Do you mind bad grammar/spelling on the forum?

max · Post by **max** » 05 Sep 2004 23:49

In another thread the subject of bad grammar on the forum has been tossed around. What do you all think about this? Does it bother you? Do you not care? When I filled in the modified survey a couple of days ago, I said that what I liked least about modified was the volume of bad grammar. I know that no one is perfect (and I myself certainly am not as I do make lots of mistakes), but COME ON people, we're not text messaging here! You are allowed to type "you're" instead of "ur"!!

Could be just nitpicking, but I think that it does get tedious to read a long post with bad spelling/grammar.
What are you thoughts on the subject?

lightningbolt · Post by **lightningbolt** » 05 Sep 2004 23:59

What gets on my nevers is short hand typing like, "idk wat ur lik". That get on my nerves! Like you said, this is a fourm not a text message!

innersmile · Post by **innersmile** » 06 Sep 2004 01:12

While being the first to admit I'm guilty of the most atrocious spelling and sometimes grammatical errors I do feel that people should brush up on the basics.

The text typing gets on my nerves as well, I despise it even when used in text messages.

If English is not your first lang and you're posting here, than props to you. But, for us 1st language kids, there's no excuse...

And, there is a solution to the problem... just read.

pillar · Post by **pillar** » 06 Sep 2004 02:02

I think people should try to have good grammar when they post, but especially us that have English as their second/third language, rather post with bad grammar than not at all. I mean, before you all start writing perfect Finnish, I won't let mine (or anyones elses whos native language isn't English) mistakes bother me!

But using shorcuts like U for 'you' and so on are annoying in forums and can get out of hands. I wouldn't recommend using those at all.

Jeremy · Post by **Jeremy** » 06 Sep 2004 05:16

Yeah I totally agree with Juha. People like myself who learnt English as a first language have no excuse. If you think you are young and still at school - I don't see that as an excuse at all - it should give you more motivation to learn to use your language properly! Of course everybody makes mistakes. I know I make mistakes – but I think most of the time I’m pretty good and I often correct my mistakes when I see them as well.

Gramma was certainly an issue in the survey – and I’ve noticed some people have already commented here that I don’t think mentioned it in their survey.

It’s hard to think of an easy solution – basically the best thing to do is to make an effort and if it looks like you’ve really butchered something – spell check it! It takes about 20 seconds to copy your post into Word – correct the errors and paste it back. Word isn’t perfect but it’ll correct most of the really errors!

The other thing to keep in mind is that different countries have different spellings of some words. I remember a while back when someone pointed out that I had spelt “color” wrong. In Australia (and the majority of English speaking countries) the word is spelt “colour” – so sometimes something you think is a mistake might not be.

brian relly · Post by **brian relly** » 06 Sep 2004 06:01

pillar wrote:I think people should try to have good grammar when they post, but especially us that have English as their second/third language, rather post with bad grammar than not at all. I mean, before you all start writing perfect Finnish, I won't let mine (or anyones elses whos native language isn't English) mistakes bother me!

But using shorcuts like U for 'you' and so on are annoying in forums and can get out of hands. I wouldn't recommend using those at all.

You have better spelling & grammar than half the english kids on here.

max · Post by **max** » 06 Sep 2004 06:02

You have better spelling & grammar than half the english kids on here.

I second that.

MrRoboto · Post by **MrRoboto** » 06 Sep 2004 07:09

I usually stick to proper spelling and grammer. I prefer to see posts well written, but a moderate amount of shortening is acceptable to me as long as I don't have to struggle to read it.

What really pisses me off are posts that are like 7 lines of uninterrupted text in one paragraph. It just makes them so hard to read, and I have just given up trying on many occasions. Here is an informative comic strip on the subject:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2002/20021011l.gif

EDITED FOR GRAMMER

ted · Post by **ted** » 06 Sep 2004 07:43

I hate it. I usually don't even read posts without punctuation or decent spelling. They make my eyes bleed:
http://www.modified.ca/footbag/viewtopi ... eyes+bleed

420FootBager · Post by **420FootBager** » 06 Sep 2004 08:25

Only when it's really bad. If someone forgets a period or something I can deal with that.

Colin · Post by **Colin** » 06 Sep 2004 08:44

This isn't that related to the topic, but major props to the Europeans on this forum for your multi-linguism. I only speak English, and I'm ashamed of that fact after having done some travel in Europe last summer.

One time I watched a 20ish convenience store clerk go through 4 languages while I was waiting in line for a bag of chips. A CONVENIENCE STORE CLERK. Not a translator, or a linguist, or any such thing. Agh. Makes me feel stupid!

wolfpac444 · Post by **wolfpac444** » 06 Sep 2004 11:07

I just like to see it when people take some time and put it a bit of effort into their posts.

AIvanyo · Post by **AIvanyo** » 06 Sep 2004 20:41

I think writing things that way (you = u, your = ur, ect.) is childish. I used to type like that, but I took a class in school and it taught me how to type correctly.

Shredster · Post by **Shredster** » 06 Sep 2004 21:17

Some bad grammer is okay, but sometimes it just gets annoying to try and read what is before your eyes.

Its especially ok to people that do not speak english as their first language. I couldn't imagine trying to speak french or something with no grammatical errors.