Poll: Spelling/Grammar Police (online)

Are you bothered about seeing decent spelling and grammar on a forum?

  • Total voters
    249
  • Poll closed .
platinum87 said:
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

I read to derive meaning, my brain automatically filters, corrects or whatever. The main problem is not one of spelling or grammar but the fact that it is very difficult to convey complex opinions without writing an entire book.
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"Anidroccg to crad–cniyrrag lcitsiugnis planoissefors at an uemannd utisreviny in Bsitirh Cibmuloa, and crartnoy to the duoibus cmials of the ueticnd rcraeseh, a slpmie, macinahcel ioisrevnn of ianretnl cretcarahs araepps sneiciffut to csufnoe the eadyrevy oekoolnr."

QED.

The trouble is that the brain cannot filter correctly all the time. Especially if it is simply a homophone error (there, their, they're, and such like) it makes it more difficult to read by a significant factor, and the chance of introducing semantic noise is high.

It doesn't always have to be 100%, but if I mis-typed something (as I did then, as I suffered from keyboard-drift and typed 'yuprf' instead of 'typed') I'd correct it. Your brain (if it's that advanced) should be able to infer the word I meant to use, but that's not the point of language, and inferences lead to semantic noise, which lead to misunderstanding, which leads to no-one reading anything you wrote, let-alone taking anything you wrote seriously.

If it requires considerable conscious effort to write something in your native language, then something is wrong. Maybe dyslexia.
 
As long as its not text speak, has punctuation and paragraphs I have more important things to worry about.
 
arknor said:
Arknors bad grammar giveaway !
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18560104

let's see how many people are willing to lower their standard for £20 worth of steam games
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FCEYI.gif
 
I don't mind really too much this is my main forum because of no swearing, no huge sigs, and people actually try to type proper sentences.

I really struggle with the shortened txt speak it's like reading a foreign language to me and it's just too much hassle to be bothered trying to decipher it.

I don't mind the odd typo but someone writing advise instead of advice is not a typo but an error that should be corrected, same with effect and affect again not a typo but an error well you can see what I mean its and its variations don't really annoy me as much same with there and their and they're.

The grammar Nazis would have nothing to do were people to type the correct word.
 
platinum87 said:
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

I read to derive meaning, my brain automatically filters, corrects or whatever. The main problem is not one of spelling or grammar but the fact that it is very difficult to convey complex opinions without writing an entire book.
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Did said research also point out that the above sentence took longer to read when typed like that?

I'd place a bet that it is.
 
I do find it a little annoying both seeing poor spelling/grammar, as well as seeing the grammar nazis jump on a post.

I think it's good to try and show people where they've gone wrong but there's a way of doing it.
 
Q: Are you bothered about seeing decent spelling and grammar on a forum?

A: I suppose it depends on the word. for example a common one in gaming is when someone calls someone else a "looser" instead of "loser" Yes I know it's only missing a single letter but it tends to stand out :)
 
I don't expect perfection personally, but some people are consistently bad.
Certain posters (Glaucus) can be harder to read than taht sutipd cmarbdige tset mentioned earlier in the thread.

The main reasons for correcting spelling are trolling, and helpful nudges. But mostly the former.
 
dirtybeatfreak said:
I wrote that in one of my posts I believe. I would like to think that nearly all of my posts have at least a semi decent level of grammar and spelling but I still feel that people take it far too serious in this environment, hence that comment. Some people just don't care about it on forums, it is part of the internet and they come here to relax, chat with people about the things they like. Moaning and pointing it out in every post just ruins the topic (I am not implying any of the participants in this thread do that mind).
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What I find sad is that people would actually need to concentrate and put in effort to maintain a reasonable standard of English.

'Relaxing' shouldn't lead to a noticeable decline in your ability to write with a basic standard of literacy, it should be second nature to people, excepting people for whom it may be a second language of course.

The odd typo is understandable but these forums are littered with consistent inability to understand basic punctuation, past, present and future tenses, confusing completely unrelated words and a whole host of other simple mistakes.

This is a forum (mostly) full of adults, it's a shame that basic literacy is a problem at all, it really shouldn't be.
 
Meh, silly opening question.

Yes, I care about spelling and grammar - It's just nicer to read. No, I won't pick apart someone's post because of it.

No Vote - Too ambiguous.
 
End of the day language and speech for that matter are just methods of transferring your intentions amongst other things, if you can understand the jist of what they are saying/typing why does it matter? Probably because some people get off on belittling people.
 
Where did stuff like "there's" come from anyway ? surely it's IT IS just lazy or poor English ^_^
contractions are bad hmmkay
 
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Sin_Chase said:
Meh, silly opening question.

Yes, I care about spelling and grammar - It's just nicer to read. No, I won't pick apart someone's post because of it.

No Vote - Too ambiguous.
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It just asks if you're bothered by it, which you are. It doesn't ask if you're going to comment about it. It's like a GCSE exam: read the question.
 
arknor said:
but its not a decent standard people are moaning about its people not being perfect
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Point out people doing that. Note that it must be people moaning about people not being perfect. I'll accept examples of people moaning about people not using English perfectly (I'm assuming that's what you meant even though it isn't what you wrote). I won't accept you claiming that wanting a moderately decent standard of English, with at least the basic rules of grammar and syntax followed and standard spelling used, is moaning about people not being perfect (or using English perfectly).

Your statement is false, simple as that.
 
Hmm interesting question, Im not particularly bothered about it, but cant help but make assumptions about the poster based on their spelling/grammar usage - if someone is too lazy to construct their post correctly why should I waste my time replying. To me its the same as using 'please' and 'thank you' - its a sign of respect...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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