Literacy
 

These forums have a nice feature displaying a little icon of OS used by a poster. When hovering the mouse over it the name of the OS is also shown. However ... there is Linux or GNU/Linux, there is no linux. I just posted using FreeBSD and it tips freebsd. Yikes.

Like all other boards I have seen, this one uses forums (yikes!), instead of fora. So I doubt many people are bothered by the lack of upper case letters. If I complained about every violation of grammar, my post would be as long as a journal article.

(The point being, the internet does not foster a high level of literacy. Worrying about such small, and numerous, things such as linux instead of Linux, will give you an ulcer.):)

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary forums is a valid plural form of forum, so there is nothing wrong at least with that.

First; a dictionary is a list of words currently in use, not a text book teaching standard language. All of which is beside the point, because,

Second; that example was not the purpose of the post. The example was used, hopefully, to help achieve the purpose, which was a diplomatic way to say, "Who the hell cares about such trivialities?"

I don't have an OED subscription, so this will have to do. From Oxford:

There may be specific capitalization rules but
0) BSD itself is a TLA,
1) "FreeBSD" may be viewed as something like a brand name and besides
2) capital letters among lower case make it stand out.

Then it is a much bigger issue than I thought. No wonder hordes of people have been beating at the doors for years howling for changes. I just did not notice.

If the truth be known, the reason this thread got under my skin quickly, is because it followed on the heels of a thread where people were fretting about the OS icon not distinguishing between Windows 7 and Windows 8. Two threads in quick succession worrying about matters so small they are not large enough to be considered trivial. To my way of thinking, a section dedicated to Forum Feedback and Suggestions suggests a place to alert forum administrators of difficulties using the board and providing suggestions to improve functionality. Recent threads have not been in that vein, but rather, raising inconsequential issues. Given the difference between my view of "feedback and suggestions" and the view others have, it would be best for me to ignore this section of the board before I cause a disturbance of cataclysmic proportions.

You consider the suggestions that are made trivial and no major (or non-trivial) changes are suggested by the members. I agree with that, but to me it is a sign that the board in general is in a very good condition if the only changes that are wanted are of such a trivial nature (of course what is trivial and what not is dependent on the observer, try to post on the FreeBSD forums and use any other notation than FreeBSD, like freeBSD).

That you now want to ignore the feedback and suggestions forum for that is reason (which would mean that you are not part of the discussion if a non-trivial topic comes up) is something where I can't follow your logic, but of course it is totally up to you which part of the forums you deem important for you.

The grammar and spelling police have a hard job... somebody cut them some slack...

On the small icons which display the user agent - I wouldn't miss those if they disappeared altogether, but they don't bother me enough to get my knickers in a twist over it.

Suggestions: scrap the icons and introduce an avatar gallery of open source, GNU/Linux, *BSD, computing related images which users can select from.

In http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ds-4175457967/ someone called Jeremy writes:

Yay! Go, Jeremy! The exactitude revolution starts here! I'd write more, but I've already used my whole month's allowance of exclamation marks, but wouldn't it be nice to see a post from a new poster where the OP didn't have to go through the third degree in order to get at the exact meaning of the question or what they are doing?

I kind of agree with Randicus. THings like this are of no real consquence. On the other hand when users post something like I use Ubuntu 10.1, so you think they mean 10.10, but it turns out to be a typo when they meant to say I use 10.04 (they don't type the 0 and hit 1 instead of 4) that can be frustrating.

I agree totally. I was a frequent flyer at a Commodore (car for non Australian members) forum and there were people there who kept correcting every little thing. Oneday one corrected me, when I wasn't actually incorrect, so I replied "I come here to relax not to be corrected by people who are themselves more often than not incorrect with their usage of their native language. If you start nit picking at my usage of English I'll pick you on every mistake you make from now on." That member never corrected me again however a moderator started on me so I followed through.

I agree, I tried once to get mine to show but it never did so I gave up because it is not really a life changing event.

Good one.

Personally I find it interesting to see which OSs people use to post on this site, which was why I joined the thread about the icons. It may be "trivial" to some but to me it gives an insight into which OSs are being used by my fellow Linux users (reminds me I must change my UA strings again to Debian).
The capitalisation, I find, doesn't hinder but if someone feels like changing it then why not?
I see threads like this and the icon thread as similar to casual conversations "... wouldn't it be cool if ..." not a complaint but pointing out an observation.

There is an old old saying from the early days of the inner webs which seems to be relevant: