From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
To: "Michal Suchánek" <msuchanek@suse.de>,
"Varun Varada" <varuncvarada@gmail.com>
Cc: Robert Coup <robert.coup@koordinates.com>,
Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>,
git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] doc: replace jargon word "impact" with "effect"/"affect"
Date: Thu, 27 May 2021 09:08:25 -0500 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <60afa7d9d4ca_2056d208d9@natae.notmuch> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20210527114629.GD8544@kitsune.suse.cz>
Michal Suchánek wrote:
> On Wed, May 26, 2021 at 06:49:58PM -0500, Varun Varada wrote:
> > On Thu, 13 May 2021 at 04:48, Michal Suchánek <msuchanek@suse.de> wrote:
> > > Yet Felipe insists that 'impact' is somehow generally bad word to use or
> > > that it should be abolished solely because he finds it bad and nobody
> > > objected to the alternative wording.
> > >
> > > Opinions on use of 'impact' differ both among the participants of this
> > > discussion and authorities like authors well-known dictionaries.
> > >
> > > It looks like this is generally matter of stylistic preferences and
> > > opinions. That is even if there is some slight stylistic preference for
> > > not using the word 'impact' it is very hard to prove such and then it is
> > > very hard to request change based only on writing style preferences.
> >
> > The argument is not that it is generally a bad word to use, but that
> > it is generally bad to use words when they don't mean what one thinks
> > they mean, especially when all evidence says otherwise.
>
> Not all evidence. There are people who think the use is fine.
What people think is not evidence.
There's people who think the Earth is flat.
> > All major dictionaries define "impact" as "a strong effect" or "to
> > affect strongly". This is not style, but semantics. In the same way
>
> Not all dictionaries, actually.
You don't need all dictionaries.
If 50% of trials show a drug is safe, and 50% show it's not, you don't
approve bit because "not all say say it's unsafe".
If there's evidence that A is bad, you should consider avoiding A,
especially when you have B, and you have *zero* evidence showing B is
bad.
> > that "per se" being used to mean "necessarily" is not a style issue,
> > using "impact" to mean "an effect" or "to affect" is not a style
> > issue.
> >
> > As has been stated already, the clear and substantial argument for
> > this change is that it reduces the confusion that arises from
> > improperly using the word "impact" in the instances without any loss
>
> There is no final authority on 'correct' word use in English.
You don't need a final authority.
There is evidence that A is problematic.
> We should learn to work together with people that use different
> variant of the language rather than insist that the variant that I or my
> teacher uses is the only correct one and everyone else should use it.
Except one variant is problematic, and the other is not.
Do you have *ANY* evidence that shows a problem with "effect"?
--
Felipe Contreras
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-05-27 14:09 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 68+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-04-05 21:48 [PATCH] doc: replace jargon word "impact" with "effect"/"affect" Varun Varada
2021-04-06 9:24 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-04-06 19:36 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-06 23:01 ` Jeff King
2021-04-07 0:06 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-28 0:39 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-28 8:58 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-04-28 18:15 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-28 18:49 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-04-30 1:51 ` Varun Varada
2021-04-30 7:59 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-10 17:19 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-10 17:35 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-10 18:37 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-11 10:43 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-11 13:22 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-05-12 3:02 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:59 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:48 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:38 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:34 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 2:24 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-11 19:59 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-11 20:25 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-11 21:38 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-12 3:43 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 4:09 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 5:13 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 6:47 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 9:06 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 10:08 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 10:33 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 11:05 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 11:20 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 11:45 ` Robert P. J. Day
2021-05-12 15:19 ` Kerry, Richard
2021-05-12 16:47 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-12 17:01 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 17:32 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 18:04 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 19:42 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-13 7:46 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-13 8:28 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-13 8:55 ` Robert Coup
2021-05-13 9:48 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-13 9:59 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-26 23:49 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-27 11:46 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-27 14:08 ` Felipe Contreras [this message]
2021-05-27 14:35 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-27 16:43 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-06-12 23:13 ` Varun Varada
2021-06-13 11:40 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-06-13 14:06 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-06-13 16:28 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-06-13 17:12 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 22:52 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-13 6:19 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 3:21 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-11 19:21 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-11 19:57 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 3:09 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 4:11 ` Michal Suchánek
2021-05-12 5:22 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-12 16:39 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-13 10:40 ` Philip Oakley
2021-05-26 23:52 ` Varun Varada
2021-05-27 11:20 ` Philip Oakley
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