I sent the following letter to [email protected] on August 22, 2007 at 2:15 pm EDT regarding the defamatory nature of this made-up word, the bigotry and lack of professionalism it infers by its existence at Wiktionary. Ho hum. The computer warz apparently live on at Wiktionary. I'm disappointed.
Subject: Request: Deletion of the made-up defamatory word 'mactard'
Dear Wiktionary volunteers,
There is an issue of bigotry present in Wiktionary that I would like to address. My purpose is to wipe out references to what are traditionally called 'computer warz' from professional works. I hope you consider Wiktionary to be of professional quality, despite its volunteer status.
The words in question are Mactard and Wintard.
History:
2005-12-22 the user named 'SailorfromNH' created the entry for the word 'Mactard'. You can find the entry at:
http://en.wiktionary.orghttps://dictious.com/en/Mactard
Please read the entry. Clearly this is a made-up word. To quote Wiktionary policy:
"Made-up words do not meet our criteria for inclusion. Please add them only as protologisms."
It is also evident that this made-up word serves only one purpose: defamation of the character of users or advocates of Apple Macintosh computers. This attitude is not suitable for Wiktionary.
In the fall of 2006, at the Usenet Newsgroup comp.sys.mac.advocacy, a typical sadomasochistic troll taunted members with the existence of this made-up defamatory word in Wiktionary. In response, as an exercise in testing Wiktionary's attitude toward this word and with the purposed of adding a balanced perspective of defamation, I personally created an entry for the word 'wintard'. I based my entry on the language of the 'mactard' entry and provided even better documentation of the existence and use of the word 'wintard' than has ever been provided for the word 'mactard' at the Wiktionary site. Within an hour of my creating this entry it was put on your contention list with an allegation that made no sense whatsoever. I watched the entry over time to see what happened. Today I found that you had deleted 'wintard'. Meanwhile, the entry for 'mactard' has been further updated as recently as 2007-08-02 without it ever having been put on your contention list.
What else can one conclude from reading Wiktionary but that your staff as a whole are bigoted against Macintosh users. I hope this is not the case. Why it would be the case I cannot imagine, but it most certainly is a reasonable conclusion.
My Request:
Please delete the entry for the word 'mactard' just as you have deleted the entry for the word 'wintard'. Both words are invented, both have an equally long and documented history of usage for the purpose of defamation of specific computer users. Neither word is worthy of Wiktionary, nor are any other defamatory words targeting any specific group of people.
Please reply to my request within the next two weeks. If I have not heard from you within that time and the word 'mactard' has not been deleted, I will take this issue wherever necessary to bring it to the public eye so as to convince you of the importance of computer platform neutrality in professional works such as Wiktionary. Outside of professional environments, such as at any of the Usenet newsgroups, abuse of others is status quo. But Wiktionary and similar endeavors must rise above it.
I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time.
Derek Currie
— This unsigned comment was added by Derekcurrie (talk • contribs) at 06:23, 24 August 2007 (UTC).
Absolutely rubbish, you cannot request the removal of defamatory words just because you don't like them. Whether you agree with its use or not, Mactard is a word that is used very commonly nowadays on the internet (far more than Wintard in my opinion), and I don't see the harm in letting people know its meaning. The word itself may have a defamatory meaning, but Wiktionary is not advocating its use in an unacceptable way it is merely conveying the meaning of the word. (82.34.244.60 00:21, 5 February 2009 (UTC))
The thoroughly legalise reply Ruakh is interesting but doesn't do anything but divert attention away from the obvious point: Why would Wiktionary never at any time question the existence or references provided for 'mactard' while deleting the balancing word 'wintard' which was written with the exact same language as 'mactard' with far superior references?
Again, what is anyone left to believe but that, no matter how one tangles one's brain around the rule book, there is nothing supporting the existence of 'mactard' but not 'wintard' in Wiktionary but plain old blatant bigotry and the wish to defame the character of Macintosh users and advocates.
Ladies and gentlemen, please do not again skirt the subject at hand with divergent language. Stick to the point. Either Wiktionary restores the entry for 'wintard', and you might as well add further defamatory words such as 'lintard', or you get rid of all defamatory computer user terms all together. Certainly, if I were to follow Ruakh's comments, every defamatory word used for any platform of computer user should be listed in Wiktionary. Considering the superior references I provided for 'wintard' there is no excuse whatsoever, except bigotry among Wiktionary staff, for it having been ever questioned or deleted.
I think it is time to save face Wiktionary and sort out this problem you have created for yourselves.
Days go by. I am waiting for a formal decision within the two weeks I specified before I make this issue public. If you would like more time to prepare an intelligent decision, please let me know.
Derek Currie 2007-08-27
The quotations do not appear to meet the intent of WT:CFI.
The problem with that quotation is that no reader would ever be confused about that "Mactard" means, because the words "fucktard" and "Mac" appear shortly before an insult using the word "Mactard".
As with the previous quote, the word 'tard appears shortly before "Mactard" in a context about choice of software placeforms.
Here, the word "Mac" is used in the same insulting sentence as "Mactard". No reader would wonder what "Mactard" means. Rod (A. Smith) 21:10, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
In my experience here in the North of the UK, Mactard is an actual word in common usage amongst a certain set of people, regardless of how it may have been created or invented. I have never come across the Word Wintard in usage; it seems just to be a vexatious response from a certain group of Mac users who it seems won't have a word said against their choice of IT platform or allow anyone to express an opinion other than their own.
I think Mactard has to stay, derogatory though it is, as it is a word in use. It's up to the Mac community whether it can get the word Wintard into such common usage, and if they can, then at that point that word will also deserve a place here. — This unsigned comment was added by 81.171.180.21 (talk) at 12:52, 26 January 2009.
Agreed, most Mactards that I have came across usually slag off the Windows product itself, but usually the derogatory term I see used most often is Microsoft Humpers.
…is Macintoff; however, I can't find any citations of it. Anyone else? — Raifʻhār Doremítzwr ~ (U · T · C) ~ 17:38, 31 August 2010 (UTC)