Comment on GOG Has Had To Hire Private Investigators To Track Down IP Rights Holders

• slimerancher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  Okay, so grammatically, in perfect tense we can use plural to mention a thing that has happened at least (or exactly) once? Wouldn’t using a plural imply multiple, when the known fact is singular?

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  • _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Is implying plurality exaggerating things to begin with in this context? The headline is pretty vague, it doesn’t overtly exaggerate anything. It makes a pretty simple statement without embellishing anything.

    But if we’re going to get into the weeds, we don’t know how many private investigators work at whatever agency they hired, or how many were involved in tracking this person down.

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    • slimerancher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      It did feel like exaggeration to me, but it could be my bias. May feel differently about it later.

      You are right about the fact that it could be an agency. Maybe I was just being pedantic 😀

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      • _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        I mean, we’re all being pedantic, aren’t we? honestly, I don’t even know why we wasted the time we have on this lmao. for me it’s probably because I’m working and bored to death.

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      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        Eh, when someone says “private investigator,” I subconsciously assume there could be a group involved, and not one person. If I hire a tax preparer, there are probably multiple people involved (the person preparing the tax docs, the accountants auditing those docs, people auditing their software, etc).

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    • MotoAsh@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yes. Yes implying plurality for a singular thing is, by definition, exaggerating.

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    • ripcord@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Yes

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  • olafurp@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s a fair point but it’s not as egregious as most other headlines. I personally give this one a pass since clickbaits are meta in the article space. It shows that GOG has this in their toolbox.

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• unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

  “investigators” is plural tho so that is indeed wrong

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  • slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    Not really. It could be they hired several for this one case.

    If a person is off the grid in Yorkshire, you wouldn’t get someone from London to go up to do something.

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    • slimerancher@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

      Well, the quote specifically says “a private investigator”.

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      • _cryptagion@anarchist.nexus ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

        that could refer to an agency. when somebody says they “hired a plumber”, it isn’t an incorrect statement if that company employs multiple plumbers, despite the quote being singular.

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  • logicbomb@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    That is simply a generic way of referring to the concept of private investigators, as I’ve also just done in this sentence.

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  • Anomnomnomaly@lemmy.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago

    that’s not what it means… investigator could mean a single person, investigators could mean they hired a firm to do the job and multiple people work for the firm.

    People love to look for a reason to be offended by things.

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