Bunbury’s Public Service Announcement 2

[arranbubonicplague]

The useful Bunbury Guide to Spotting Community Disruptors is constantly evolving.

The best research and advice is not to engage with community disruptors and trolls. As ever, if you suspect troll activity, report it to MNHQ.

This is a continuation of the first Public Service Announcement thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3321127-public-service-announcement

If and when you see threads plopped into FWR, especially a curious repeat of well worn topics, maybe check for poster history before engaging.

There are a number of posts/posters/threads that are reproduced on Twitter or Facebook to foment controversy using screen shots & flagging to either MNHQ to have threads or posters deleted. Sometimes, it’s used to approach commissioning editors with ideas for articles. It’s a tiresome tactic that we’ve had several community disruptor posters who themselves post the comments that they then highlight elsewhere as purported evidence of racism, religious intolerance, anti-men sentiments, or transphobia.

Some helpful links in following posts.

I don't think American spellings are against talk guidelines, however offensive some of us might find them.

Who knows what's next Errol! Bunbury may take no prisoners!

(For those who don't know humor/humour, this is not a a serious post! Though most of us who follow Bunbury are comfortable with humo-ur, whatever the consonants it presents itself as)

I actually get little squiggly lines if I try to spell things correctly. My computer is prejudiced against Brits!

You might be able to add a British English dictionary to your spelling checker.

Thats handy to know errol

Ds1 was just complaining aboit his spell check

I'm not sure about that, I've done it in some applications in the past, or swapped dictionaries - for customer-facing work I have to use American English.

Its worth trying though

Its the American spellcheck sticking a Z in everywhere!!

'Z' in words like 'criticize' is perfectly ok in British English though ... I remember an episode of Morse where he deduced something about the educational level of a suspect, with morse rating the 'z' version higher. (That could partly be an Oxford preference like the 'oxford comma'?) Although as a crossword addict, he would doubtless never want the '-ise' ending ditching entirely as it's much more likely to fit in a grid and easier to clue than '-ize'

It's the letter u that American English seems to have a grudge against.

Yes

Its very exclusive of U

The one that bugs me in my field is 'modeling' rather than 'modelling' (scientific modelling I hasten to add!) ... it always makes me want to pronounce it to rhyme with yodelling.

To return the thread from this siding to the main track, I note that Bunbury allows flexibility in respect of spellings, provided the words remain comprehensible and pronounceable and do not change their meanings or become ambiguous.

That's because Bunbury is a sensible person who doesn't go out of her way to seek out opportunities to take offense.

Blimey, it's only Thursday morning and the tossers are here already.

Wood- I thought we were going to be told about a stiffy 😂

As an American, I am pretty certain my ancestors fought and died for my right to exclude extraneous letters. No Brit ever asked my consent to have them intrude on my words, and I do not give it. No compelled speech! These are my boundaries.

Actually I tried to conform to British spelling when I lived there. It's just now I'm stateside again that I hope you won't mind that I don't.

As for our recent flood of new friends, I take it as a hopeful sign. Women's speech is effective, informed, and organiZed. That has to be a scary prospect for those who wish to silence us.

Grinitch I've lived in the UK for donkey's years and definitely conformed to the spellings. Extraneous Z's look weird to me now....

A JAQobin might have turned up on a thread and be attempting to divert the discussion about the statistical breakdown of demographics and their beliefs about rape and VAWG.

I asked the mods to please deal with that person.

AAK - it will be interesting to see the moderators' response to your notification.

In other news, elsewhere (on Twitter) I have seen someone drag Black Sea Bream into the conversation in order to argue that sex is a spectrum. Appleby has responded pithily to the observation that all BSB are born female but may age/grow into being male (40cm or above in length).

twitter.com/jackappleby/status/1070815415683690496

I shall gratuitously now throw in an observation that I can not contribute as I'm not on Twitter. I looked up the Wildlife Trust's entry on Black Sea Bream and discovered that they are known as Porgy.

It's probably not infeasible to think that all BSB pass through a Bess stage.

May I point out that this opens up whole new vistas for English National and other opera companies to explore the next time that they stage Gershwin's Porgy and Bess

www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/marine/fish-sharks-skates-and-rays/black-sea-bream

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porgy_and_Bess

I can see the underwater, fish-based Pixar animation...

You can probably ignore the zombie NSPCC threads - someone's spamming a link all over MN. Has been reported. How cowardly not to just start a thread (sounds like F4J axe to grind).

Not to be difficult, but do these people realize that people are not fish and that we diverged genetically millions of years ago?

do these people realize that people are not fish and that we diverged genetically millions of years ago

I believe that Jack Appleby's response has you covered...

I'm enjoying the conversation about Ethel who doesn't understand how planets or gravity work.

"I don't believe in gravity!"

"Yeah, well, unfortunately it still believes in you."

Which one is that, AngryAttackKittens?