Talk:Rummoli

How to Source This article
I find this challenging - Rummoli is clearly a Canadian variant of Michigan Rummy, but that's from personal experience and "orginal research". Henry Troup (talk) 22:23, 21 August 2010 (UTC)

"Their" to "his"
In this recent edit User:Varlaam changed the use of "their/they" in the singular form ("a player lays down their cards", etc) into "his/him". The thinking here being, I assume, that "their/they" are plural pronouns and should not be used in the singular.

I dislike this change.

Now, it is fairly well established usage now that "their/they" is used in some kinds of English to indicate the singular pronound without being gender-specific (or more correctly, sex-specific, since we are not talking about the gender of the words but the sex of the people the pronouns represent). Personally I don't think that the use of "his/him" in these contexts excludes women or gives undue weight to men, but others do. I personally find the usage of "their/them" ugly, and tend to avoid it by recasting the sentence.

But I feel that simply replacing "their" with "his" has little merit, and I have undone the change. I will try to recast the article to avoid both the sex-specific form and the (IMO) ugly use of "they/their", but in the mean time, I suggest stet.

Best wishes Si Trew (talk) 09:32, 9 December 2009 (UTC)


 * I used the pronouns "he" and "his" which are the inclusive he and his. They are not gender-specific and refer to either sex. This nonsense about "he" being sexist was something introduced by the Americans back in the 1970s. It was ridiculous then; it's still ridiculous now.
 * An encyclopedia should be clear and precise. "They" and "their" are only well-established as singular pronouns amongst illiterates. If you want, you can say "he or she", but that is redundant. It simply converts the inclusive he to the exclusive he, while changing nothing and adding nothing but two unnecessary syllables.
 * But using "they" as a singular pronoun in other than informal speech is simply wrong and has no place in an encyclopedia, or any online resource that strives to be taken seriously as an encyclopedia.
 * Cheers, Varlaam (talk) 01:26, 10 December 2009 (UTC)