[EM] jargon dictionary suggestion

[James Green-Armytage]

Dave Ketchum wrote:
>I do not know how to do a search and thus find the agreed on 
>definition of an acronym.
>
>Perhaps someone could accept responsibility for maintaining a dictionary;

	However, if people are interested in creating a jargon dictionary for its
own sake (and I think that it's a good idea), here's how I would suggest
to go about it:

1. Anyone can write an e-mail to the EM list, with the subject heading
"Jargon Dictionary." They can write in a few definitions to begin, but it
doesn't have to be more than one or two. They should put their initials
next to the definitions that they wrote.
2. People should put the definitions in alphabetical order.
3. Someone else copies the entire Jargon Dictionary, adds more definitions
of their own to it, and reposts it to the list, always with the heading
"Jargon Dictionary." 
4. Someone else copies the second version of the Jargon Dictionary in its
entirety, and then adds more definitions, marked by their own initials.
They post the new version.
5. And so on. People keep updating the dictionary simply by copying the
last version posted, adding more definitions, and re-posting it.

Note: People should not ever delete or alter any definition that was
originally posted by anyone other than themself.
	However, people can withdraw or alter definitions that they posted
originally.
	
Note: If you disagree with a definition, then you can post another
definition for the same term.
	Other people can then add their initials to one or the other (or both) in
approval.

Note: It's possible that if multiple people are working on the dictionary
at once, they might post separate versions of the dictionary that don't
include each other's new definitions. If so, it's no big problem... one or
both of them can just re-add the definitions that they tried to add
before, copying from the latest version of the dictionary available. In
general, any time you notice one of your definitions omitted from a new
version of the dictionary, you can feel free to do a new posting with it
added.

	People who maintain web pages can feel free to copy current versions of
the dictionary to a web page with a permanent address, and then update the
page every so often as the dictionary changes.
	I think that this would be a good project that we could work on together,
without placing commitment on any one person in particular.
	I guess that if anyone puts in any definitions that are just totally
ridiculous (e.g. "IRV: A psychedelic hippo-grinding method invented by the
Marquis de Chocula"... ), then there could be some sort of process of
removing it. I guess that you could copy it to a separate thread of
"Dictionary Out-takes" for a week or so, and if during that time no one
can bring up a half-reasonable support for keeping the definition, it
could get stricken from the Jargon Dictionary itself. Or something like
that... hopefully it wouldn't be too bad of a problem, but we'll see.

	Well, what do you think? Anyone can start the ball rolling. Just keep the
subject heading of "Jargon Dictionary"...

sincerely,
James