I'd like to point out a grammatical error

[Reborn87]

obviously it doesn't, cause otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation :P

[Dark0ne]

obviously it doesn't, cause otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation

 

Or maybe some people just lack a greater understanding of the English language? Think that one is more likely.

[Reborn87]

ouch, is that supposed to be a thinly veiled stab at my supposed lack of English skills? (and no i didn't use a dictionary for that either :P )

[Iluventi]

If you want to be picky...you could also say that it is lacking a "." after the "admin"..... in the case of "admin."...denoting that it is shortened?

 

:P

 

Ilu.

[Melisande]

Okay - how about this scenario.

 

Admin has become common usage, therefore does not need the period denoting a shortening of the word. Now, if you accept that, then how about accepting the fact that the Admin is both a singular and plural form of the noun. If so, then both 'the Admin is' and 'the Admin are' are both technically correct.

 

Or, that the Admin have become a race unto themselves. Assuming this, the term Admin can be considered along the terms of Polish, Czech, British, etc. as a group noun that must always take the plural case.

 

I now am four haypennies poorer.

 

Thanks

[Iluventi]

That's true...so is Admin a word?

 

 

admin

 

/ad-min'/ n. Short for `administrator'; very commonly

used in speech or on-line to refer to the systems person in charge

on a computer. Common constructions on this include `sysadmin' and

`site admin' (emphasizing the administrator's role as a site contact

for email and news) or `newsadmin' (focusing specifically on news).

Compare postmaster, sysop, system mangler.

 

 

Hm...?

[Mojlnir]

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary "admin" is not a real word but rather an abbreviation of either "administration" or "administrative" not admistrator. The aforementioned definition is, however, more in keeping with our modern high tech society. I would argue that currently "admin" is an abbreviation, and will probably remain that way. Combination words like 'sysadmin' or 'newsadmin' are becoming increasingly common, thanks to the desire to keep everything compact and quick as well as our fascination with military (longtime master abbreviators) abbreviations. Anyway, it might just be my paranioa, but it all sounds rather like Newspeak to me. :shifty:

[AdamNeko]

I really think this whole arguement depends on what dictionary is used. I honestly read the M-W version, and know about the other which refers to an Admin as an administrator as well. This is likely going to just degrade into a pointless war of words, IMO. How about we just drop it and leave it as that it means both? ^_^

[Dark0ne]

Or really its going to end with "Thats how the site owner uses the word 'admin' and therefore the title in question will not be changing" :nazgul:

[Jesugandalf]

I think this discussion is bad focused. The problem, from my point of view, is not if "admin" is an abbreviation of "administrator" or "administration". The thing is that the message in the banner is understandable or not, if everybody understands what Dark0ne is saying, or not.

 

I cannot compete with you in discussions about English language matters because, although I'm an expert on English in my country, it's not my mothertongue and therefore my mastering of it is far behind yours. But I (and some other people) think that what is important in a message is that it is understandable (or acceptable, as they call it in my translation course). As a future translator, I've learned that the principal aim of every translation is to be acceptable, and I suppose this is also appliable to the texts in their original language.

 

Therefore, to me, the text in the banner is perfectly ok because it's perfectly understandable. I don't discuss simply what "admin" refers to, but rather the text as a whole.