Wiktionary:Votes/pl-2011-02/Deprecating less-than symbol in etymologies

Deprecating less-than symbol in etymologies

• Voting on: Setting the use of "from" in etymologies as Wiktionary standard, and deprecating the use of less-than symbol. In particular: (a) adjusting Wiktionary:Etymology, a guideline for formatting of etymology, to state that "from" is the standard, by replacing less-than symbol with ", from" in examples and by other adjustments as needed; (b) declaring that anyone is welcome to replace less-than symbol with "from" in etymologies, no matter whether manually or robotically. (c) There should be a comma and a space before "from", with the exception of "from" that is at the beginning of the etymology, and possibly some other exceptions; as in "From A, from B, from C" rather than "From A from B from C".
• Rationale: The use of "from" is preferred over the use of less-than symbol by a large majority in the poll Wiktionary:Beer parlour#Poll: Etymology and the use of less-than symbol, February 2011. In the poll, 37 people have stated their preference up to now. We cannot satisfy everyone, and one of the formatting options should be chosen as Wiktionary standard. The use of comma before "from" is the prevalent common practice in Wiktionary whenever "from" is used; it is also the practice used by Merriam-Webster online and other online dictionaries that use "from".
• Vote starts: 00:01, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
• Vote ends: 23.59, 8 March 2011 (UTC) -- 14 days later
• Vote created: Dan Polansky 08:58, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
• Discussion:

  Wiktionary:Beer parlour#Poll: Etymology and the use of less-than symbol, February 2011

  Wiktionary talk:Votes/pl-2011-02/Deprecating less-than symbol in etymologies

Support

1. Support Dan Polansky 10:19, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
2. Support Daniel. 10:35, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
3. Support Caladon 11:01, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
4. Support —Ruakh_TALK 14:16, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
5. Support Leo Laursen – (talk · contribs) 17:18, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
6. Support Ƿidsiþ 18:18, 22 February 2011 (UTC)
7. Support DAVilla 10:57, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Oppose

1. Oppose. This vote is unnecessary. WT:Etymology is not a {{policy}}, and doesn't require a vote to be modified. The poll has already shown that there is a consensus to make "from" the standard, so the page should just be changed to reflect that. And I really hope that this vote doesn't result in WT:Etymology becoming semi-{{policy}}-ified... --Yair rand (talk) 11:08, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

   The poll only asked about preferences that people have; it did not ask about whether people want these preferences imposed as Wiktionary standard. "I prefer A to B" and "I want A to become a project standard and B getting deprecated" are two distinct statements. This vote does not turn WT:ETY into a policy, but I admit that it treats it in part as if it were a policy. In any case, a change to WT:ETY made through a 14-day vote has more authority than a change that merely refers to a poll. After this vote ends (8 March 2011), around 30 days will have passed from the day on which I have started the poll (7 February 2011), which is a nice time for such a significant change that could have been executed years ago if it were not for the polls-are-evil and votes-are-evil ranting. --Dan Polansky 11:45, 23 February 2011 (UTC)

Abstain

1. Abstain.​—msh210℠ (talk) 17:06, 22 February 2011 (UTC)