Wow, what the hell did I miss by not looking at things a day or two??
DaneH:
Spelling is not everything. Correct spelling isn’t even an indication of intelligence (a mediocre moron can still use a spell check program or a dictionary). But, like the impression someone receives when first seeing you and noting that your hair isn’t combed, or that your tie is spotted, incorrect spelling on a posting board will create an unfortunate image.
All of us make spelling errors here, either from failure to proofread the post, or from lack of knowledge. No one here should get a feeling of superiority from catching a spelling or grammar error. Actually, it can be funny to watch someone post a correction and make a misspelling in the correcting post!
ONE thing you do need to be involved in posting on line is a thicker skin. Most here do not act as they would were they interacting with the posters in person. This is unfortunate, but true. Also, please remember that the lack of face to face viewing makes it hard at times to correctly understand the actual emotion of anyone posting here; often there are tongues quite firmly in cheek.
If you don’t care how you spell in general, well, I suppose you can CALL yourself intelligent, but I wouldn’t call you smart, and certainly not wise.
DaneH:
Hi, my name is Cessandra. Just recently I started a thread similar to this one in the BBQ Pit. Here is the link:
As you have noticed, some of the people on this board are quick to jump on newbies. But let me tell you something, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. You made a very slight mistake, and only two people even commented on it. This is fairly mild for our little group.
None of the people here are really jerks, they just have their little pet peves and you happened to step on one.
However, if you are going to continue to post to the SDMB, you should realize that it is an integral (sp?) part of this board to at least attempt proper spelling and grammar. If you don’t want to even try, then folks are going to get mad at you. If you do try, and someone still gets on your case, just inform them that you are doing the best you can. Most likely, other regs will rush to your assistance. After all, no one here is expected to be perfect.
One more thing. This thread should be in the Pit. You may not think that this is important, but our mods work very hard and we like to help them out by trying to post threads in the appropriate forum.
If you make an effort to get along here, you’ll be welcomed with open arms. We may be a little rough at first, but all in all, we’re a great group.
Cessandra
It’s frightening how many crazies think that world is going to end in a few days. All of us smart people know that it’s not ending until next year.
Now what I don’t understand is why everyone is responding to this message as though spelling errors are heretical or something. Anyway, I guess I’ll answer Dane’s question without being rude. I’m pretty neurotic about spelling and correct people who do make mistakes, but that’s only because it bugs me. Some of the smartest people I know, including teachers and even college professors, have made incredibly moronic spelling errors, so I don’t think Dane is an idiot for some forgivable misspellings. I think you guys should lay off. Does anyone really care that much??
“When I do right, no one ever remembers. When I do wrong, no one ever forgets.”
Well, we’ve got 2 long pages here of something that doesn’t even belong in GQ. Should we try to make it 3?
I ain’t no Net weenie, but, y’know standard American English says that’s ‘Net weenie’, not ‘Net wienie’, prob’ly 'cause many Americans ain’t hardly ever heerd of Vienna no way. Ya got wieners, but y’ain’t got ‘wienies’. Verstehen Sie?
Now that everyone has forgotten about this and gone home.
Houghton Mifflin published, “The Word Book” several years ago it is about 4" x 6" and I’ve carried it in a jacket pocket to a couple of jobs where less than perfect spelling might get me fired. It only has words (40,000) with accents and syllabication-quick and easy to use. Cheap!
I keep “Webster’s New World Dictionary - Second College Edition” on my desk as backup.
The local drug store often has a 6-7 page notebook sized pub. with grammar rules and examples. It is easy to use and again, cheap.
Netscape has a composer that you can use to compose and spell check your messages, then cut and paste them onto your posts. This feature may be available on your software, too.
Oh my god. I have never been exposed to such a concentrated dose of pomposity in all my born days.
If you are all really as worried as you claim to be about clarity of communication, you know, i’d stop listening to that Stephen Hawking fellow. I mean, one can barely comprehend what he is saying through that computerised voicebox.
Correcting someone else’s spelling / grammar is a damn cheap way of feeling superior, and to me seems like the last resort of an individual with no other means of appearing smarter, like actual intelligence as opposed to the ability to learn by rote the numerous exceptions to rules of spelling and grammar.
Anybody wants to take me to the BBQ pit, get in the ring. Like Billy Connolly said “I know a million words but i still prefer Fuck”
Well, the mods haven’t moved this yet, so I’ll answer it here.
Well, if sound were the only medium through which we could get Hawking’s message, you’d be correct. However, he has proven himself to be a competent writer as well, so we are not forced to rely on spoken messages to hear what he has to say. DaneH, on the other hand, has only his typed messages, posted on a web board, to speak for him. He may be the most eloquent speaker on the planet, but unless he gets a radio or TV show, we’ll never know it.
The thing about bad spelling is this; it forces others to do the work for the person writing. I’m not talking about masturbation with an “e”, or one or two misspelled words in a post. I mean a post filled to the brim with spelling and punctuation errors, as well as grammar snafus. If there are too many errors, the reader must wade through them, possibly multiple times, in order to extract a meaning from the post. That work should be the responsibility of the author and not the reader. If you’re not willing to do the work necessary to make the message clear, what makes you think that I am?
Here’s another point in favor of a spell check. Trolls often post with more spelling errors than you can count. The topics are the first thing we see here. If there’s a spelling error in the post topic, a lot of us assume the poster’s a troll. It’s obviously not a perfect practice, but many of us have no desire to get involved in a troll thread, and we skip over it. I did that exact thing when I saw the error in DaneH’s masturbation thread. If you honestly want people to get into your thread and discuss issues or answer questions for you, try not ot give them the impression that you’re a troll.
He weathered a firestorm of agony and did not break.
And while Yori raged against his unbending
courage, we took Kyuden Hiruma back.
His loss is great, but so is the gift his suffering brought.
-Yakamo’s Funeral
Absolutely, nice point. In the the context of a wholly text based way of interacting, typos and grammar errors are more annnoying than in the wider world, where of course you can communicate in various ways. I just got a bit upset at the height of the horses from which some of our esteemed colleagues were shouting DaneH down.
Absolutely, nice point. In the context of a wholly text based way of interacting, typos and grammar errors are more annoying than in the wider world, where of course you can communicate in various ways. I just got a bit upset at the height of the horses from which some of our esteemed colleagues were shouting DaneH down.
Absolutely, nice point. In the context of a wholly text based way of interacting, typos and grammar errors are more annoying than in the wider world, where of course you can communicate in various ways. I just got a bit upset at the height of the horses from which some of our esteemed colleagues were shouting DaneH down.
