I’ve done it, again - this time not in an Internet forum but in an e-mail to a colleague. As I have observed this phenomenon so often - with others as well with myself - I assume there must be a canonical name for this law/rule:
A message criticising someone else’s spelling or grammar will humiliate its originator by containing a glaring spelling/grammar mistake itself
So, what’s that law called?
Well, on the SDMB, it’s Gaudere’s Law. Apparently it’s known elsewhere as Skitt’s Law and Tober’s Lor.
The first use appears to be this from Usenet:
I personally observed this (just for spelling) a long time ago. I thought I’d posted it on Usenet back in the '80s under the name Tilque’s Law, but Google Groups doesn’t have it. Not that that means much, as I understand there are gaps in Google’s Usenet archives from those days. I also doubt if I was the first to make such an observation.