

Words I Would Love To See Banned From Press Releases - edw519
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/01/10-words-i-would-love-to-see-banned-from-press-releases/

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paulgb
I'd like to see "leverage" added to the list. I cringe every time I hear it
when the word "use" would suffice.

(I can accept its use as a noun in the financial context, because it means
more than "use" in that sense. And although the situation hasn't come up yet,
I wouldn't mind its use when talking about a physical lever.)

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wglb
When I hear the word "leverage", i release the safety on my browning.

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knightinblue
1 blogger I would love to see banned from blogging -

Robin Wauters. For equating a Crunchie to both the Nobel and the Pulitzer.

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nomoresecrets
You may need to have your sense of humour overhauled.

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knightinblue
Oh believe me, I get that he was joking. My point was that that statement
should never be made, _even_ in jest.

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Asmodeus
On awards.

" _Basically it’s like going around a party informing everyone that you’ve had
sex with a human being last week: I’m sure it matters to you a great deal -
and hopefully to the other person as well - but the rest of us likely don’t
give a hoot._ "

Nice line.

" _There are exceptions to this rule, but very few (they include ... a
Crunchie ...)._ "

Um, I'm sure they matter a great deal to you, Mr. Wauters, but... Way to
attack the symptoms of a disease you yourself have.

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neilc
Yeah, I was confused by that -- was mentioning the Crunchie and the Europa
Award in the same sentence as the Nobel and the Pulitzer a joke? If not, wow.

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bertm
Modern day pretentious diction! Orwell would be rolling in his grave!
[[http://www.george-
orwell.org/Politics_and_the_English_Langua...](http://www.george-
orwell.org/Politics_and_the_English_Language/0.html)]

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brandnewlow
It's like with advertising. Press Releases themselves aren't a problem, only
irrelevant, boring, poorly targeted ones.

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jacquesm
HN feature request: a domain ignore list on a per user basis.

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billswift
You know if we banned ALL words from press releases, we wouldn't have to
suffer through press releases at all any more.

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wglb
So here is a challenge, TC, rewrite the press release for "Akamai and Delve"
in a way that you find acceptable.

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gjm11
I have no association at all with TechCrunch, but how about this? It's
basically the same content, without the TC-hated terms. (Of course, it now has
a lower advertising:information ratio, and the real point of press releases is
advertising rather than information. Which is why they're usually full of the
sort of weaselly preening TC is complaining about.)

"Delve Networks, a provider of video platforms, announces a collaboration with
Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: AKAM), whose services power rich media,
dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, that will enable
Delve to offer customers a comprehensive video publishing solution that
includes video management and delivery including support of modern variable
bit rate streaming technologies."

The only difficult bit was getting rid of the "the leader in powering X"
language, which was difficult because it doesn't really mean very much. (With
a less PR-speak description of what Akamai does, I think it would be quite
reasonable for them to call themselves "the leader".)

