On Tue, Aug 29, 2006 at 03:15:21PM -0700, Shel Belinkoff wrote: > Yes, but only s*rcastic*lly and not recently. Hell, I don't even use the > asterisk when spelling istDS. > > What really gives me a chuckle is that people use the asterisk for Canon > and Nikon, but rarely, if ever, have i seen it used for other companies. > Sigma, Tokina, Tamron, Vivitar, Leica, and numerous other brand names are > used here frequently, all without an asterisk. > > So, why only/mostly Canon or Nikon? Why for cameras and not lenses? > > Shel
Not spelling out proper names in full, but instead substituting other characters such as an asterisk, is a holdover from usenet. It was fairly common to avoid spelling out words (such as T*rkey, S*rd*r Arg*c, etc.). that were likely to result in little more than flaming diatribes from the "gr*pp*ng l**ns" who had automated scans of the usenet news feeds looking for references (real or imaginary) to their own hot button topics. By extension it grew to be used as a wry suggestion that certain other keywords were attracting posters who contributed little of substance or relevance, but were always ready and eager to contribute to a flame fest. For more details, a little net research may prove illumating. One link: http://www.uncommon-sense.net/interests/usenet/legends-faq/legends1.html -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
