tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-08:21636 donutsweeper donutsweeper 2026-02-23T21:23:56Z tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-04-08:21636:685035 2026-02-23T21:23:26Z 2026-02-23T21:23:56Z public 9 I am curious what people think about this (and will explain why I am asking this under the cut but please answer the poll before looking)<br /><br /><div><a href="https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=34281">View Poll: Primary</a></div><br /><br /><details><br />Okay, so recently I was doing a survey and it asked "Who was the primary drummer for The Beatles?" and while I am not a Beatles fan, via osmosis I knew that there were four of them (George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr) and that Ringo was the drummer but then scrolled down only to find it offered the following three choices: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Pete Best. <br /><br />I had never heard of Pete Best but knew the other options were incorrect so clicked him and was told I got the answer correct. After googling I learned Pete Best was the first 'official' drummer for The Beatles ('official' in the sense that it seems like they'd played with random drummers here and there but he was the first to actually join the band and *was* a Beatle from 1960-mid 1962 when they fired him and hired Ringo just before recording the record that catapulted them to fame and remained with them until the band broke up). <br /><br />All the dictionaries I looked at gave multiple definitions for "primary." Amongst the definitions were always something to the effect of 'first in order of events/sequence' as well as 'most important or well known' although where those two were placed in the list of definitions wasn't always the same.<br /><br />So, technically, Pete Best was the primary drummer for The Beatles using the 'first in order' definition but probably not if using the 'most important' since I think most people would consider Ringo Starr the better known Beatles drummer. <br /><br />So that leads to poll #2:<br /><div><a href="https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=34282">View Poll: Primary, take two</a></div><br /><br />and then poll #3<br /><div><a href="https://www.dreamwidth.org/poll/?id=34283">View Poll: Primary, take 3</a></div><br /><br />I was honestly a bit thrown by their use of 'primary' in the poll. While, of course, it *can* mean first in a question like that I interpreted that they were asking for most well known instead and was curious about what others thought of this.<br /><br />Anyway, thoughts? </details><br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=donutsweeper&ditemid=685035" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments