I have recently joined a new site named just as the title of this post. It is in private beta for 60 days, so I will post a link to it (in this post, and another) when it comes out of private beta.
This site is much like a forum in that people ask questions, and they get answered. The main differences are that people get reputation points for good answers and good questions, and questions are displayed in order of how good they are, not chronologically. This leads to some very interesting dynamics in the way questions are answered and discussions are formed.
Thus far, the top points seem to be dominated by linguists, developers and an English teacher. The very top person is a French programmer, as of course, the French speak better English than the English do.
I was dragged (well voluntarily), into a discussion about whether it was acceptable to use the word "that" when beginning an adjective clause when talking about people. E.g. "There were 5 people who were on the plane" opposed to "There were 5 people that were on the plane". Most people tended to stay out of it, but a prescriptive grammar book came to the rescue, mentioning that "that" should never be used in reference to people, and only that who(m) should be used.
Of course, I had to disagree, after all, what are people, if not things! (I kid, I kid). The fact is, I very often say "that" when I could say "who", and I often hear other people do the same thing. In fact, I see that construct in newspapers, books, and magazines. I could not accept that I was to be prescribed into using "who" all the time.
My original post was despised, shot down, neglected, and scorned (I exaggerate, it simply had one comment saying that I hadn't proven anything). So after doing some programming, I spent an hour looking for a good source. Found two books that agreed with me, quoted them, and now, over six hours later, my post has one up-vote.
Such is life :-)
I enjoy life.
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