Prime example of yesterday's entry...

Robbery suspects met victims through craigslist (or, according to them, Craig's List). This is a pretty creepy article. I'm not terribly interested in getting robbed, so I suppose that means I should be careful when I meet people from craiglist.

"Craig's List": A common misconception

When I get bored, I tend to spend time on Craigslist.org scouring the classifieds. I find it fun, and I like to compare apartment rates to what I am currently spending. This really has nothing to do with my point, though.
I know for sure that the Web site is Craigslist.org, but what about the actual name? I had always assumed it was just "Craigslist," sans apostrophe and only one word. But lately, I've been seeing the words "Craig's List" so many times I began to question my own grammatical accuracy. So what was the real answer?
It turns out I have been mostly right. After a thorough investigation of the site (which is not sloppily constructed or grammatically inaccurate), I have never seen anything other than "craigslist." The "factsheet" section of the site explicitly answers my question.

Here is my conclusion:

Because the Web site, which is the truest source I can refer to, spells it "craigslist" (no apostrophe, one word, no capital letters) without fail, we must explicitly adhere to that. And, to keep with common practice, we should refer to the Web site name as "Craigslist.org" (one word, capital "c").

I have some news, but I'm not ready to spread it.

Expect for me to announce my big news in the next few days!

Let's just say inspiration is not very abundant....

Well, thank goodness for Jayant and Rajat, who have created Scrabulous look-a-like Wordscraper. While not as "scrabble-like" as Scrabble, Wordscraper is a versatile and fun alternative. Time-wasters everywhere can breathe easily once again!

A friend of mine recently e-mailed me this article about typo vigilantes being arrested for defacing an old sign at the Grand Canyon. Though I'm not quite as bold as these two men, I am with them in spirit. I'm sure a close look at the sign would make any grammarian shudder with anger/grief.

More Scrabulous-related disappointment

In an attempt to play on the Facebook Scrabble application, I foolishly persuaded myself to believe I might be able to enjoy myself. It seems that whenever I click on the "public games" section" and type in my search criteria, which I leave completely open, there is no match. Either no one wants to play this Scrabulous wannabe (that's right, I said it!), or this is just another of Facebook Scrabble's technical problems. And what's more, Facebook Scrabble makes grammatical errors! When I search for public games, this is the answer I get: "There is no match for your search criterias [sic], try again."
In conclusion, Facebook Scrabulous is not only tehnically difficult, but also grammatically stupid.

Scrabulous update

Some more unfortunate news: Rajant and Jayat Agarwalla must have been tired of the lawsuit, so they deleted Scrabulous from Facebook altogether, even outside the U.S. and Canada! The only way to play Scrabulous anymore is through the Web site. Desperate for some Scrabulous action, I logged onto Scrabulous.com last night, hoping I could recapture some of its magic from the Facebook version. I couldn't stand it.
In addition to being timed, Scrabulous must also not have liked my computer and/or browser. Several times, I tried to submit words to no avail. The clock kept ticking, but words I knew existed would not be added to my total. I couldn't even finish one game because of technical difficulties! A couple of the people I talked to had played Scrabulous on Facebook, and they were missing it as much as I was. Until Scrabble either brings Scrabulous back or makes a working model of the game on Facebook, there are going to be some very angry customers.

Fare thee well...for now, at least

Imagine my surprise when I logged onto Facebook yesterday, clicked on my favorite application, and saw, "Scrabulous is disabled for U.S. and Canadian users until further notice." I had no knowledge of the fights between the owners of Scrabulous and Hasbro (which owns the rights to Scrabble within the U.S. and Canada), let alone that Hasbro had filed a lawsuit. I also didn't know how many people really cared about the Scrabble imitator. I've read several articles from many different news outlets and blogs worldwide. It is a comfort to know that I'm not alone in my misery, because, after all, misery does love company. But times like these make me want to shout, "Can't we all just get along?"

Yes, the Scrabulous Web site is functioning just fine. (But it's not the same as playing it on Facebook!) And Facebook's Scrabulous application still works everywhere else in the world. Mattel owns the rights to Scrabble outside the two countries, and it is not involved in the legal action. I say, "Good for you, Mattel! Maybe I'll buy some Barbies!" That doesn't make me feel much better, though. As of two days ago, I was engaging in a game of Scrabulous with an acquaintance in England, and now he can't even finish his game!

In only a couple of days, groups dedicated to saving our beloved Facebook application have grown intensely in popularity, including Save Scrabulous (though there are many groups with this name), Give us Scrabulous or Give us Death! [sic], Please, God, I Have So Little: Don't Take Scrabulous, Too and even If Hasbro Kills Scrabulous, I will die! There are also petitions, many of which launched when the troubles began early this year. In an effort to "fill the void," Scrabble has launched a beta Facebook application that is pretty and flashy, but extremely slow and technically riddled with problems. I've tried to start a game, but I get a "Sorry, we aren't working right now" message almost every time I try to use the application. Its "official launch" is scheduled for mid-August, but let's hope Hasbro has come to an agreement with the Agarwallas before then.


*EDIT* I'd like to correct the statement about Mattel not taking part in the Scrabulous lawsuits. Apparently, the company has made a lawsuit in India. No Barbies for me!