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Please excuse my poor attempt at humour in the title, but should this suggested edit have been rejected?

Rejected handlebar edit

I see two three issues with this post:

  • The term MacOS should be used with versions 7.5.1 through to 9, of the Apple Macintosh (before that it was just System 7, System 6, etc.). Also, the title refers to OSX and then the body refers to MacOS. OK, so it is clear that the OP means OSX, and not a prior version, but I was just trying to make the body consistent with the title.
  • the newer macOS is also employed, although that could be a typo, or the first "MacOS" was erroneously capitalised, as it was first word in the first sentence.
  • The handlebar quite clearly wrong. I believe that the OP meant handleable, although I'm not even sure that is a real word1. Maybe able to be handled by, en lieu of handlebar for, would have been better suggestion?

Please note that I am certainly not calling anyone out, about this, as the reviewers have accommodated me, above and beyond, these past few days... I am merely wondering where I went wrong?

1 Apparently it is, according to dictionary.com

Akin to Old Norse höndla "to seize, capture," Danish handle "to trade, deal," German handeln "to bargain, trade." Related: Handled; handling. Meaning "to act towards (someone) in a certain manner" (usually with hostility or roughness) is from c.1200.

Related forms

  • handleable, adjective
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    You shouldn't be replacing MacOS with OS X as the product line has effectively​ been renamed. That makes most of your edit "harmful" and the remaining edit is a minor spelling correction. Overall your edit feels too superfluous to be useful. See meta.superuser.com/questions/12014/…
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 16:15
  • @Mokubai - I'm not quite sure what you mean about "harmful"... the OP is referring to an issue on OSX, and not MacOS. Ok, I agree about the rest of the edit being tenuous.
    – Greenonline
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 16:19
  • Harmful is a bit harsh, but what I mean is vaguely unconstructive. Everyone who has used a computer for a long while has known that Macs use a "Mac" OS, be it OS X or MacOS. Recently Apple decided to rebrand their desktop OS as macOS in line with iOS and (presumably) brainOS when they get their mitts on neural augmentation systems. Transmuting macOS to OS X is superfluous because everyone already knew exactly what was being talked about, there really was very little confusion regarding what was being asked unless you were being pedantic in the extreme.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 16:58
  • If you were being pedantic about MacOS being for "old" Macs and OS X being for new Macs, then Apple themselves made it wrong to call it OS X when they rebranded. That being said, the typo could do with being fixed, but the rest... not so much.
    – Mokubai Mod
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 17:00
  • @Greenonline - Is there a particular reason you attempted to mask the other editors of this edit? Anyone who can review the edit, can see whom, the other editors were. The review system offers complete transparency for a reason. As for the edit, by switching OS X to macOS, you change what author has said. I would also argue that the answer wasn't worth saving in the first place, the answer itself is a comment, incorrectly submitted as an answer.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jun 13, 2017 at 17:33
  • @Ramhound - Rock and hard place, come to mind :) In past when I submitted a screenshot of a rejected edit with the names in full view, I was told not to, and had the image edited. I also provided the link, as someone was bound to comment that the link should have been provided, if I had not. I was merely trying to "not call people out", as I emphasised in my post. However, obviously, through the link, the transparency of the system will show who the reviewers were. I changed macOS/MacOS (yet more inconsistency) to OSX, not the other way around. Yes, the answer should have been a comment.
    – Greenonline
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 0:48
  • @Mokubai - You could call it pedantic, although I prefer to say clear :-) I have seen posts where people are all over the place, sometimes (although rarely) even calling classic Mac OS OSX, which can cause all sorts of confusion. I just feel that as SE is a renowned, and respected, source of information, it is a good idea to remain consistent and clear in the information provided, which at times may call for seemingly pedantic edits. The posted inconstancies may be due, in part, to the public's confusion as to where Apple stand on their naming. Here, the OP employed 3 different terms.
    – Greenonline
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 1:03
  • @Mokubai - Yes, I agree, Apple caused the confusion, through the name change(s), but only if you retrospectively apply the rebranding, which I don't believe Apple are implying. If, as it should be, previous brand name conventions are adhered to, then no confusion should arise.
    – Greenonline
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 1:04
  • @Greenonline Honestly, shocked anyone attempt to salvaged that answer, I would voted to delete it if it appeared in the review queue for being more commentary than answer
    – Ramhound
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 1:41
  • @Ramhound - Ok, point taken. I guess, it was its length (as opposed to the short one liners), that made me consider that it might be worth saving, and editing for clarity (Although, yes, a lot of speak, but nothing said comes to mind). Apologies.
    – Greenonline
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 1:45

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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I saw this suggested edit this morning and have to admit I was ambivalent about it. I chose to go on with my life and let our other community reviewers decide whether it was a "good" edit or not. Being a mod my vote for "good" or "bad" would be binding and I had things to do beyond an edit that was both good and bad.

On the one hand I agree that "handlebar" looks like a typo and may be worth being corrected. To me your correction makes sense.

On the other hand MacOS and OS X are largely interchangeable terms for "the operating system that runs on a Mac" in my vocabulary, and I suspect in many other peoples. Changing one to another is superfluous. Apple recently rebranded OS X to call it just macOS, as a result we even switched our tag synonyms to align with that change. If you look into that link you will see that Wikipedia has done much the same:

macOS

This article is about the current Apple operating system for Mac computers. For pre-2001 versions, see Classic Mac OS.
"OSX" and "OS X" redirect here. For other uses, see OSX (disambiguation).

macOS (pronounced /ˌmækoʊˈɛs/; previously Mac OS X and later OS X)

I'm not trying to defend or support whoever rejected the edit, but I do see why they might have done so. The large body of the edit, the corrections from MacOS to OS X, do not feel substantive enough.

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  • +1 - OK, understood. Thanks for the reply. I was starting to regret having raised the issue. :-)
    – Greenonline
    Commented Jun 14, 2017 at 1:05

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