Re: Emoticon policy (was: english/devel/website/working: missing closing parenthesis in cdvendors example)
David Prévot wrote:
> I believe that emoticon can be suitable in personal mail, (e.g. to make
> sure that no reader will take a joke as an attack), but the official
> Debian website (official communication actually) should avoid them.
[...]
> <p>Since the Debian web pages are read by non-native speakers of English
> and are translated into other languages, it is best to write in clear and
> -simple English and avoid the use of slang, obscure idioms and old English
> +simple English and avoid the use of slang, emoticons, obscure idioms and old English
> words.</p>
I've no problem with this proposal, but the reference to "old English
words" there strikes me as odd. Words that have been in use for a
long time (such as Old English "word") are no problem, as long as they
aren't obsolete! The danger I would have expected people to need to
be warned against is *new* words, in the form of jargon...
Perhaps it should drop that last phrase? And/or try to be clearer
about what (from the point of view of a non-native speaker) might
constitute an "obscure idiom"?
--
JBR ⠰◅☽
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