Classifying False Voynich Decipherment "Solutions"

[Mark Knowles]

Focusing further in on the items of your list:

[*]Searches a dictionary and picks the word they like the most to fit their system, even if it is a rare or odd word
[*]No grammar:  any sentences are a "word salad", with words chosen for how well they fit the system rather than whether they fit into a grammatical sentence.  There is little or no attention paid to how well the "translation" matches up with the target language's grammar .  
[*]Explains away difficulties by suggesting multiple languages are used, or says experts in the language are needed to provide a full translation.  Keeps adding excuses for why a longer translation cannot be provided and/or for why the system stops working when applied to longer phrases
[*]Fails to explain certain or even all key Voynichese unlanguage-like behaviour (line start/end patterns, paragraph start/ends, letter positions, word break combinations, and this is not an exhaustive list).  Many don't even know of these patterns since they haven't done their research.

These seem to be core items.

[*]

I think "multiple degrees of freedom" is a pretty universal failing. Translating individual words or sentences out of context does not seem to be very theory specific.