Grammar/Spelling Nazis

K!LL!@N

If there's one thing i hate it's people trying to embarrass and belittle others for no reason other than to make themselves feel superior.

Some people seem to be making it their business to point out every little typo and grammatical mistake regardless of the underlying content of the post.

It's one thing to write a message in text/leet speak but if a person is simply a poor speller or doesn't have a strong grasp of grammar, it's completely unnecessary to belittle them.

If you feel they need the benefit of your superior intellect send them a PM.

I'd like to know what the admins/mods position is on this kind of post.
It adds nothing to Boards and i think it should be stamped out.

Ordinary users aren't the only ones guilty of this.
There are mods that do it too.
Without naming names i read a thread yesterday where a mod replied to a post with nothing more than a spelling correction.
The original poster replied stating that he/she was dyslexic and the mod ended up making a feeble apology.

Just now i've read a thread where someone used the word crevice.
It was used in the correct context.
The guy was talking about a climber making a leap and getting a hold in a crevice on the side of a building.
A crevice being a fissure or crack in the surface of something.

Some anal retentive user took it upon themselves to reply stating that a "crevasse" is actually a rather deep hole found in ice.
That's really useful to know, but the original poster was talking about a crevice not a bloody crevasse!

Can we lay down some ground rules with regard to this kind of thing?
If a post is completely unreadable it should be pointed out to the poster, that's fair enough.
On the other hand, if someone makes a simple spelling/grammatical error but the rest of the post is perfectly understandable then it is simply not necessary to make fun of them.
If you feel strongly enough about it, PM the poster and let them know.
That way they can edit their post.

Killian

Thomas_S_Hunterson

I have to say i agrey totaly wiv dis argoment

mike65

Listen if you're going to have a moan then name names.

Mike.

jesus_thats_gre

He is pretty much bang on though.. It does happen quite alot and its pretty poor form.

[Jackass]

Me fail english??
That's unpossible!!

I agree...to an extent.
I don't think it's as common on boards as you think though, but it's something you always see in long running agurments, it eventually rears its ugly head.

Mrs. A - "You're opinion is wrong...you discust me"
Mr. B - "The only thing that discusts me is your grammer...not you're.."
(actually, that's not so bad to correct...)
:rolleyes:
But it does lower the tone of an otherwise entertaining argument.*ahem* I mean dicussion.

But it's not really that common imo, I should know, I have very poor spelling/grammer, and I don't think any has ever botherd to correct me.

Que the smart ass who's about to...

zAbbo

jesus_thats_gre wrote:

He is pretty much bang on though.. It does happen quite alot and its pretty poor form.

The words are a lot, sorry but thats the most common spelling mistake on boards



Try saying alittle

Hagar

K!LL!@N wrote:

If there's one thing i hate

Should be a capital I. God forgive me, I just couldn't resist it.:D

K!LL!@N

The names aren't important.

The point is, it's completely unnecessary and contributes nothing to the various discussions.

Killian

Hagar

Despite my little joke I couldn't agree more.

It's little more than snobbery, "I can spell and you can't".
It's just mean to belittle people. If everyone was to do that life wouldn't be worth living around here.

Textspeak should be banned, it's bringing down the average ability to spell properly.

Sometimes there are funny typos which are worth commenting on but they fall into a different category altogether and are usually appreciated by the poster.

K!LL!@N

Hagar wrote:

Despite my little joke I couldn't agree more.

It's little more than snobbery, "I can spell and you can't".
It's just mean to belittle people. If everyone was to do that life wouldn't be worth living around here.

Textspeak should be banned, it's bring down the average ability so to spell properly.

Sometimes there are funny typos which are worth commenting on but they fall into a different category altogether and are usually appreciated by the poster.

That's my point completely.
When someone is genuinely trying to make a point it's not necessary to butt in with a spelling correction.
If someone is doing it in a clearly humourous manner then i don't have a problem with it.

Killian

CuLT

Depends what you mean by "simple spelling mistake".

People mistype words frequently, however, if there's a glaring logical error in the spelling, say, using "there" in place of "their" or "they're" it's rather irritating. No adult should be making those sort of mistakes.

I rarely, if ever, actually act upon this but I'm always slightly disappointed when I see something like that.

Endurance Man

I agree with this to a certain extent. Most spelling mistakes are minor, but some of the spelling on boards is just plain horrendous. I think its more the text(lazy) speak that gets to me more.
The OP mentioned a thread where the word crevice was pointed out by someone to be the wrong word. He himself was infact wrong and made a bit of a tit of himself , i think you have to much time on your hands when you are pointing out spelling mistakes on an internet forum .

BuffyBot

It does happen quite alot and its pretty poor form.

To be honest, most of time it seems pretty well deserved!

K!LL!@N

CuLT wrote:

Depends what you mean by "simple spelling mistake".

People mistype words frequently, however, if there's a glaring logical error in the spelling, say, using "there" in place of "their" or "they're" it's rather irritating. No adult should be making those sort of mistakes.

I rarely, if ever, actually act upon this but I'm always slightly disappointed when I see something like that.

I understand that it can be irritating and it can detract from what the person is trying to say.

But, it's more of an irritation to have to read someones snotty reply pointing out the mistake.

If you feel strongly enough about it, then a polite PM to the user would give them the chance to correct their mistake and wouldn't stifle the flow of the discussion.

We're also forgetting that some people just aren't as well educated as others, through no fault of their own.
Others are dyslexic and may not even know they're making a mistake.

Killian

is_that_so

We all have access to spell checkers these days. Nothing worse than bad grammar and spelling to undermine a good argument. Consider your audience such as we are. I seem to recall that you lose marks in public exams for poor spelling/grammar. To my mind there is no real excuse. That said some people have spelling and grammar issues
I agree with Endurance Man on text speak - pure laziness.No-one is charging by the character here.
At the very least make an effort to check what you write.

K!LL!@N

BuffyBot wrote:

To be honest, most of time it seems pretty well deserved!

If it's well deserved then I feel I should point out that you left out the word "the".
Your post should have read, "To be honest, most of the time it seems pretty well deserved!".

I understood your point perfectly well even though you left out the word "the", was I right to belittle you like I just did?

No, i don't think so.

Do you see my point?

Killian

Gordon

K!LL!@N wrote:

Just now i've read a thread where someone used the word crevice.
It was used in the correct context.
The guy was talking about a climber making a leap and getting a hold in a crevice on the side of a building.
A crevice being a fissure or crack in the surface of something.

Some anal retentive user took it upon themselves to reply stating that a "crevasse" is actually a rather deep hole found in ice.
That's really useful to know, but the original poster was talking about a crevice not a bloody crevasse!

Can we lay down some ground rules with regard to this kind of thing?

Did you report the post?

Blub2k4

If someone is not sharp enough to spot glaring spelling mistakes, i.e they didn't pay attention too well at school then how do you know that they have paid attention to the facts that constitute their argument?
I mean the simple errors, such as they're, their and there, they are so commonly swapped on boards it is embarrassing. We're not talking about "i before e except after c" stuff here but a fundamental understanding of the language we speak daily.
The persons argument is not negated but their understanding of the subject matter if the argument were pedantic could definitely be called into question.
It only bothers the lazy people who mostly blame dyslexia, get real lads, you didn't learn your spellings at school. I am not saying that dyslexia does not exist, but it is more common that lazy people exist who have the excuse of "dyslexia" as their shield. When I was a kid there were dysexics but there were a lot more people than there are today who were just crap at spelling.

K!LL!@N

Gordon wrote:

Did you report the post?

There was no need in this case as the original poster was able to turn the tables on them.

I have reported posts i thought were unnecessary in the past.
Some were dealt with, others were ignored.

That's why i'd like to know where the mods/admins stand on this issue.

Killian

Amz

Using the "I have dyslexia" excuse is often used as a bit of a cop out though.

Baz_

K!LL!@N wrote:

Some BuffyBot pwnage!

HAHAHA! ****ing pwned tbh!

I agree 101%. I saw rb_ie just yesterday correct someone, for no good reason, in this thread.

Bard in this thread, he said it was in jest, but if it was, he must have some dry sense of humour, there wasn't an inkling of a clue as to the fact he was joking, it just seemed totally disparaging to me.

As for the person who made the correction of the dyslexic, I'll tell ye all it was amp, and I would have made the same correction (assuming I didn't know the person was dyslexic [am I even spelling that right?], as amp didn't). The person asked could he moderate a forum he was requesting, while misspelling the word moderate, misspelling the word moderate is fine by me, all them vowels mixing you up, asking to be made a moderator in a new forum is very irritating though and when you've seen it the billion or so times that people on here have you tend to be less forgiving of the mistakes made by the wannabe moderators.

Amp did apologise though, there was nothing more he could have said than he did in his apology, so I don't know how you could say it was lame. He apologised for correcting somebody who has a condition which makes it very hard to spell correctly, did you want him to donate his brain?

Karl Hungus

You know, sometimes it's taken to extremes. I think people who use text speak should be squished underneath the jackboots of opression, but some jerks who often have nothing better to say or add to a thread and take people up on the most trivial little things can be equally as annoying.

Oh, and on the subject of dyslexia, I'm actually dyslexic myself, but I put in a lot of effort to be as eloquent as possible and have done a lot of reading, so I'd like to think I'm pretty literate. The thing is, the likes of text speak, and some of the hidiously miss-spelled posts, they're often completely unreadable for me, my mind just can't get around it. So I find it pretty insulting when someone uses the "I'm dyslexic" excuse for post a pile of garbled junk, as they've absolutely no consideration for those who actually are dyslexic.

K!LL!@N

Blub2k4 wrote:

If someone is not sharp enough to spot glaring spelling mistakes, i.e they didn't pay attention too well at school then how do you know that they have paid attention to the facts that constitute their argument?
I mean the simple errors, such as they're, their and there, they are so commonly swapped on boards it is embarrassing. We're not talking about "i before e except after c" stuff here but a fundamental understanding of the language we speak daily.
The persons argument is not negated but their understanding of the subject matter if the argument were pedantic could definitely be called into question.
It only bothers the lazy people who mostly blame dyslexia, get real lads, you didn't learn your spellings at school. I am not saying that dyslexia does not exist, but it is more common that lazy people exist who have the excuse of "dyslexia" as their shield. When I was a kid there were dysexics but there were a lot more people than there are today who were just crap at spelling.

Well pick apart their argument but don't do it on the basis of spelling.
We go on about how great the education system is in this country but it has obviously failed a lot of people.

I'm not saying the problem of poor spelling/grammar should be swept under the carpet, i'm just saying that there's no need for threads to be spoiled on the basis of it.

If we were to analyse every post we'd find a lot of spelling mistakes, misuses of grammar etc. but where do you draw the line.

In your post just now you've typed "dysexics" at one point but you've spelt it correctly everywhere else. Should this annoy me? I only point it out now to prove that everyone makes these little mistakes and that it shouldn't be held against people.

Killian

K!LL!@N

Baz_ wrote:

Amp did apologise though, there was nothing more he could have said than he did in his apology, so I don't know how you could say it was lame. He apologised for correcting somebody who has a condition which makes it very hard to spell correctly, did you want him to donate his brain?

The point is it was unnecessary to play the spelling card.
That's what i thought was lame.
In fairness to Amp, he did apologise which is more than a lot of others do.

Killian

mycroft

Amz wrote:

Using the "I have dyslexia" excuse is often used as a bit of a cop out though.

Is it cause I is dyslexic?

You're right, the usual missive fired back when someone corrects someone elses spelling mistakes. It can't be proven and makes the OP seem morally superior.

I derided someone from using txt spk in Audio Video editing recently, he shot back he was dyslexic, and I had to point out to him that

A) People with learning disorders like dyslexica generally avoid using txt speak as it's confusing for them.

I wasn't having a go at his spelling just his use of a moronic abbreviation.

Anywho tangent over, the only time it's acceptable to correct someone's grammar or spelling is when they've made a mistake in a post correcting somone else's grammar or spelling. And that frankly if the number of people who claim they are dyslexic on the internet are geniunely dyslexic, then man, our educamactors are falling us.

Oh and killian I didn't realise you spell killian with a "@" is that a regional or ethic thing, or what?

K!LL!@N

mycroft wrote:

Oh and killian I didn't realise you spell killian with a "@" is that a regional or ethic thing, or what?

It's a username i chose 5 years ago, i didn't have much of an imagination for picking usernames at the time( and still don't ) and thought i'd spice it up a little.
It's not a regional dialect it's a symbol that looks like an "a" you might have also noticed that the i's have been replaced with "!" they too are for decoration.
What exactly is your point?

You make some valid points and then you go and ruin it by taking a pointless jab at me.

Killian

BuffyBot

If it's well deserved then I feel I should point out that you left out the word "the".
Your post should have read, "To be honest, most of the time it seems pretty well deserved!".

*claps*

You foiled my cunning plan!

nesf

I find it amusing that people seem to think that spellchecking would remove the whole their/there issue.

Don't dyslexics need a special kind of spellchecker or something? Or is it just some of them?


And I'd distinguish between posts with poor spelling and totally unintelligible ones. If someone's post is unreadable I don't see the problem in asking them to take more care. In a text based medium it is reasonable enough imho.

Hagar

mycroft wrote:

our educamactors are falling us.

No comment. :rolleyes:

K!LL!@N

BuffyBot wrote:

*claps*

You foiled my cunning plan!

I'm not out to foil any plans.
I'm just trying to find out what people think about this type of behaviour.

Some people don't seem to think it's a problem, others do.

People have mentioned spellcheckers, I thought I saw something mentioned before about a spellchecker built into vbb but i can't seem to find it.

If it's not obvious then people won't use it.

Perhaps there's some kind of live spellchecker available?
One that would highlight mistakes as the user types their post.
If one was available and was turned on by default at least people might become aware of the problem.

Killian

Baz_

K!LL!@N wrote:

You make some valid points and then you go and ruin it by taking a pointless jab at me.

I think in threads like this one, we must take all corrections sent our way with a pinch of salt, as buffybot has done yours.