[FOSDEM] FOSDEM Code of Conduct, supposed minor typo

[Troy A. Griffitts]

Hi Geert,

After re-reading it a few times, I see that it could stand as is.  My
apologies.  It would read more naturally to either keep both success and
pleasant as adjectival or both nouns.  It reads a little odd to switch
kinds of items in an 'and' list:

-Thank you for your help in making FOSDEM a success and pleasant for all
the people involved.
+Thank you for your help in making FOSDEM a successful and pleasant
event for all the people involved.

or

+Thank you for your help in making FOSDEM successful and pleasant for
all the people involved.

I had never heard of a zeugma before. :) Thanks for sharing.  When I
first read the line, I simply assumed you had forgotten a word.  The 'a
success' puts my mind in noun mode and I was looking for the noun after
'pleasant'.  But it is perfectly fine to say: "Thanks for making FOSDEM
a success"; and also to say "Thanks for making FOSDEM pleasant".  It's
just the odd 'and' clause that has two different types of items in the
list that sounds odd... like a math problem where the parenthesis are
placed in the wrong spot, factoring out too much:

Thank you for your help in making FOSDEM a (success and pleasant) for
all the people involved.

Expanded, 'a success' is fine; 'a pleasant' is how my mind expanded that
second item when I first (and secondly) read it and was waiting for a
noun someplace.... a pleasant WHAT? :)

Your original wording is probably perfectly legal, and I should have
processed it as:

Thank you for your help in making FOSDEM (a success and pleasant) for
all the people involved.

I didn't think about it long enough and simply thought you missed a
word. My apologies, though you might consider altering slightly to make
both items agree in kind so others don't make the same mistake as me.

Thanks again,

Troy



On 11/15/2015 01:12 PM, Geert Stappers wrote:
> On Sun, Nov 15, 2015 at 12:46:14PM -0700, Troy A. Griffitts wrote:
>>
>> Just wanted to point out that there is a minor typo in the last line
>> just before the contact details.
> 
> Copy of that line:
> ' Thank you for your help in making FOSDEM a success and pleasant for all the people involved. '
> 
> What should be changed?  And into what??
> 
> 
> Groeten
> Geert Stappers
>