Hopefully the subject poster will succumb to peer pressure. It has been a long journey, but my spelling has improved markedly in an effort to raise myself to the general standard found on the dope. That and better spell checkers.
That said, text speak is an abomination. It needs to die.
You mean this guy?
I also agree with the OP, though I’m also a huge non-proponent of new rules. If it’s not implemented I won’t lose any sleep - but my ignore list will continue to increase.
Note to the Shift Key deficient crowd: your “style” is stupid. Your “voice” does not make you unique - it just makes you annoying. I’m sure you have wonderful things to say and contribute - but I’m just not up to the task of allowing myself to become all Mr. Crankypants just to read the three sentences you wrote. It may be my loss for allowing your infinite wisdom into my life - but I’m fully prepared to live with that.
The problem is that nobody else does. The threads in question are fairly popular and attract a great deal of traffic. So whatever he’s doing, it seems 2 b working.
omg wut
lol
+1
This is exactly how I feel about the whole thing…
Look, generally a “rule” does not = “banning”. I have no problems with a generally worded rule that would allow Mods to warn abusers of textspeak. But I think that we should only enforce it in case of extreme abusers.
Th1s.
I have many issues with how the TelevisionWithoutPity (TWoP) forums are moderated and run, but one thing I do appreciate is their rule against using textspeak or e.e. cummings emulation. Their ‘Do/Don’t’ section regarding posting includes:
Concise and pretty clear. I’m not saying their forums are a bastion of intelligence and clarity, but they are pretty free of messages that look as if they were texted by a 12-year-old.
I want to dispel a Urban Legend here. E. E. Cummings only used “e.e. cummings” as part of his poetry. On a regular day to day basis, he usually used E. E. Cummings.
But I’d say “*We expect a attempt to use proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc”.
(I also want to say that on a scale of 1-10in ”moderation”, the SDMB is about a 8, that place is about a 3. )
*Where 10= good.
Hear, hear! That’s the spirit that made this Board the institution it is today!
I think we should ban peer pressure, ridicule, and shunning as well.
Which leads one to wonder, if the argument against textspeak is based on the concept of clarity and discussion, but the poster du jour who uses it the most has very active threads with posts that are plainly understood by the majority of the board’s population, what exactly is the problem? Let those who don’t mind alternative forms of writing have their fun and those who feel the vapors coming on can retire to another, more erudite discussion until they’ve recovered.
And I hate TWOP because they have one thread for every show and fuck that noise, I don’t want to hunt through 200 pages to find the 20 posts about the episode I just watched.
Yes, you’re right. In fact, let’s have animated smilies (no, wait, animated avatars), increased use of colours in posts (Grapist be damned), and much more Comic Sans.
Yes, I said it. Comic Fucking Sans.
I like Dr. Deth’s take. Not a rule of insta-warn, but the mods should clamp down on new posters who aren’t reacting to the intense “shunning” they get. If they’re sock/trolling, they’re not going to react to mod instructions. If they’re used to Yahoo than a mod note helps them join the community.
Ok.
Sure.
Fine by me.
Neato.
That’s all stuff that I can control on my end. If I don’t want to see smiles, avatars, unusual colors or fonts, I can modify the board or my browser to display things the way I like.
It’s not my fault your idea is bad.
Thanks. Hey, I have read a bunch of hate about Comic Sans. Hardly my favorite. But I can’t see the hate.
Explain the joke to me, willya?
Here’s a relevant thread:
Why does everyone hate comic sans?. Some choice rationales in there. Search “intitle:comic sans site:straightdope.com” and you’ll see a few more.
Aside from the more technical perspective, there’s this choice quote from **pulykamell: **
Agreed. I came in here to mention TWoP’s rule. It’s just so satisfying to see the banhammer get dropped on some dumbass who posts in all-lowercase because he thinks The Man can’t tell him how to punctuate, or whatever.
Anyway, I fully support a rule against posting without punctuation or capitalization.
In all fairness, text speak is a silly thing to get upset about. It’s far too easy to avoid reading it.
We don’t need more rules.
I love a good shunning. Very effective.
It seems to me that very few people come here and communicate in poor English on purpose. When one comes along, he’s asked to knock it off, and the folks who are worth keeping are usually happy to comply. Those who don’t want to change their posting style tend to be those who will ignore other board rules, written or unwritten, and usually find the door hitting them on the way out. There’s no need to make “proper language” an official rule.
