Tony Cooper:
- that all links that are clicked are not "linkbait".

Eric Stevens:
Ermm - not all links that are clicked are "linkbait"?

Moving OT, and not intending to denigrate Mr. Cooper in any way, I'm
glad that Mr. Stevens brought that up. The former phrasing is becoming
more common, it seems, but it grates on me. I don't think that the
phrase "all links that are clicked are not 'linkbait'" in any way
expresses what the speaker meant. It's a clumsy phrase, and if means
anything at all, it means "no links are clickbait" i.e., there is no
such thing as clickbait. The meaning of Mr. Stevens' phrase is "some
links may just be clickbait, but not all of them are [and the one that
I am presenting is not]." And I /think/ that's what Mr. Cooper meant to
convey.

So what does this mean? That Mr. Stevens and I are pedants and
grammatical prescriptivists? Not at all. It just means that
non-standard, clumsy, or inelegant speech and writing are an impediment
to conveying meaning.

--
I agree with almost everything that you have said and almost everything that
you will say in your entire life.

usenet *at* davidillig dawt cawm