two more slogans

[nancylebov]

De facto standards are what are known as 'standards'. De jure standards are what are known as 'wishes'.

"All knowledge is contained in fandom" does not mean any particular fan knows everything

Comments

[pnh.livejournal.com]

Actually, the corrollary to "all knowledge is contained in fandom" is "not all the knowledge contained in fandom is true."

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Can't it have more than one corollary?

[avram]

Any reason to prefer “are what are known as” to “are called”?

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I'm going to think about about it. Actually, people frequently think de jure standards are actual standards, so maybe the best formulation is simply "De facto standards are standards. De jure standards are wishes."

[cellio]

I like that formulation.

Except That Neither Is True...

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

The real distinction between de facto and de jure is not whether they are enforceable or not, but who's doing the enforcing. I'd prefer the following pair of slogans:

"De jure standards are made by Man."
"De facto standards are made by Mother Nature."

Re: Except That Neither Is True...

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I think we've got differing connotations. I think of de facto standards as being partly what's evolved by a group rather than what's enforcable. For example, the fact that infinitives can (and sometimes should) be split in English, but can't be split in Latin wouldn't usually be thought of as a matter for Mother Nature.

Would you like the Man/Mother Nature version as a custom button?

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

But standards that are "evolved by a group" can also be changed by a group. Grammar rules are very like that; in fact, they change all the time. (Consider the death of the subjunctive in English, for example). To me, that makes it more of a "de jure" rule, even though it wasn't created by fiat. On the other hand, certain rules exist by means of the nature of things; the law of gravity is definitely de facto, not de jure.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I don't think I want the "Man/Mother Nature" version as a button; it's too debatable, IMHO, to be a good button slogan. IMO, button slogans should either be irrefutable or statements of opinions I definitively hold, and I could still be argued out of this one.

"All knowledge is contained in fandom"

[sgsguru.livejournal.com]

So is all misinformation.