# Nitpick your fellow Dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 15, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583 "2023-06-15T20:49:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/21 "2023-06-15T23:38:41Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Judgment does not begin with the word “judge”. > > Leave out the E Unless you’re not from the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2023, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/22 "2023-06-15T23:40:26Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Unless you’re not from the USA. Ignorance fought on that one. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/23 "2023-06-16T00:33:13Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Also, “lit” is the past tense of “light”, not “lighted”. That line should be highlit so it stands out. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/24 "2023-06-16T00:33:17Z")
A factual question like “What is the very first time the phrase ’ I’ve got your back’ was used in a movie?” Is asked, you get responses dating from the 60’s, then the 50’s, then maybe the 40’s…then you start getting responses like "I heard Robert Redford say it in “Butch Cassidy” and “My second cousin used to say it all the time!”. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/25 "2023-06-16T00:53:24Z")
This isn’t really a nitpick, but it is a general criticism of the Dope and Dopers in general. It seems like we have a number of similar threads in which topics can easily cross over. So if somebody posts a breaking story in the Stupid MFers thread, soon somebody else will post the same thing in the Stupid Republican thread, and then somebody else will post it in the Republicans are Evil thread. Just today a story about Trump reneging on a promise to buy lunch for his supporters was posted in the Schadenfreude thread and then later appeared in the Trump Indictment thread. Or maybe it was the other way around. I’m not sure anything can be done about this, and I’m just as guilty as the next poster. But, dammit, if I scoop the Dope about a stupid MFer doing a dumbass thing, I want full credit! ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/26 "2023-06-16T00:53:46Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > the 60’s, then the 50’s, then maybe the 40’s 60s, 50s, 40s! Grrr. 😠 * * * * * * > [@Railer13](#): > > I’m not sure anything can be done about this… It probably can’t, because everyone doesn’t follow every thread, even threads on related topics. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/27 "2023-06-16T00:57:43Z")
I saw the previous posts, and I just _had_ to do it. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/28 "2023-06-16T01:05:25Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > **Quoting multiple paragraphs of text:** First of all, here on the SDMB, why not just use the [quote] function? That would obviate the need for my nitpick. > > Which is, that in book and periodical publishing for well over a century, the nearly universal standard for multi-paragraph quotations has been to put an open quote mark at the _start of each paragraph,_ but a close quote mark _only at the end of the entire quotation._ Like so: > > "Paragraph 1. > > "Paragraph 2. > > “Paragraph 3.” > > Although this style may seem illogical, especially for those who may have done some computer coding, it serves a practical purpose: it indicates to the reader at the start of each new paragraph that you are still quoting. The alternative I often see here, putting open and close marks only at the start and the end of the whole body, can make the reader think that the second and subsequent paragraphs are the original author speaking again. Or alternately, it can break the readers’ flow by sending them to the ends of the next few paragraphs searching for the close quote mark Ugh, I despise that convention. I remember seeing it when i was young, and it confused the hell out of me. Thankfully, it seems to be dying out. > [@commasense](#): > > Along with this style is the necessity to change any double quotation marks within the quoted text to single, and any nested single quote marks within _them_ to double, and so on. Or if you’re British, you start with single quotes on the outside and do the opposite. I’m good with this. Although I’m a little inconsistent as to whether i use the American or British style. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/29 "2023-06-16T01:43:16Z")
Go to your room immediately, Mr. Smarty-Pants! No bedtime story for you! ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/30 "2023-06-16T02:03:49Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > I like using colons, but I never thought of using uppercase letters after it: I think I will start now. Nitpick: you should have used a semicolon there. A semicolon indicates a major break in a sentence, usually between two independent clauses, whereas a colon is used to introduce a conclusion, consequence, or explication. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/31 "2023-06-16T02:24:46Z")
When someone posts an answer that was given earlier in a thread., particularly if the initial answer was recent, and more particularly if they actually include a link to the same article. I guess this is more of a peeve than a nitpick… ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/32 "2023-06-16T02:36:34Z")
I hate when poster give answers someone else has given in the thread. Shows they don’t read the posts. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/33 "2023-06-16T02:40:30Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I disagree. Like periods, commas, semicolons _et al._, ellipses are a graphical indication of a pause, a longer one in their case; and can be used to suggest a voice trailing off… I do not want this post to appear political, and it’s not supposed to be. It’s just that Donald Trump is a master of the trailing off voice. Listen to his speeches, and you’ll hear how he completes a sentence—but he softens his voice, makes it quieter, and trails off, so you’re never quite sure if he finished the sentence or not. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore …” “My fellow Americans, for our movement, for our children, and for our beloved country …” Ellipses do serve a purpose, as in the above, to show a trailing-off voice in a transcription. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/34 "2023-06-16T02:49:16Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > One of my major peeves is someone using an _apostrophe-s_ to create a plural. What?!? I cannot believe, on a message board full of boffins, that ANYone here would do that… and now I must find an example, so that I can silently judge the perpetrator. My peeve is people who don’t spellcheck or grammar-check their posts. Look, I know you know better, and that you’re just in a hurry, but take five seconds to glance at what you’ve written. eta: I just took a third _t_ out of _bettter…_ ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/35 "2023-06-16T03:00:21Z")
I recently needed to use “pled” in a post but my spellchecker flagged it. I looked around Google and found that the preferred spelling was “pleaded.” Language changes. And spellcheckers are strange and wonderful tools that sometimes resemble a hammer trying to fiddle with a screw. As a reformed prescriptionist I’m get triggered by threads that ask usage and then get answered by people who think _a_ style exists that people should use. No matter what you were taught in school there is no such thing as _a_ style. (Almost everything you were taught in high school is technically wrong, because teachers found it so much easier to hand out rules rather than nuance.) Oh yeah, so many of these threads have titles that use “grammar” when they mean “style” or “usage.” Half the questions asked regardless of the forum are muddled, incoherent, incomplete, or otherwise fail to express what the OP needs to know. Then the OP gets mad either when a) people can’t answer the question or b) try to answer the question put into actual words. Also people misuse quotation marks around words all the time. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/36 "2023-06-16T03:19:25Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > And I get stabs of annoyance when I see it misspelled _ya’ll_ or used as a singular pronoun, like it’s just a quaint dialect word that those funny Southerners use instead of _you_, which is the _real_ word. Down here in South Georgia, “y’all” is singular. The plural is “all y’all.” 😜 ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/37 "2023-06-16T03:31:03Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I hate when poster give answers someone else has given in the thread. Shows they don’t read the posts There are some posters who are notorious for this, and it drives me crazy. They’ll pop in at post #132 with the exact same thing that’s been posted 10 times already over 3 days, and then follow up with “Ninja-ed!” (or is it ninjaed?) Nope, ninjaed is when someone slips in _just_ before you, not when they slipped in 3 days earlier. Who is so self-important that they think their post is vital for all to read regardless of what has come before??? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/38 "2023-06-16T03:32:55Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Down here in South Georgia, “y’all” is singular. The plural is “all y’all.” I keep hearing this, but the first time I heard “y’all” was from a new transplant from Lubbock who told me on a bus, “Y’all look like you’re fixin’ to lose your wallet” when my wallet was creeping up out of my back jeans pocket in 1973. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/39 "2023-06-16T03:33:51Z")
In APA style, it’s upper case. The “should” depends on your stylebook. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/40 "2023-06-16T03:45:48Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > I hate when poster give answers someone else has given in the thread. Shows they don’t read the posts. To add insult to injury, sometimes people respond to the duplicate post, rather than the original! It’s crazy! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583.md?page=3)