Incorrect usage of "where"?

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katyanicholas

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My co-workers and I got into a little argument in regards to the below sentence which will be used in various marketing texts:

[An iPhone app] uses the abbreviations wiki where [name of organization] employees can contribute content.
To paraphrase: Anybody within the organization can contribute to the wiki by adding, editing, and updating entries via a web-based database. The referenced iPhone app is simply a handy tool to look up those entries (although it doesn't allow for editing.)

My question is about the usage of "where" in this context. It seems that here—next to the verb "contribute"—it is used incorrectly.

What are your thoughts? I need your expert opinion :)

Thank you much!
 

emsr2d2

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The wiki is the place where employees can contribute content.
 

Raymott

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My co-workers and I got into a little argument in regards to the below sentence which will be used in various marketing texts:


To paraphrase: Anybody within the organization can contribute to the wiki by adding, editing, and updating entries via a web-based database. The referenced iPhone app is simply a handy tool to look up those entries (although it doesn't allow for editing.)

My question is about the usage of "where" in this context. It seems that here—next to the verb "contribute"—it is used incorrectly.

What are your thoughts? I need your expert opinion :)

Thank you much!
The whole sentence is wrong to me - if you paraphrasis is correct. The index sentence is talking about abbreviations and suggests that members of the organisation can edit content. The paraphrasis doesn't mention any abbreviations, and explicitly states that editing is not allowed.
Also 'wiki' is one abbreviation. What does "the abbreviations wiki" mean?
Also, "where" is not used next to the verb "contribute".
You've asked a very confusing question.

PS: Or maybe ems has understood it! :shock:
 

katyanicholas

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Also 'wiki' is one abbreviation. What does "the abbreviations wiki" mean?
"Wiki" here means a glossary of abbreviations.

Also, "where" is not used next to the verb "contribute".
I did not mean that literally. What I meant was that normally we would say "contribute something to something", would we not? Therefore, I would not use "where" with this verb in this context; I would say something like: "[an iPhone app] uses the abbreviations wiki/glossary to which employees can contribute content"

I might have not been clear enough when trying to explain the meaning, so let me try again. The iPhone app is basically a dictionary/glossary app to look up words--abbreviations in this particular case. This dictionary/glossary is referred to as "wiki" by the organization employees. This wiki (which is essentially a database) can be edited via a web-based interface by anyone within the organization. The iPhone app simply pulls the data from this database and allows its users to look up abbreviations on the go, but it does not allow to edit entries.
 

katyanicholas

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The wiki is the place where employees can contribute content.

Thank you! This variant crossed my mind, although the original sentence is not about the wiki--it's about the app that allows to look up entries in the wiki :)
 

Raymott

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"Wiki" here means a glossary of abbreviations.

If the abbreviations are in the 'wiki', they are the "wiki abbreviations" not the "abbreviations wiki".
You might mean: "The iPhone app, which uses the wiki abbreviations, is where [name of organization] employees can contribute content."
You can use 'where' there.​
 
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