::hangs head in shame::
I’m sorry, Jester - I skimmed over the thread, and got confused rather quickly. But I still do stick by the rest of my post, whether it’s aimed at Jester or not - there have been pile-ons in the past that really were unneccessary, all because of the poster not being great at grammer.
Really? Do you have any examples of that? In my experience, dopers are rather tolerant of poor grammar if the poster is not an arse.
pan
This is an example I stumbled upon the other day - reasonably old thread, I know, but it’s the first one that comes to mind. The bashing continued in a second thread the poster started here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=37277
I also generally thought that grammar wasn’t a big prerequisite to posting here, but after that and this thread I’m beginning to wonder.
Oops. Brain fart.
Aside to New Teenaged Dopers - he’s fulla hooey. He really is Brazilian.
Right LDG - so you had to go back ten months to find such a thing - and there you find BBQ pit threads in which the OP himself is so incoherent that the message is almost unreadable. Not only that, but the OP itself reads as the kind of whiny self-righteousness guaranteed to put people’s backs up.
Colour me unconvinced. I still say that this kind of things goes on very rarely and then only when the readers feel totally exasperated with the OPer and the OP pushes the limits of unreadability in a purely linguistic medium. Also, there’s a difference between grammar being “no big deal” and total incomprehensibility.
But if you feel uncomfortable here then please feel free to let us all know just how horrible we are. Maybe you can follow that with a public meltdown, a promise never to return, a next-day return, multiple pit threads and a banning. Or maybe you can stop being so silly and recognise that there’s no clique, there’s no cabal, we’re all just individuals and, really, noone is out to get you.
pan
Also I note that in the second of the linked threads, there was a pile-on not against the OP, but standing up for him!. So much for your theory that we’re all big meanies that like to tell off anyone who can’t conjugate.
pan
Okay, time to clear this up.
Living Dead Girl:
First off, as was pointed out, yes I am a teenager. I even know the secret catch phrase 
Now, as to my “attack” at people who have bad grammar. I don’t mean to say that bad spelling, punctuation, and grammar are bannable offenses, or should result in the poster being completely ostracized. For example, I screwed up a number of spellings in my OP (“puctuation,” “board” when I meant “bored”).
What I meant was that having poor skills in those departments ain’t gonna win you no friends, neither. Look at it this way: we are on a Message Board. The only, absolute only way that you have to express yourself on a message board is the words that you write. Therefore, if you want to be viewed as an intelligent poster with something to say, you must write like an intelligent poster with something to say. It can be very hard to look at an OP’s real point when things like “its not fare that there so stoopid” are jumping out at you at every turn. Again, screwing up every now and then happens to everybody, but if you make it a chronic habit, people just aren’t going to take you seriously.
Look at it this way. Everyone screws up coding, and I do it at least once a week. But if every single post that a person writes is All in bold, then it gets a bit annoying. This makes is harder and harder for people to see my point, because all they’re looking at is my bolded words.
You seem to have no problem addressing yourself clearly. You have very good punctuation, grammar, and spelling. This means that I can easily understand your point, and am wiling to debate with you. But if you had come in and said:
God Jestr your so stoopid u thinkt aht u ckan tell me what I shuld thin kabout my pogsting? Got oHel. Your jost a stoopid morn lol hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Do you think that anyone would take you seriously? Writing with obviously bad grammar and spelling skills portrays the idea that you put time and effort into your post, instead of just spilling whatever crap you could come up with onto the keyboard. In short, it demonstrates a willingness to debate and have an intelligent discussion.
And if you look at the guy who’s being “persecuted” in the thread that you linked to, he says:
That’s exactly his problem. He doesn’t care. His spelling is obviously affecting his message because nobody can focus on his message, but he doesn’t care, because it’s “just a message board.” Do you see my point?
-Walt (Just for you, Rue DeDay ;))
[sub]mumblemumbleJESTERmumblemumble[/sub]
Bloody teenagers coming on here, writing intelligently, backing things up. Ruining it they are, ruining it I say.
pan
You know, I never got Sofa King’s name until just now…
I feel so totally lame.
–sublight.
Don’t feel bad, Sublight. Neither did I. I guess I always assumed Sofa King sold furniture or something.
<sniff sniff> Is that a new .sig I smell?
Esprix, “the gayest brother… the onle possable nazi”
kabbes: When did I ever say that you guys were such “meanies” or even MENTION a clique? All I said was the grammar seems to be an easy thing to attack a newbie with - more so if they’re a teenager. I admit that maybe I over-reacted - I found the thread I linked a couple of days ago, while perusing some old threads, and this one the day after. So instead of the older thread looking like an isolated incident, it came off as one of many. Maybe I was wrong, and for that I apologize.
Please don’t mistake me for the meltdown type. I maybe be a teenager, but I’m not that stupid.
Jester: As much as I hate to admit this… you’re right. Grammar is a part of any message board, whether it be the Straight Dope or SeXyTeEnChAt - well, maybe less so on the latter. But anyway. It was more the insinuation that only teenage newbies would even think of writing like that which pissed me off. Yes, candyboi wasn’t exactly a sterling example - but c’mon, even there, the first reaction was to attack him rather than ask if he could try and improve his writing skills.
However, I see your point and agree in that case - what I DON’T agree with is the idea that this is purely something a teen newbie would do. Since when are they the only ones?
As a teenager, I’d respectfully like to remark that there are many mat… well, I suppose “older” would be a more fitting term… people whose grammar and punctuation takes wilder swings than mine (especially considering English isn’t my natural language), who think that “you” spells without first and last letter and “to” can be said with a number. Many have also had trouble remembering that moderators are our friends or that all people aren’t very into drug trade in Internet forums. Granted, it is teenagers who are most often associated with this kind of behavior, but twentyagers-fiftyagers are by no means barred from participating.
Hmm, glancing at thread, it looks like Living Dead Girl already argued my point. Well, it’s still going. It has enough big words to make it sure that people will think of me as intelligent. <font size=1>Right?</font>
No one said this is the sort of thing that only a teen would do. It’s just that it’s more common while school’s out for the boards to get an influx of high schoolers who behave in this manner, hence Jester’s pre-emptive strike.
Try not be feel singled out, as I’m sure Jester did not mean it that way. Anyone 20 and up who would do what’s mentioned in the OP are just as subject to ridicule as teens.
BTW #1 - Kantaloopi, you can find info on how to do coding for this board here. Hope it helps.
BTW #2 - it’s Ginger, not I, who’s full of lies. Her path is the way to the Dark Side. I am your friend, she will destroy you. She is Canadian after all, and they’re nothing but trouble. Haven’t you ever seen South Park?
Oh, sure, Crunchy. Use some silly comedic animated show to back yourself up. Booger.
I’m mostly harmless. And I’m nice, too. You new kids, just ask Momma Gingy whatever you need to know. I’ve only been here for a few months but I’ve got a pretty good handle on things, and still have a fresh perspective.
Living Dead Girl, hello. Looking at kabbes post, don’t take it too personally. You’ve just been the victim of an overgeneralized assault. Actually, I think he/she was just detailing the kind of response that is expected from people who fail to follow the rules in the OP. Basically that response is a typical response by a certain kind of poster frequently matching the category of teenager and usually a newbie because anybody who’s been here a while knows better or would have been banned.
Let’s back up. Jester posted the comments as a tutorial for newbies and especially teenager newbies. In it, he hit common problems that posters have. Some of those are generic, some are more applicable to teenagers. For instance, most older folks don’t post in chatspeak - “Its so kewl U LiKe Me 2!!!” This is not to imply the only violators of the rest of the rules are teenagers. Many an old-fart has logic problems as well. And bad behavior is ageless. So you are correct that the rules as listed apply to everyone, not just newbies and teenagers. He just addressed it to them because they are the most frequent violators.
Anyway, I haven’t seen your other posts, but purely from this thread I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You’re coherent, polite, and back up your statements. And didn’t rise to the bait offered by kabbes.
Jester, I can’t decide whether if I was a new teenager Doper (as opposed to a sorta-new teenage Doper) and reading your rant, if I would run screaming or be incredibly interested and decide to stalk you, as a result of your very-well said and rather admirable thread.
[/girltalk]Lady Juliet, I think you have more fans and admirers than anything else. You got nothing to worry about. [/girltalk]
Sheesh, the hijacks were horrible this time. Note to Newbies: This happens a lot. Crunchy does this a lot, too. shakes head What medication are you on now, dude?
All in all, we have some really kick-ass Dopers who are underage. I try to keep up with N³A³M³’s posts. And Studi is quite the articulate one. Props to you, too. Catalyst is one of those demmed lurkers, but he’s one of my favorites, simply because who he is and . Jon Locke is a newcomer with promise. And cheers for Living Dead Girl, for standing up to that big old bully kabbes.
Now that I’m done sucking up…
My best advice:
Lurk,
Listen,
Learn,
(and THEN, MAYBE (just MAYBE)…post)
I’m relatively new to SDMB, but anyone who joins in must be in absolute awe of the sheer amount of knowledge on “stuff” that’s available concerning damned-near-any-topic you can think of.
Just have to careful to NOT kick that (old) dog by the fireplace.
First off, thank you. 
Secondly, as a new teenager Doper, I decided not to run screaming from the post, but instead be incredibly interested. I never, though, had the wonderful plan of stalking Jester. I think I might just do that. 
[sub]Bwahahahahaha[/sub]
Now look at what I started!
[sup][sub]I’m so proud![/sub][/sup]