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Comment on Online Oxford English Dictionary puts definitions/meanings and usage behind paywall

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.

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Smokeydope@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

so why all the fuss about the inaccessibility of OED?

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.

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- antonim@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago
  
  Because the 1200$ paywall they put behind the physical editions
  
  From what I understood, that’s the price of used copies of the second edition these days, not how much it cost when it was actually published. I have no idea how I could estimate what’s the objectively appropriate price considering the funding, expenses and the production costs of such a dictionary, and I think neither do you.
  
  particularly the SOED has some of the most well put together definitions of any dictionary for casual lookup
  
  So you want SOED, not OED. SOED doesn’t cost $100 a year, it’s available as an Android app that costs a one-time $30 payment.
  
  If your reaching for one the logic should be that you want the best/most accurate and descriptive one possible, no?
  
  Not necessarily. OED’s entries can be so massive they’re difficult to navigate and follow, and the length of the definition doesn’t necessarily say much about its accuracy. The definitions in ODE and SOED are frequently more clear, perfectly adequate and faster to access and read through, e.g. if you’re reading Shakespeare or Milton and just want to quickly find the word’s meaning without all the additional scholarly apparatus distracting you. At least, such is my experience using dictionaries.
  
  I strongly agree both with the idea that science should be freely available, and that it should be available as a local copy (PDFs, etc.). I also made my opinion on academic pricings in general and OED’s price in particular clear in one of the previous comments. I know full well that they’re not the only option, even in a capitalist society (many continental European academic institutions and Academies publish their major dictionaries, comparable in complexity to OED, online for free). The only thing I disagree with is singling out OED as if it’s doing something particularly unprecedentant and almost heinous.
  
  They likely don’t want to publish it on CD or similar locally available (non-online) format because it’d easily get pirated. But, I say, maybe people should organise and pirate the existing database themselves.
  
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