Yeah, it's a fine line. This is also coming from across the border to your south, and we have pretty vehemently rejected any one authority. We went through an Elements of Style phase, but that book is dumb and arbitrary like the rest. Another book that gives a really good perspective on all this is The Lexicographer's Dilemma by Jack Lynch. I'm not sure how I feel about specific technical usage (beyond vocabulary), to be honest. There are probably many cases where it occurs in stupid ways, but at what point do you ask someone to risk looking like they don't know what they're talking about in order to change the trend?
I do. There are certain spellings that I prefer to others. Spellcheckers do not approve. Most spellcheckers allow us to get around the fascism of spellcheck by having an "add to dictionary" function. At what cost, at what cost? Civilization has never fallen over a disagreement about how to present ourselves. Although I have read that the bomb fell on Hiroshima due to a mistranslation: People LOVE neologisms. "Bigly" will be a word, I predict, in the next authoritative American dictionary. Oh wait, it was a word in 1485.but at what point do you ask someone to risk looking like they don't know what they're talking about in order to change the trend?
When you are personally secure in your own job/blog/website etc, I suppose you can do what you like, write what you like, and advance your cause.Some years ago I recall hearing a statement known as "Murphy's Law" which says that "If it can be misunderstood, it will be."