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3 minutes ago, Friday.7864 said:

Same principle. 
I'll refrain from using examples or posting anymore as some of you seem to be taking things too literally and derailing the thread.

Bye.
 

 


Not really. If this thread were intended by Anet to vote on whether to have it one way or another then sure. 
 

Also, disagreeing with you is not derailing. 

Edited by Ayrilana.1396
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It's not really just a Forum minority when offline, looking all competitor products, google trends etc. is used in the absolute vast majority. 

I don't think I've come across On-Line and Off-Line once in decades of online gaming. 

Hell, google even auto corrects off-line to offline at this point, I think it's pretty clear what the majority is used to - if a dictionary definition from 1919 agrees or not.

Edited by Asum.4960
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Just because something might become acceptable (wrt grammar) doesn't make it correct.  Take the debate over the Oxford comma, for example.  Or, the liberal use of the "apostrophe s" on words that don't show possession at least here in the US where such things are relatively prevalent.

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Hi. I wrote this haiku.

 

This is my first post

Please change it back to "offline"

Without a hyphen

 

Outdated grammar

Outdated game engine too

Get with the times now

 

Stop using Webster

Start using your common sense

Just look at this graph

 

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Offline%2COff-line&year_start=1890&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=0&case_insensitive=true

Edited by onyx.3709
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If Arenanet wants to go back to using an outdated version of the word off-line, then I fully expect them to change other "grammatically incorrect" words such as email to e-mail and website to web-site.

It's outdated and both versions are grammatically correct. Now it's just an eyesore.

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I don't even mind so much that it's now hyphenated. I mind that it's incorrectly hyphenated as off -line with a space. Who even does that, what, is -line a command argument for the off function? Just make it off-line or offline what kind of psychopath writes off -line. Lol

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I seriously wouldn't have cared if both offline and online changed to have a hyphen. But now it looks odd in chat to have Online and Off-line as opposed to either On-line and Off-line or Online and Offline.

If you're saying it's a grammatical clean up, shouldn't the same rule regarding the use of a hyphen apply to both words?

Edited by Koman.7064
Grammatical error
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2 hours ago, kharmin.7683 said:

Just because something might become acceptable (wrt grammar) doesn't make it correct. 

Actually, it's exactly how grammar changes over the years. Things become acceptable to more and more people, and eventually, after the old form gets phased out and new form becomes used by more and more people, one after another "official" entities start to acknowledge it.

 

In this case, while Merriam Webster seems to be insisting on "off-line", other "grammar correctness authorities" already acknowledge both forms as correct, with Oxford recognizing only "offline". It also seems that Merriam-Webster is a bit conservative (to put it mildly) about language, which is why it may be insisting on using a form that went out of use in the previous millenium.

 

It's weird to see such a change here, because the MMORPG target group is generally not the one that would be assumed to be so old-fashioned and conservative about language.

Edited by Astralporing.1957
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1 hour ago, Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

What a silly thing to get worked up over!

Surely, there are changes to the game we would rather have the Devs work on, no?

 

Personally, I'd rather be able to change my status (to Off -line or online) before entering the game.

Exactly many in this thread is worked up over it because the devs decided to change it 8 years in instead of doing other stuff.

 

Now when they already done it once it is a quick fix to get it back.

No need to reinvent the wheel again.

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22 hours ago, CathShadow.9507 said:

I appreciate changes, and attempts to improve quality, like this. That said, as I understand, Off-line is American English, Offline is British

It's American English as well. I don't know why referring to "THE DICTIONARY" is even relevant anymore things change so quickly and new words are added constantly. "Website" wasn't technically "correct" for a long time until they finally added it because everyone uses it.

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I read the following conclusion in an article about : "Online and Offline: To Hyphenate or Not"

    (Author: Sheila Sanders )

Quote: "The rule, of course, is consistency: use the same form throughout a document. The normal progression in English is to move from two separate words, to a hyphenated word, to a single term. Thus, online and offline are no exceptions; they are simply moving through these stages very quickly. (...) "
 

In other words, if you write "off-line" then also "on-line",
... no idea if you have to proceed this also with "in-line" and "out-line" . 😄

A small note on e-mail:  here "e" is the abbreviation for "electronic" and I see the hyphen as helpful - for me a difference to off-line.
E-Mail without the hyphen could occasionally be confusing in other languages, since there exist a word "email",
but with the meaning of "Vitreous enamel".
 In the Wikipedia article there is therefore a remark:
  "This article deals with the enamel coating of Email. For electronic mail, see E-Mail." (translated)
 

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On 5/12/2021 at 4:56 PM, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

I heard back from the editing team. 

 

Short version from them:

They did it as part of some editing clean-up (clean up? cleanup? I don't even know at this point) to make it grammatically correct

 

Long version from them:

GRAMMAR CONTROVERSY AT ARENANET
 
The editing team struggled mightily with the weighty decision to add a hyphen in the term "off-line." After a heated debate that included no small amount of name-calling, tears, and even a little bloodshed (from an accidental, self-inflicted paper cut), they came to the not-entirely-unanimous decision that matching the spelling prescribed by Merriam-Webster outweighed the aesthetics and character-limit savings of the nonhyphenated spelling. One valued member of the team is contemplating leaving their highly sought-after Assistant to the Junior Editor position over the entire affair. The harmony of the editing team has been forever upset, but it's a worthy sacrifice in the name of proper grammar.

Boy, let me tell you guys about UX design...

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