Random underlining and highlighting of words...?

[worm]

random is more correct.

[eFestivals]

You can't be more correct.

and you can't even be vaguely correct.

Arbitrary is without doubt wrong.

Random is also wrong, but only because what is happening is not actually random.

The point is, from tony's perspective, his subjective view, what is happening is random until such time as he works out what the pattern is that it's following, and so until that point it's random. It's also the case that he's not bothered about knowing the pattern, only in stopping there being that pattern - which (subjectively) fixes it as forever-random because he's not likely to discover what pattern it's working to.

But it can never be arbitrary, because while tony doesn't know why it's happening, he does know it's happening for a reason. He needs to know the precise reason so that he's able to stop it happening.

The speaker's perspective is always relevant for the choice of words used in that speaker's communication - so a word critic like worm is only in the position to criticise the choice of words of another person if that choice of words is at odds with their perspective of what they're commenting about. And in this case, tony's choice of words was spot on for his perspective.

But for anyone anal enough to want a 6 foot pole continually up their arse like worm, there's a factual version of language too, where the choice of words should be definitively correct for a factual commentary on the happening. Sadly for worm, he fails here with his critique on that factual basis too. Arbitrary cannot EVER be rightly applied here, by the original speaker or by worm.

Edited July 23, 2012 by eFestivals

[AcademicPistol]

Right, so has that resolved your problem tony?

[worm]

Arbitrary is without doubt wrong.

Edited July 23, 2012 by worm

[AcademicPistol]

It hasn't happened to anyone else.

[eFestivals]

Arbitrary means determined by chance.

And so does random.

But arbitrary also means "for no reason" (which 'random' doesn't). And what tony experiencing was not for "no reason", nor did tony think it was for "no reason" (as was made clear in his starting post).

So arbitrary was indisputably wrong, from the definition, when applied either factually or subjectively.

But of course, the person who likes to tell us that he's 'a language expert' refuses to (even casually) reference anything of meaning towards language, instead he makes it up out of nothing and expects others to be stupid enough to agree with him in his wrongness.

It hasn't happened to anyone else. Ergo, what Tony experienced was determined by chance.

Whether something has happened to another or not is naff all to do with whether something is 'chance'.

And what happened with tony was NOT determined by chance, and nor did tony think that it had been - so both factually and subjectively, it was not chance. It was not arbitary.

Random is determined by design.

nope. Something is random if it has "no specific pattern, purpose, or objective".

Nothing about it has to be specifically designed. Design is no part of the definition of random.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/random

In that the glitch would have been purposefully assigned to one user at random. I take it that that wasn't the case.

It wasn't the case, but design is not as part of 'random'. Something random can be designed or not, but something arbitrary cannot be designed.

Would you like to argue any further or would you like to accept the facts?

PSML.

You don't do facts.

[worm]

And so does random.

[eFestivals]

Unexpected would have been a more accurate word.

what do you know about accuracy?

[windy_miller]

random

[ran-duhm]   Show IPA

adjective

1.

proceeding, made, or occurring without definite aim, reason, or pattern: the random selection of numbers.

2.

Statistics . of or characterizing a process of selection in which each item of a set has an equal probability of being chosen.

3.

Building Trades .

a.

(of building materials) lacking uniformity of dimensions: random shingles.

b.

(of ashlar) laid without continuous courses.

c.

constructed or applied without regularity: random bond.

4.

Informal .

a.

unknown, unidentified, or out of place: A couple of random guys showed up at the party.

b.

odd and unpredictable in an amusing way: my totally random life.

I think that clears clears everything up.

[Ed209]

You can't be more correct. You can only be correct. You meant accurate.

Like shooting womprats back in the canyon.

[worm]

dude, you need to get out more