English compounding varies over time. Decades ago, “data base” was correct, then “data-base”, and now we use “database”. The AP Style Guide insisted on using “web site” until April 2010, when they allowed “website”. Both “baby sitter” and “babysitter” are correct.

Hi All,

As a language nerd myself, I certainly enjoy an extended discussion on language. But this is not the group for that. Please take it off-line.

Thanks,
Mark

I’ll fight to the death that proper grammar and structure are important and should be retained no matter.  For instance, one does not know when something may become unclear (to someone else.) What’s the big deal about doing something properly, too much work? More likely ignorance is bliss. 

On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 05:40 PM, ro-esp wrote:

I never heard of en dashes and em dashes and thought they were the same as hyphens....

Most do and would.  The distinction is much more one of typesetting, where their length is ever so slightly different.  I know of very few people who don't interpret a small black line between two words, or a prefix and a word, as needed regardless of what typesetting convention was used for it, including hyphen.
 
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Brian - Windows 10 Home, 64-Bit, Version 1803, Build 17134 
     Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.

          ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore

On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 02:53 PM, J_Catlady wrote:

(not em dash)

...or en dash, take your choice. (Em dashes and en dashes, too, are slightly different from each other.)
Bottom line, no hyphen, en dash, or em dash is required here.
 
--
J

Messages are the sole opinion of the author, especially the fishy ones.
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. - Desmond Tutu

On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 02:40 PM, ro-esp wrote:

Gender based should have a en dash.

I had to look up that one. I never heard of en dashes and em dashes and thought they were the same as hyphens..

The complaint should have been that "gender based" requires a hyphen, not an em dash. So that's the first problem. Second, the hyphen is NOT required. Not any more, according to AP style and other style conventions. Hyphens are going out of style to the extent that they should be left out except where the meaning is unclear. The meaning is perfectly clear in this case, so the hypen (not em dash) is unnecessary.
 
--
J

Messages are the sole opinion of the author, especially the fishy ones.
My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together. - Desmond Tutu

On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 05:42 AM, J_Catlady wrote:

On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 07:58 PM, Sharon Villines wrote:

Gender based should have a en dash.

I had to look up that one. I never heard of en dashes and em dashes and thought they were the same as hyphens....

It's a style issue.

No it's not. It's a matter of clarity. "gender-based/genderbased" is one word, an adjective. "gender" is a noun, "based" is a verbform, a participle.
"overpopulated/over-populated" is one word, not two

They're going out of style, and I would not use unless
meaning is unclear. I'm fine without it.

I'm not. Excessive use of spaces is killing clarity, both in English and Dutch.

groetjes, Ronaldo

I recently saw a locked thread, and noticed I could no "like" any messages. Is this intentional or coincidence?

If intentional, what's the rationale behind it?

groetjes, Ronaldo

If you want to know what moderator did what, you can look in the activity log for your group.

It would be very helpful to be able to limit what a moderator can do in terms of files, photos, databases, and wikis.  Right now the moderator permissions don't control those by individual, and while someone might need to be able to upload files they might not need to be able to create a table as an example.  It seems to be all or nothing for these items, and that could make changes very difficult to track in the future.
Thanks
Beth

On Fri, Oct 12, 2018 at 11:33 AM, Brian Vogel wrote:

add in the figleafing of e-mail addresses in the forum interface

There was an option added awhile back that can take care of this on the groups you own/moderate.  You can show full email addresses in a group by selecting that option at Settings, Privacy, Hide Email Addresses In Archives.  If the archives are public, non-members will still see the figleaf, but members that are signed in will see the email address.  When the option was added, it defaulted to masking because that's what it had been.

Duane

I just edited an email “To” line with 28 addresses to be one address per line so I could send invitations. I probably should have done that with query-replace in Emacs, but it would be even better if the Invite box also accepted comma-separated addresses.

And when you add in the figleafing of e-mail addresses in the forum interface, it becomes a real nightmare.

I cannot count the number of times where someone has, through the e-mail interface, offered an e-mail address that I still have no access to since I have the "No email" option set for all groups I am on, except when testing.  And it does no good at all to switch to e-mail delivery after the fact and then have to ask for it to be repeated again, as that gets annoying to the group at large and the person who's already given the information.

Not that I'm expecting it will change, ever, but I will go on record again that I despise the figleafing of e-mail addresses on the web interface.  We all have spam trapping and it's a myth that any e-mail address is private in any meaningful sense of the word private.  Once it's drifted through cyberspace just by being used to send e-mail it can be sniffed out by anyone wanting to do so.
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Brian - Windows 10 Home, 64-Bit, Version 1803, Build 17134 
     Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.

          ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore

I am extremely happy with groups.io and think the CALENDAR the best around.  There was a comment a few months ago about the option of having the first day of the week being Monday.  Is that still under consideration?
David

Awesome, I can't believe how fast that was! Thanks, Mark!

On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 10:25 PM, Mark Fletcher wrote:

I've removed that text.

The "new format" notification is definitely a Marked improvement over the old.

Pun entirely deliberate.

Chris.

Brian,

An additional factor, unless I'm just inventing this from
the whole cloth, is that group owners can choose to have private
directories, in which case there's no way to establish off-group
contact with a member who is not averse to same with ease.

Correct. The Directory can be limited to Moderators and Owners, or may be disabled entirely.

Shal

On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 10:29 PM, Ken Kloeber wrote:

The proper instruct would be to list what one CAN DO.

Neither a "permitted" or "forbidden list," alone, is sufficient.
 
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Brian - Windows 10 Home, 64-Bit, Version 1803, Build 17134 
     Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.

          ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore

If one keeps going down the rabbit hole on topics/actions that one CAN’T do, you’ll end up in China.  It’s a never-ending/ever-expansive list one could generate.  And then it requires narrowly defining each item so there’s no end-around possible. 

Excellent, thank you!

Helen