I agree with the debian-l10n-english position that first person is inappropriate in debconf questions; we should not personify computers. However: On Thu, Feb 09, 2012 at 02:11:38PM +0000, MJ Ray wrote: > > My reviewer also seems to think there is (sometimes?) something wrong > > with the use of the second person to refer to the user or the owner of > > the system. [...] > I disagree with making things impersonal for the sake of it, but I'd > note that the user is not necessarily the system's owner, so I'm > not sure about using the possessive. We no longer consider people something that can be owned either, but we still say "your wife", "your children", "your boss". And "your side of town" doesn't imply ownership. One of the legitimate and natural uses of possessives in English is to denote relative proximity. I have never heard of any user being confused by references to "their computer". I think this is an artificially constructed argument to justify the personal preferences of a small minority of people involved in debian-l10n-english, based on a style guide from a different context *for a different language*. I categorically reject the notion that removing second-person usage from our debconf questions is at all beneficial. And when you fix non-problems in your language, you almost invariably make things worse by reducing clarity or increasing verbosity. Instead of trying to eliminate second-person pronouns, it would be far better if people tried to find ways that fewer questions would need to be asked of the user at high priority in the first place. > > Finally, the reviewer revealed in the review that they're not a native > > speaker of English. Is it normal for l10n reviews to be conducted by > > non-native speakers of the target language ? Are we really so short > > of native English speaking l10n reviewers ? If so I would be happy to > > help (although you may find me too opinionated...) > Yes, we are so short of native English speakers to do the reviews. > Help would be welcome, but we probably should resolve the differences > above as a first step, else it will just inflame things. Yes. I'm unlikely to use my finite Debian time for template reviews anyway, but I'm certainly not going to do so as long as debian-l10n-english is used as a vehicle for imposing arbitrary personal style rules that don't have consensus among the wider English speaking communtiy. -- Steve Langasek Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS Debian Developer to set it on, and I can move the world. Ubuntu Developer http://www.debian.org/ slangasek@ubuntu.com vorlon@debian.org
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature