Good lord, the vitriol...

[njdevil44]

The whole lexicon debate has reared its ugly head again, and the nastiness has come along for the ride.  I think the pro-Collins side has been the calmer of the two sides this time around, though I don't really care for the "let's add the Collins 2's and 3's" proposal as it just seems silly to me.  If we're going to add FY# and MAK#, why wouldn't

Comments

[quinquennia]

Good post, although I don't really want to read CGP just to see what Stefan said that made so much sense. It seems as if every Scrabbler is feeling a little itchy today.

[njdevil44]

Well the good news is that Stefan's post is actually on the NASPA-pro Yahoo group, and not CGP. The main gist is as follows:

"I'm not taking a pro or con Collins stance here. Or even taking a position of
Joel's (reasonable) argument. But the addition of a few, selected words from a
British dictionary (why the threes and not the fours? why not the top 100
Collins sevens? why not the top 101?) seems to me a step that would compromise
the lexicographic integrity of the competitive game as it's currently
constituted and create another word divide among players."

We should either go whole hog into Collins or continue with coexistence, I don't see a nice and neat way to introduce Collins-only words in batches into TWL.

[njdevil44]

Yeah, strategy is dictated by the words available to play, so the principles are the same, you just have to be aware of how the extra words will affect what you can play and what your opponent can play in response. So rules of thumb go out the window to some extent, but given some thought and enough games you can go back to playing defense to your heart's content if you so desire.

Agree that it was nice to meet and play you (and discuss millenial Rush albums), although hopefully our next game won't be so terribly one-sided :).

[winterene]

Matthew, compare the tone on CGP with the tone in the FB group I created (which you're a member of).

I've seen all the messages, and I've seen nothing that could be called vitriol, which was one of my hopes when creating the group (another being that I boycott CGP).

I'm doing what I can to try and move discussion over there.

[njdevil44]

Oh yes Winter, I agree that the Facebook group has been great. I've had no issue with what has been posted there, although it is a bit of a self-selected group right now. The vitriol (which is probably the wrong word now that I think about it, maybe cantankerousness?) was exclusively on CGP, which is no big surprise. If we moved all discussion to Facebook groups, and people had to put their picture next to what they wrote I think we will get better, more rational discussion.

[jalapic]

i went away for a long weekend. thanks for saving me the time - now i don't have to read a hundred emails !

[njdevil44]

Ha, I provided a public service! You are very welcome. I've always browsed the Yahoo mailing lists online, never receiving emails because I hate having to delete dozens of messages that often hold no interest to me.