definitions in fandom

[alixtii]

In the second chapter of Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, a young Alice Liddell accuses the Red Queen of speaking nonsense, and is supplied with the response "You may call it `nonsense' if you like, but I've heard nonsense, compared with which that would be as sensible as a dictionary

Comments

[alixtii]

I'm a bookworm and language geek (sorta) too, so I certainly know. But I think the simple fact is that misunderstanding is simply the inevitable result of a text-based communication medium (or really, any language-based communication media, and I'm not sure what a non-language based communication medium would look like).

I enjoy your site--it's always fun to read. I think what what one walks away with, though, is a testament to the fluidity of language, not its stability. Your site basically serves a lexicographical function (not surprising as it is called a "glossary") describing how terms are used at a given time. A term is used different ways in different fandoms and you're forced to make note of the fact. Of course, useful terms will migrate from one fandom to one or mother other fandoms, and your site could act as a catalyst, but the process is more or less based upon historical accident.

While I think your site is incredibly useful for exactly the reasons you give (having my stance on definitions doesn't keep me from using www.oed.com or www.m-w.com all the time--actually, I use them more, since I refuse to define my own terms myself), I think the hope that we'll ever have a common, universal fandom language is mostly a pipe dream. (Or my other answer is we already have such a language--it's called English. Except when it's some other language.)