The only other MB I freqent seems to be full of teens who use the shorthand that I was using when I was a teen who frequented BBSs. You know, “c” for “see”, “u” for “you”, “r” for “are”, “4” for “for”, “thanx” for “thanks”, etc. I just hope they don’t start writing in 7331!
That’s true, imagine the horror when they start to claim they are “teel”
Oops. 
I feel your pain. The Straight Dope Message Board (SDMB) is less a forum and more a fraternity with all the trimmings, pagentry and narcissism of a masonic temple meeting.
I think some of it is just people trying to be cutesy. I’m sure that that one person mentioned knows how to spell “anyone” but thinks “ne1” looks “kewl”. It’s a matter of taste (and probably partly a “youth” thing, since I imagine the Sims board attracts more teens than this board does). It’s probably not much different than how some people thought the user “Deep Fried”'s name should be written in standard text and others didn’t care.
It does bother me when I see major grammar/spelling problems
in professional publications (such as the Avon catalog that used an apostrophe to pluralize names, as in “The Smith’s”) because they should have editors to catch that. However, I think some people just think of BBs as more informal. Not everyone has the mindset they’re writing for something on par with a newspaper editorial, and in many ways I think BBs are a lot less serious than that.
For example, would you take a newspaper article seriously if the author only identified themselves by a strange pseudonym of the type we use on these boards? The only professional contexts where colorful pseudonyms are usually used that I can think of are entertainment sorts of things such as pro wrestling and exotic dancers. Not that I have any problem with those sorts of activities, but I’d be rather surprised to meet a CEO who wanted to be called “Flapcats”.
Just like we use goofy names on BBs rather than identifying ourselves by real names as most people do in professional contexts, some people probably feel like they can relax about using proper grammar on BBs.
Now, of course, I have certainly seen some very blatant misspelling which was clearly due to ignorance. One man who replied to my online personal ad didn’t seem to know/care how to use periods to denote the end of sentences, so I read his notes as if he was saying the whole thing all in one breath. I ended up ignoring him when I realized I literally couldn’t understand what he was saying at times.
However, in general, I give people a break on spelling if I get the point of what they’re saying. After all, for all I know, they might be dyslexic or have some other genuine disability that makes it harder for them to spell properly.
I don’t agree with the “We’re smarter than those other boards” tone that crops up on this board sometimes. Of course there are some very clever people here. However, it’s not like any of us had to take an IQ test to start posting here, and it doesn’t require an advanced degree to understand most of the discussions (I mean, come on, it doesn’t take a genius to grasp most of the discussions here about ordinary things like sex, food, TV, etc.), so I’d dare to say that we have pretty much a cross-section of normal adults here.
Of course, this board tends to be more closely moderated than most, which probably does catch more of the bottom of the barrel types. Another advantage this board has is that its subject matter is mostly geared towards adults, rather than appealing to teens, who tend to act dumber than adults (even though I know many teens are bright people).
What absolute twaddle.
I agree about the concerns about narcissism, but the implied ‘secret club’ aspect is bollocks. I haven’t seen any evidence of a cabal or anything like that.
BTW, it’s “pageantry”. 
Probably because I majored in English, this bothers the hell out of me. From this beachfront Hilton hotel (where I get to work a conference), we find:
Improper spelling and usage bothers me. Not so much sometimes here, when I know folks are “thinking with their fingers” and might slip. But when you get a note from the High School giving “congradulations!” to the seniors … that’s gut-wrenching. Another phenomenon I unhappily discovered is: web sites for radio stations. Now I see why they’re not in print journalism !!! None of them can spell! AIEEEEEEEEEEEE…:smack:
Bah, so I made a spelling mistake. Small thing.
I have to get some work done so I’m going to leave the discussion after this, but I’m quite serious. In the Straight Dope Message Board (SDMB) are there not secret handshakes to be observed, bizarre rituals to be completed, and a recognized hierarchy of elders – culminating in a charismatic leader to whom obsessive respect is expected as a matter of course?
I used to post at the MB at neilgaiman.com, which started out as a very cool place, with different opinions being freely, well mostly freely accepted, and there were upwards of 100 different posters a day.
Nowadays, there are only about 15 regular posters and it’s pretty frightening what has happened. It has become a very anti-US/America board and if you voice a pro-US post, you will get flamed and bleated down. The posters there have WAY too high an opinion of how they are among the smartest, most literate of all message boards.:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Sure guys.
There’s a charismatic leader alright. But the respect we pay him is respect earned. All hail Cecil!
Other than that, no secret handshakes and the like. Welcome to the boards, enjoy your stay.
Aside from the occasional typo, the bulletin board that I run is fairly literate. Then again, most users are college graduates.