Talk:By-product

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Isn't "byproduct" the preferred form? --DV 08:16, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I'd have thought so, too, but both OED and Websters use the hyphenated form. Elf | Talk 15:43, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Suggested action: move to wiktionary

{{Move to Wiktionary}}

Why? Seems to me there's enough material out there to make an article out of this. What's already there is more than a mere definition already. Elf | Talk 02:00, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

A by-product is a generic thing; it is the context that it is produced in that renders it a specific meaning. It would be better to provide a definition for the term and place the information that has already been put into the stub into (and I'm not looking up the particular articles) a) mad-cow disease, b) butchering, c) chemical reaction. Not to mention by-products of industrial animal growth for food (massive amounts of nitrogenous waste), the by-product of high-level antibiotic use in such operations (emergence of resistant strains of bacteria), the the initial theory of gravity as a by-product of Newton's being hit upon the head with an apple (I'm not sure what the current thought is on whether the event actually happened or not :) ), the partial collapse of the beef industry as a by-product of a great deal of press about mad cow disease, etc. etc. Such diversity of uses suggests that it should be treated as a word to be defined and then used in articles as is appropriate rather than having an article written about it itself. Courtland 02:20, 2005 Feb 21 (UTC)

Hmmm, I'm reading your thought process sort of backwards and thinking that it might be better as a disambiguation page (which often has a brief definition and then lists of places where detailed uses are defined, described, discussed. Whatchuthink? That would mean someone would have to figure out where the dab links are...  ;-) Elf | Talk 05:21, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

That's a tough one. If one went that route then the target pages should likely be redirects with the message Template:R from related word attached; I know that these redirect-message templates aren't working right now, but I'm adding them when needed in anticipation of a fix at some time. For instance, take the animal by-product / mad cow disease relationship. One could refer on the disambiguation page to "animal by-products in the context of mad cow disease" with a link to By-product (CJD) which would be a redirect to Creutzfeldt-Jakob_disease.

Thinking about this some more, a better alternative might be List of uses for the word "by-product" rather than a disambiguation page. This could include the short definition that you suggest for a disambiguation page. Courtland 14:28, 2005 Feb 21 (UTC)</nowiki>