12 Sep
2013
12 Sep
'13
11:28 p.m.
On Fri, 6 Sep 2013, Tony Duell wrote:
Right. Wikipedia now refers to them by their correct name, but both the
articles that cover modular connectors and the registered jack standard
give some detail on the misuse of the RJxx for modular connectors. The
hard part was untangling the huge mess of individual articles for each
type of plug and figuring out how to merge/split/redirect content into the
correct parent articles while preserving attribution. Planning out how to
fix the mess probably took weeks (maybe a month?) while actually
implementing it only a day or two once I had it all mapped out. That was
definitely not a task I'd want to handle on a routine basis.
That's
pretty much the gist of it. I had to push very hard to get the
RJ11, RJ45, etc stuff corrected on Wikipedia but eventually prevailed.
The main argument had been that "well, /everyone/ calls them RJ11,
RJ45, etc", however in the end, there was plenty of documentation on
the misuse of the RJ (Registered Jack) nomenclature.
You are of course correct....
I don't know what wikipedia actually says about this (I don't normally
use wikipedia, I feel the idea it's based on is fundametally flawed),
but I feel that a reference work _should_ include common incorrect
useage, obviously indicating that it is incorrect. In this case, the
term 'RJ45' should be applied to 10baset ethernet conenctors, indicating
that this is a misues of the term (it is not 'registered jack 45, which
has nothing to do with ethermnet signals at all), but it is common
usage.. I was pleased to see that a local high-street hardware
shop (not
particularl electornics or computer related) did refer to things like an
'8p8c (RJ45) extension lead'. Seems a reasonable name for it.
What I've found very interesting, is how after getting that mess
straightened out on Wikipedia, I've noticed a gradual shift on other sites
towards using the correct names for modular connectors. People really do
read Wikipedia.