[darcs-users] darcs patch: Edit Front Page (and 9 more)

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Eric Kow writes:

 > Folks, I think this is one of those places where English punctuation
 > rules aren't widely agreed on:
 > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostrophe#Singular_nouns_ending_with_an_.22s.22_or_.22z.22_sound

I think it's pretty clear from that article that the rule that was
taught to me in New York in the 1960s and was taught to my daughter in
California in 2008 *is* the widely agreed standard, and the apparent
balance in presentation of the alternative is basically an artifact of
Wikipedia's editorial enforcment of the NPOV.

In any case, we're doing marketing.  To most educated native speakers
I know (admittedly, that sample is overwhelmingly populated with
professional academics, mostly over the age of 40), the partially
simplified rule[1] looks lazy and unprofessional.  I suppose you could
retort that to people on the other side of the debate it looks like
pedantic adherence to arbitrary rules in a corner case.  To which I
reply, "isn't 'getting it right even when it's inconvenient' what we
stand for?!"  I think it's better to lean toward pedantry.


Footnotes: 
[1]  Fully simplified, it would be 'add "'s" to form the possessive'.