Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time

Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by jkubicek on Monday November 13, 2023 @02:48PM (#38254426)

At one point, I was fastidiously replacing the word "ask" with "request" in every Google Doc I had edit access too.

I've since given up, it's just too overwhelming. For every "ask" I squash, there's 5 more being thrown at me in Slack and emails and Google Docs and Slides.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by panzagl on Monday November 13, 2023 @02:54PM (#38254498)

You can join me on my crusade changing 'utilize' to 'use'.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by panarky on Monday November 13, 2023 @03:01PM (#38254592)

From an exhausted and humiliated veteran of the failed struggle against the verbification of "impact", you have my respect and sympathy.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by gmane on Monday November 13, 2023 @03:09PM (#38254728)

I think that one is a direct result of people being pedants about the difference between effect and affect which made a lot of people try to avoid them completely.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by sneak on Monday November 13, 2023 @04:57PM (#38255933)

My favorite is that affect and effect are also sometimes a noun and verb, respectively.

Knowing how to use all 4 (affect noun, affect verb, effect noun, effect verb) correctly feels like a superpower.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by MrVandemar on Monday November 13, 2023 @06:16PM (#38256674)

You're fighting the good fight.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by scarygliders on Monday November 13, 2023 @03:56PM (#38255272)

That is nothing compared to the cringe I experience whenever I see people type "lead" when it really called for "led"; "He lead them into battle" instead of "He led them into battle." - I see that a lot these days.

Oh and speaking of "a lot", it makes me sad every time I see people using "alot". And that non-word gets used increasingly often. It's not like it's a typo or autocorrection. A lot of people unironically type "alot". Ugh!

EDIT: Lol, I received a downvote. I found the "alot" user. Or the "lead instead of led" user! Or perhaps I scored a double strike ;)

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by saghm on Monday November 13, 2023 @04:14PM (#38255475)

An old but good resource on coping with "alots": https://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-bette...

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by eternityforest on Monday November 13, 2023 @06:37PM (#38256844)

If you ever go led climbing at night while listening to Led Zeppelin, you will probably want to bring a lead light, but not one powered by led assed sells, as that would way alot, probably to much.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by Larrikin on Monday November 13, 2023 @08:01PM (#38257504)

A lot is annoying to swipe type on a phone. I know alot is not in the dictionary, but it will always be one of the first words I purposefully add to my user dictionary, right after all the cuss words.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by sneak on Monday November 13, 2023 @04:59PM (#38255949)

I also find the usage annoying, but I made an executive decision to overrule my emotions on the matter because simplifying the common usage of the world’s lingua franca by having verbs do double duty is, in the long run, fine and good and useful. We already do it for “drive” and “run”. More gerunds is a good thing.

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Re:Small Imprecise Ask Is a Big Waste of Their Time by elicksaur on Monday November 13, 2023 @07:27PM (#38257250)

“request” is a word that can be a noun or a verb. Why can “request” be a noun, but “ask” should not?

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