Talk:Plough
From Academic Kids
This page uses three different spellings of 'moldboard'. ('mouldboard', 'mold-board'.) Should it be made consistent? - Dominus 03:51, 21 Aug 2003 (UTC)
Consistency.
- "Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds."
- Actually, the saying is "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds". (Ralph Waldo Emerson) I don't think this call for consistency is foolish. You may disagree, but if you mean that you think it is foolish, I wish you would say so. -- Dominus 05:49, 21 Aug 2003 (UTC)
- Sorry, left the smiley out because I thought starting the next sentence with "But seriously" would suffice as a clue. No, I don't think looking for consistency within a single Wikipedia article is "foolish". Whether one should use "moldboard" or "mouldboard" is a question I have no opinion though. Thanks for the corrected quote, though. I would have misremembered it as being one of Samuel Johnsons in any case, so thank ghod I didn't attribute it! -- Cimon Avaro on a pogo-stick 06:32, Aug 21, 2003 (UTC)
But seriously, mouldboard may be most standard; according to OED at least. But then OED has the word "mold" merely as a redirect to "mould", so that should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt. Do as thou wilt. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick
- mouldboard is the British English spelling, and the OED is primarily and originally a dictionary of British English. -- Dominus
Well according the page histories this article started as Plough and not Plow so I will (as per convention) change this article to the British spellings of both words. -- Cimon Avaro on a pogostick
I believe I introduced at least some of the American spellings. I think it is fine to change them to British. I don't know all the British spellings so it is hard for me to maintain consistency when expanding an article originally written using them. In fact, it has been pointed out to me that the American spellings in and of themselves give me plenty of trouble :-). The American spelling of mouldboard should be noted though, somewhere; I may add this. Kat 14:07, 21 Aug 2003 (UTC)
How can we have an article on plows that doesn't mention John Deere? I detect a British bias here. Rmhermen 15:27, Aug 21, 2003 (UTC)
- And we don't have an article on John Deere either. Rmhermen 15:28, Aug 21, 2003 (UTC)
Bedtime for me, but a quick note in the hope tht some keen Wikkipedian will hop in and take care of this. This page really, really needs (a) stump-jump plough, (b) balance - i.e., discussion of the harm that ploughing does to soil structure as well as of its advantages. Tannin
