4 ms·

Thanks for this post, there were some nice tips in there. Although, I do have some nitpicking about your writing style. Maybe it's just me, but I found that you

by mekoka 14y ago

Thanks for this post, there were some nice tips in there. Although, I do have some nitpicking about your writing style. Maybe it's just me, but I found that your use of "+ve" instead of just saying "positive" and of "&" instead of "and" did not have the intended effect of speeding up reading, quite the reverse actually.

ajross 14y ago
Agree with the former, but it bears saying: you're about 2 millenia too late to be complaining about the use of the ampersand. :)
- mekoka 14y ago
  I'm not complaining on the use of the ampersand, but unlike many people seem to believe, it's not semantically equivalent to "and". Beyond just joining two items in a phrase, the ampersand marks an association between them and emphasizes it as a single definite idea, a "thing". Ampersands are often used to mark brands, names and cultural items made up of multiple components: Johnson & Johnson, Dungeons & Dragons, bread & butter, fish & chips, Gold, Smith & Associates. If I say "I had some fish & coleslaw" that would make a few people wonder if this is some popular recipe they should google.
politician 14y ago
Seconded. Initially, my brain told me that +ve was the name of the site, so I was confused when I looked for a product page link only saw "Cucumbertown". Granted, that's mostly laziness -- apparently I've got a rule that matches "strange words near the top of the post" to "probably the name of the product".
- chacham15 14y ago
  I dont know about anyone else, but when I saw "+ve", I just thought to myself, "what is that?" for about a half a second before giving up and moving on.
  - rolleiflex 14y ago
    It doesn't even parse for me. If "+ve" means "Positive", what does "+" mean? Positi? Regardless of what you do, a little bit of respect for English is always a good thing to have.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
Cherian 14y ago
Thanks for the feedback. Corrected. Call this a hacker’s laziness + Yahoo chat room era slangs.

by mekoka 14y ago

ajross 14y ago

Agree with the former, but it bears saying: you're about 2 millenia too late to be complaining about the use of the ampersand. :)

mekoka 14y ago
I'm not complaining on the use of the ampersand, but unlike many people seem to believe, it's not semantically equivalent to "and". Beyond just joining two items in a phrase, the ampersand marks an association between them and emphasizes it as a single definite idea, a "thing". Ampersands are often used to mark brands, names and cultural items made up of multiple components: Johnson & Johnson, Dungeons & Dragons, bread & butter, fish & chips, Gold, Smith & Associates. If I say "I had some fish & coleslaw" that would make a few people wonder if this is some popular recipe they should google.

politician 14y ago

Seconded. Initially, my brain told me that +ve was the name of the site, so I was confused when I looked for a product page link only saw "Cucumbertown". Granted, that's mostly laziness -- apparently I've got a rule that matches "strange words near the top of the post" to "probably the name of the product".

chacham15 14y ago
I dont know about anyone else, but when I saw "+ve", I just thought to myself, "what is that?" for about a half a second before giving up and moving on.
- rolleiflex 14y ago
  It doesn't even parse for me. If "+ve" means "Positive", what does "+" mean? Positi? Regardless of what you do, a little bit of respect for English is always a good thing to have.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]

Cherian 14y ago

Thanks for the feedback. Corrected. Call this a hacker’s laziness + Yahoo chat room era slangs.