Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 5438386" data-attributes="member: 18280">I cannot fathom how anyone can claim that adding more potential meanings to a term doesn't dilute the clarity of the term.&nbsp; It doesn't matter what the term is.&nbsp; &quot;Pet&quot; has a more diluted meaning than &quot;Dog&quot;, and &quot;Dog&quot; has a more diluted meaning than &quot;German Shepherd&quot;.&nbsp; OTOH, if German shepherds were the only dogs, and dogs the only pets, then &quot;Pet&quot; would be no more diluted than &quot;German Shepherd&quot;.To claim otherwise is to deny reality.One can take the tact that the most recent definitions somehow removes all previous definitions from common parlance, but that's also denying reality.&nbsp; People play all sorts of D&amp;D.&nbsp; There are people playing games they call D&amp;D that haven't got a TSR or a WotC logo on the cover.You can prevent dilution of a term's meaning only by preventing new meaningings from being added.&nbsp; You can decrease dilution only by reducing the number of meanings being used.Pretending otherwise is a disservice, to yourself and to others.Whether it is good or bad......That's a whole 'nother question.&nbsp; And it can be treated as such without denying underlying reality.RC</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Raven Crowking, post: 5438386, member: 18280"] I cannot fathom how anyone can claim that adding more potential meanings to a term doesn't dilute the clarity of the term. It doesn't matter what the term is. "Pet" has a more diluted meaning than "Dog", and "Dog" has a more diluted meaning than "German Shepherd". OTOH, if German shepherds were the only dogs, and dogs the only pets, then "Pet" would be no more diluted than "German Shepherd". To claim otherwise is to deny reality. One can take the tact that the most recent definitions somehow removes all previous definitions from common parlance, but that's also denying reality. People play all sorts of D&D. There are people playing games they call D&D that haven't got a TSR or a WotC logo on the cover. You can prevent dilution of a term's meaning only by preventing new meaningings from being added. You can decrease dilution only by reducing the number of meanings being used. Pretending otherwise is a disservice, to yourself and to others. Whether it is good or bad......That's a whole 'nother question. And it can be treated as such without denying underlying reality. RC [/QUOTE]

Verification