I'm sorry if I'm being dense - but what has this to do with words?

I think it's called "SPAM," Richard.

Noise created by ab-gnormal people

Best ignored.

Best ignored
My theory, precisely, Jerry.

I see now. All his, her or its posts are meaningless. It's presumably someone with enough time on his, her or its hands that it chooses to waste it by posting inane drivel on other people's sites.

I agree, best ignored.

hi richard,
i titled my post "welcome to participate", which you are. if it's in this section, "the written word", why is that spam

any more than,
Name That Tune tinman
Summer reading? Kalleh
?

i like your picture.
if i may say so, you do look like someone who knows a lot about words!
glen

(i am a him, and my postings are not without meaning!)

gnormal I looked at your site and was perfectly sure that it wasn't SPAM (by definition you can't SPAM yourself) but it was incomprehensible. It might just as easily have been in Chinese for all I could make of it.
Maybe you could give us a bit of a clue as to its form and purpose.

Quote "...if it's in this section, "the written word", why is that spam..."

This section is about the written word - its use, abuse and meaning.

It is not a section that is thus entitled simply because it contains written words.

And I, too, have looked at your site and can find no meaning in it that seems to relate to words or language and I maintain that it therefore has no place here.

I am happy to be proved wrong and would be delighted to engage in lingustic debate with you.

but it was incomprehensible

I'm not so sure. Interesting thing about the URL linked above is that it leads to a forum, in which, though the meaning of individual sentences is pretty clear and rather trivial, the context of those sentences and paragraphs and posts is fuzzy at best (to an outsider). Ostensibly, its pragmatic topic is "2 things that have happened lately... " and that seems to be the meaning behind the sentential meaning. But I could be wrong. Funny thing about forums, this one included, is that dropping into them sight unseen is confusing at best (for an outside). For the longest time I thought this forum was about words, their etymologies and meanings, but I was wrong and grew used to its real aboutness.

A quick look at the URL posted in his public profile reveals that he writes poetry. The poems I looked at seem pretty standard, and some of the "unknown" comments seemed a little hostile which is also pretty standard in the trade. In the end it ain't spam, and welcome aboard gnormal: mind your step.

For the longest time I thought this forum was about words, their etymologies and meanings, but I was wrong and grew used to its real aboutness.

Well, as a co-administrator here, that was how this board was conceived. Evidently we haven't kept it true to form.

Tell me, what is our "real aboutness?"

Tell me, what is our "real aboutness?"

Sorry, K., I hadn't meant to ruffle the feathers of one of the co-admins. My saying that was a little bit tongue in cheek. But a lot of bandwidth here is dedicated to chatting about history, morals, beverages, limericks, aesthetics, prior claims, etc. (And don't get me wrong, but I have gladly joined in on many of such digressing topics.)

I believe that though an online community may grow into its chartered purpose more or less, it remains a reflection of its (most vocal) citizens' true interests whether they have anything to do with the charter or not.

It just seemed a little premature to be accusing somebody of both spam and unmeaning, when they'd only posted a couple of times. To my way of thinking that is a rude and bullying attitude, but perhaps that's just the way I was brought up. (I'm willing to cut him some slack until he shows signs of bad faith.) For the people who post here often, it may be hard to remember with what trepidation you approached your first several postings. Or maybe not, but I do.

Providing a pointer to one's poetry site seems to be connected to the written word. Since the site linked to had nothing to do with selling me anything, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Otherwise, if I mention the Language Log group blog or somebody mentions Quinion's site folks might take it as some sort of advertisement rather than a friendly, "Hey look at this" gesture.

I agree with you.

However, the site I found seemed nothing more than a diary recounting a number of mundane events that seemed to have no connection whatsoever with language.

Maybe I didn't look far enough but to my mind any link should, at the very least, give some clue as to its purpose.

For example, in some of my many digressions into the world of beer I have sometimes spoken of CAMRA and the wonderful work it has done. I would consider it perfectly justified to say to readers of such a posting, "...find out more here..." www.camra.org.uk

But an unexplained link to a vague site does not, to my mind, have that justification.

The site linked to is a forum, and he was inviting members here to participate there. I didn't feel a need to. It had that closed hermetic feeling that forums (this one included) have to the first-time visitor. But neither did I accuse him of spamming this forum. The topic was his, so I won't even say it was a digression. That's it. Now, back to etyma and semes.

Sorry, K., I hadn't meant to ruffle the feathers of one of the co-admins. My saying that was a little bit tongue in cheek. But a lot of bandwidth here is dedicated to chatting about history, morals, beverages, limericks, aesthetics, prior claims, etc. (And don't get me wrong, but I have gladly joined in on many of such digressing topics.)

My feathers weren't ruffled...I was just interested in seeing your take on this board. Our purpose here surely was to have been about words and etymology, and I agree we have digressed way too much from time to time. And, I am surely a culprit in that, myself.

However, it is hard to know when to try to stop a digression, and as you can see, that has become a question with the limerick project here. We don't want to irritate our posters, but we also want to keep it a board where we have fun discussing words, meanings and etymology. There is sometimes a fine line.

However, you are completely right to say that we were too quick to mention spamming and unmeaning to gnormal, that's for sure. In fact, that unwelcoming of new members is exactly why I left another word board and came here. So, I feel bad about that.

You must understand that it came at a time when we had a lot of new posters, and I had privately been cautioned to watch for problem posters. Yet, you are right, it was too quick, and I apologize to gnormal. Thanks, jheem, for keeping us honest. I do appreciate that.

I wasn't saying it had no meaning, just that I couldn't discern what its meaning was - hence the Chinese comparison. The only symbol that I can recognise in Chinese is the one used to indicate a men's toilet. That doesn't mean that the Chinese poem on one of my T-shirts has no meaning but it does render it incomprehensible to me.
In fact gnormal's forum looked as if there ought to be a meaning but whatever it was it escaped me.

This post deleted by Wordcrafter, as constituting extremely inflamatory personal criticism.

Light, you will please refrain from posting further on this board. Thank you.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wordcrafter,

Oh, Jeeze!

And not 10 minutes ago, in a PM, I brought up the idea of a reconciliation!

the idea of a reconciliation!



Edited by Wordcrafter, solely to remove 2 words of references concerning what light had said.

well, without context it was left pretty much devoid of sense, so I removed the rest.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tsuwm,