Comment on Online Oxford English Dictionary puts definitions/meanings and usage behind paywall
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
The most offensive part is the monthly price point. What goo between the ears business idiot convinced these people they could charge more than a Netflix (+ ads) subscription for *the dictionary *? You could literally buy a brand new one and set it on fire every month for that cost. Fucking leeches.
antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 hours ago
You couldn’t do that, OED is so massive they’re not even printing it anymore. Old sets are on Amazon for $1000+
It’s weird to talk about “the dictionary”, there’s no single default dictionary, they’re all different and this is a dictionary for specialists. It’s a historical dictionary, so it covers words and their usage from up to a millenium ago (although IIRC it doesn’t include words that haven’t survived into Modern English, so 400-ish years ago).
Catoblepas@piefed.blahaj.zone 9 hours ago
Oxford sells abridged dictionaries for under $10. 99% of people aren’t using it for 20 encyclopedias worth of etymological research, they’re using it to figure out how to spell a word or what it means.
antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 hours ago
Exactly, so why all the fuss about the inaccessibility of OED? Most people don’t need OED in particular, spellings and most relevant meanings can be checked in normal smaller dictionaries (although these days autocorrect solves most spelling problems before people would even think of checking a dictionary, and people even treat Google as a dictionary because it provides definitions when needed).
Not that the pricing isn’t awful and likely overblown, but that’s a different story.
Smokeydope@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
Because the OED is the creme of the crop for dictionaries, particularly the SOED has some of the most well put together definitions of any dictionary for casual lookup. Because the 1200$ paywall they put behind the physical editions was always bullshit. Because they no longer have legitimate ways of purchacing a cheaper local digital copy when one was available before is bullshit.
This behavior is so scummy and gatekeeps high quality reference knowledge that should be available for everyone. Its crazy to me that bootlicker apologist came crawling out of the woodwork typing 5 paragraph essays justifying the enshittifying commodification of understanding English language. The exact same kind of people who would absolutely eat up per-definition microtransactions and Oxford Gatcha Lootboxes where your 100$ sub gets you 10 credits to play in a dictionary slot machine with a 1/3 pull chance of actually paying out with the definition you wanted.
Sure, wiktionary or webster might have an entry for the word but if you do side by side comparisions betweeen dictionary theyre mid compared to OED/SOED. If your reaching for one the logic should be that you want the best/most accurate and descriptive one possible, no?
I genuinely believe that universities have at least a moral obligation (HA!) to provide free public services that better humanity. These are places of education subsidized and given tax breaks by the government for gods sake, yet theyre so corrupt from the rich fucks that run them like a for-profit corporation.
I would make an argument that free access to the highest quality dictionaries thats the gold standard for scholarly reference and similar such materials should be closer to a digital right than anything. In a better world academia pricing structures get fucked, knowledge becomes truly open through digital online and local reference resources without DRM.
Of course, thats a pipe dream. So instead, I simply ask for the option of an updated CD rom to be released as a possible purchacing option in a DRM free format. You know, like they already did years ago.