too much time on their hands

[winterbadger]

I know that I can be anal annoying self-righteous about the proper use of language sometimes, but this message, recently posted to the local freecycle mailing list, seems rather, well, silly.

Hi folks! I wanted to drop a note to let you know about a request from our friends in Arizona - the birthplace of The Freecycle Network™.

In an attempt to promote uniformity and provide a legal basis forThe Freecycle Network to continue to have a trademark on the word Freecycle™, we would ask that you to adhere to the following
guidelines for usage of the term Freecycle.

Generally, the term "Freecycle" must be used as an adjective, never as a noun or verb.

For example:

Do not say "I'm a freecycler." Do say "I'm a Freecycle member."
Do not say "Keep on freecycling!" Do say "Keep on recyclin', my Freecycle friends!"
Do not say "Freecycling group." Do say "Freecycle group"
Do not say "Please Freecycle." Do say "Please join a Freecycle group."
Do not say "There are 10 freecycles in this state." Do say "There are 10 Freecycle groups in this state."
Do not say "freecycle's membership.". Do say "The Freecycle Network's membership."

The US Patent Office will be researching how well local Freecycle groups hold to these guidelines as they review our trademark application, so every little bit helps. And as always, please email with any questions to:
FairfaxFreecycle-owner@yahoogroups.com - we're here to help.

I'm not even going to get into the "period--close quotes--another period" thing...

Comments

[dwarfrage.livejournal.com]

It's all TM related, Xerox lost it's trademark when it became a verb to photocopy something.

[winterbadger]

True. They just aren't managing to convince me that it's in any way in my interests to assist them in maintaining their trademark status. :-)

[flyingwolf.livejournal.com]

me either. Not going to stop saying - "I need to freecycle more stuff so I can actually vacuum my house!" (for example)

yep. It's too late guys. It's a verb. :-)

[robbysmom.livejournal.com]

oh, you punctuation prig! it must pain you to read my typos :-)

OTOH, Freecyle's-- oh, I mean the Freecycle Network's-- post was presumably not composed extemperaneously. . .

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not even going to get into the "period--close quotes--another period" thing...

Yeah, they should just pick one and stick with it. Period--close quotes is the accepted American standard, but close quotes--period is acceptable, too, and is the British standard; in America, they call it "logical quoting" in style manuals. I prefer it, since the period should only be a part of the quotation if it's actually, y'know, a part of the quotation.