The culture on the SDMB tends to be more pseudo-academic, for lack of a better word, than your typical message board. Many SDMB members think of this place not as a general interest message board with more mature users than the norm, but a [mid-Atlantic accent] coughpanoptic symposium [/mid-Atlantic accent] [stroke beard] strokestroke [/stroke beard]. Likewise, many Dopers seem to liken themselves as eccentric academic-types.
The nerdfights over trivial changes at the board, grammar, and the like remind me of Sayre’s Law: “Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so low.” I live in a small town packed with academic-types, and encounter it in my day-to-day life. There’s no shortage of Sharpie-corrected signage, posters, and even bathroom graffiti. I’ve been to public meetings where people debated for 10 minutes over whether to use a comma, semicolon or colon in a part of a resolution. And God forbid you should say “decimated” in anything but its ancient Roman context.
What really sucks is when you go to a board where it is against the rules to correct someone. Sure, sometimes it’s immaterial, but sometimes it shows an obvious lack of knowledge on the topic at hand.
I’m sure there’s also a worse board where people do this to even obvious typos–and not just to be funny.
Also, singular they has been used since before “he or she,” so I’m sticking with it except where it would be confusing.
Generally speaking, I won’t jump in and actually correct someone’s spelling or grammar unless:[ul]
[li]It’s germane to the discussion[/li][li]It’s being done intentionally to belittle or insult (in which case I don my moderator hat)[/li][li]The error(s) make the post ambiguous or flat-out unintelligible[/li][/ul]
There have been a few times I’ve tried to parse something a couple of times and just told people, “Sorry, but I’m not going to put any more work into understanding this. If you explain it properly, I’ll be happy to answer the question.”
When it comes to correcting other posters’ spelling or grammar, I try to take a Golden Rule approach of only doing so in situations where I would want my own grammar or spelling corrected if I had been the one to make the mistake, though admittedly not everyone has the same standards of scrupulosity. Thus, I’m more likely to correct the error if it makes the poster’s meaning unclear, or if the same error is made repeatedly, or if I can point out the error in what I judge to be a sufficiently clever or amusing way.
I looked up your username in dictionary.com and I think you misspelled it, just wanted to let you know. Just for your information. I know you meant “sizzler steaks” but thought I should point out this typo.