Just Curious

Please state the answer in the form of a question... Just Curious is the occassional blog of Andrew Nelson. In an attempt to balance the polemical tone of most of the blogosphere, all entries hope to pose at least one useful question. Many entries simply advance useful memes. Personal entries may abandon the interrogative conceit.

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

why can't I all just get along? (or "how meta is that?")

I am a person who is occasionally annoyed by the first-person plural. The editorial "we" doesn't bother me so much as when people use it in "polite" commands ("How about we all calm down now?"). But I sympathize with this fellow Singularist, who created a program that removes all first-person plural from the various -ist sites (Chicagoist, Gothamist, etc.) Singularist seems to get all the major forms (we, our, ours, ourselves, etc.) but misses them when they're in all caps, resulting in this amusing post from Chicagoist on the topic. The Chicagoist version:

Only a couple of days after launch, the Chicagoist Editorial Staff have been bombarded with demands from our über-hip friends demanding to know if we've seen Singularist. The answer, yes we have, and WE think, at least in Chicago, that it's pretty damn funny and inventive.

Launched on July 30th, Singularist is the singular effort of University of Southern California communications major Eric Richardson who, annoyed with our consistent "group commentary" and use of we - because we are members of a collective, hive-being - decided to script a site that would strip out the offending first-person plural, and make it all singular. Because he's from Los Angeles Singularist defaults to LAist, but you can read any of the other sites. Chicagoist is "cleansed" too.


And then the Singularist version:

Only a couple of days after launch, the Chicagoist Editorial Staff have been bombarded with demands from my über-hip friends demanding to know if I've seen Singularist. The answer, yes I have, and WE think, at least in Chicago, that it's pretty damn funny and inventive.

Launched on July 30th, Singularist is the singular effort of University of Southern California communications major Eric Richardson who, annoyed with my consistent "group commentary" and use of I - because I am members of a collective, hive-being - decided to script a site that would strip out the offending first-person plural, and make it all singular. Because he's from Los Angeles Singularist defaults to LAist, but you can read any of the other sites. Chicagoist is "cleansed" too.


Apparently it screws up umlauts as well. Down with über!

Also funny from Chicagoist's interview with Singularist creator:

Chicagoist: How often do you read Ist? Just LAist, or the others too?
Eric Richardson: i've posted various rants about LAist in the past
Eric Richardson: just LAist. i probably check the site once or twice a day.
Eric Richardson: i just didn't think it was fair to just target them when the code could do (almost) all the -ist sites
Eric Richardson: paris was going to be rough, so i left it out


Non non, mon ami! I'm sure someone could fix that up (not me, damn reflexives). Also:


Chicagoist: So, are you planning to spice up any other blogs? Like say translate Gawker into Elizabethan English?
Eric Richardson: the problem is that grammar's hard


Ain't it the truth? I'd love to design a program that would remove passive voice from academic papers, but that would be extremely difficult...

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