't get to pick the nicknames they end up being called and their parents definitely don't either.

LocalH 1y ago

I've said "jif" for almost 40 years, and I'm not stopping anytime soon. Hard-g is wrong, and those who use it are showing they have zero respect for others when they don't have to. It's the tech equivalent to the shopping cart problem. What do you do when there is no incentive one way or the other? Do you do the right thing, or do you disrespect others?

pwdisswordfishz 1y ago
Linguistic prescriptivism is wrong, and people who promote it are showing they have zero respect for others when they don't have to.
- LocalH 1y ago
  I agree that language is fluid. However, when it comes to names, I think people should have enough respect to pronounce things how the creator (or owner, depending on the situation) of the name says it should be pronounced. Too often people will mispronounce someone's name as a sign of intentional disrespect (see Kamala Harris for a fairly recent prominent example) and I cannot get behind that. You see a similar disrespect in the hard-soft discourse around the pronunciation of GIF. A lot of people use the hard g and mock the creator for thinking that soft g should ever have been right. Naming is probably one of the few language areas that I think should be prescriptive, even while language at large is descriptive.
  - Analemma_ 1y ago
    I don’t think technical standards merit the same level of “deference to the creator” as personal names. People are wrong about standards they created all the time (ask me what I think about John Gruber’s “stewardship” of Markdown) and should be corrected, a standard is meant for all. Obviously the pronunciation of an acronym isn’t anywhere near as important as technical details, but I think the principle holds.
    - asadotzler 1y ago