User talk:Palecitrus

G'day

G'day there, Palecitrus, and welcome to Wikipedia! Good authors are always welcome on the project, and I hope you like the place and decide to stick around!

We've got a few pages you might find helpful, such as:

• Our "five pillars"
• The lowdown on editing
• A detailed tutorial
• Our house manual of style

It's all best summed up here: write from a neutral point of view, play nice with others, and don't let the rules get you down.

If you have any questions or need any help, my talkpage is always open for business, or you can see Wikipedia:Newcomers help page. Here's a tip to start you off: if you type four tildes (~~~~) at the end of any messages you leave on talkpages (like this one) Wikipedia will automatically insert your name and the current date and time after your message. Cool, eh? Happy editing! fuddlemark (fuddle me!) 13:15, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

Companies on SCO v. Novell page

Is there some Wikipedia rule that constrains the English version of WP to US English? In British English, it is common practice to refer to companies, sports teams and the like using the plural. Your assertion of making corrections is not really correct -- you made the article conform to US-English conventions.

Response: The British English point you make is punctually incorrect - a company is a singular entity. Period. It is a *convention* and widely used in the media (say, BBC Radio Five), but only because that's what the 'man in the street' says and understands - referring, for example, to a football team (singular) because he is thinking of the collection of individuals (players - plural) that comprise the team.

Besides, Wikipedia convention would appear to be for American English spelling and the like, so it seems wise to conform to the established house-style. (Palecitrus 12:13, 23 August 2007 (UTC))

There is plenty of evidence that the plural use is acceptable in British English - not just on Radio 5. See http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/collective_nouns.html (maintained by the British Council). Please try to get over your US-centric bias.

Although I have no figures to prove it, I suggest that the US-centric slant is purely an artifact of the larger US population, not a policy. I don't mean to say that the article is incorrect after you edited it -- just that it was not incorrect before. Captain Nemo III 01:35, 24 August 2007 (UTC)