It's Not Just People on ebay

"Jon Meyers" wrote in message
...
R. Totale wrote:
"Evelyn C. Leeper" wrote:

I am amazed on the number of people whose listings show up on
bookfinder.com who think that "signed" means that the owner has written
his name on the inside of the front cover.

To be fair I think (at least in ABE's case) that the culprit is lousy
software which sets a flag for "signed" if words like signature,
inscribed or signed show up anywhere in the description, whether it
was the author or your Granny who doodled in the book.


Jinx!

I was going to say the same thing

Kris

"Jon Meyers" wrote in message
...
fvndoc wrote:

HTH.


Nope. Totally unhelpful. As always. Nice to know there are some things
I can count in this fickle world.


--Jon Meyers

Hey, we got it to nymshift! Who gets the points this time?

Kris

In article ,
"fvndoc" wrote:

Amateur seller is an oxymoron.

Only technically,

As opposed to which?

As opposed to phrases that do not communicate effectively. Everyone
knows what "amateur seller" means -- it communicates quick effectively.
And since the function of language is to communicate, the phrase does
quite well.

The gibberish paragraph you wrote, on the other hand, does NOT
communicate effectively and therefore has little value in terms of
language (except, perhaps, to amuse you as the writer -- which is quite
valid in itself, of course).

Jon Meyers wrote:

Evelyn C. Leeper wrote:

I am amazed on the number of people whose listings show up on
bookfinder.com who think that "signed" means that the owner has
written his name on the inside of the front cover.

I've always thought that, at ABE at least, those listings show up as a
result of ABE's own search protocol, which picks up as a "signed book"
any description than includes "signed", "signature", "inscribed", or
"inscription". So you'll end up with results that include books
described as having a "non-authorial inscription" or "previous owner's
signature", not because the lister is an idiot, but because the search
program is.

I will take heart in this theory. As with Thomas Hardy's oxen, I will
"go with [it] in the gloom / Hoping it might be so."

[http://quotations.about.com/cs/poemlyrics/a/The_Oxen.htm]

--
Evelyn C. Leeper
Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes
by you so quick you hardly catch it going. -Tennessee Williams

R. Totale wrote:
On Sun, 23 Apr 2006 17:04:03 -0400, "Evelyn C. Leeper"
wrote:

I am amazed on the number of people whose listings show up on
bookfinder.com who think that "signed" means that the owner has written
his name on the inside of the front cover.

To be fair I think (at least in ABE's case) that the culprit is lousy
software which sets a flag for "signed" if words like signature,
inscribed or signed show up anywhere in the description, whether it
was the author or your Granny who doodled in the book.

Ditto for bookfinder. And really, it does the best it can. I'd rather
wade through false positives than have allegedly smart software culling
things.