Forum:CT Archive/Re-evaluating the S apostrophe issue

There's been some discussion lately about our having a policy to force an S after a possessive apostrophe for a name that ends in S. We had a CT on the matter almost 2 years ago, but I think it suffered from a number of problems. There seemed to be a lot of misinformation there as to one way being "right" or "proper", which is not the case for this issue (but more on that in a bit). There was also very little participation in the CT: only nine users, and only one of whom was an administrator at the time. (I could even note that one of the opposition leaders was infamous for his grammar book... which he couldn't find... which belonged to his friend...)

Anyway, this is a complicated issue, and not as black and white as people on either side would like to make it. I'd encourage people to do their own research on the issue, and not just push whatever they're used to using. Also, before we put this to a vote, I'd like our resident grammarian to chime in, if he gets a chance, as his insight would be helpful.

But what I'd eventually like to propose is not a new rule or changing a rule, but simply reverting to not requiring a certain way by policy. Wikipedia's Manual of Style simply notes that "usage varies" and asks for users to "maintain consistency" within articles; I think it would be best for everyone if we did the same here. If one article does it this way, fine; if another article does it that way, fine; if there's concern about which way to go, use what most common in the relevant sources. -- Ozzel 06:05, 24 June 2008 (UTC)