I’ve had two seperate posters take issue with my spelling. So, quick survey, does my spelling make me look like an idiot, or impede y’all’s understanding of my views, so that you may rightly judge my idiocy?
Picking on the spelling usually means the person can’t defend their stance on an issue, so they will turn it around on your spelling.
Bad spelling online is like sloppy dress in person. It makes you look careless and disrespectful of others: if you don’t care enough about us to make your best effort, that will affect how much effort we’re going to put into interacting with you.
Keep in mind, though, there is a difference between bad spelling and typos. Someone who kludges up an occasional hte for the is annoying only to people whose annoyance isn’t really worth considering. Someone who repeatedly types there instead of their is someone whose input into any discussion is, sooner or later, going to be discounted.
By how much is up to the individual discounter.
I read an earlier post of yours and considered, but decided against, commenting. But since you are asking for direct comments now, yeah, in many ways it does, especially when in the same post you refer to yourself as the Polaris of my High School.
There are many people just as smart and smarter than you who do consider spelling to be important and a sign of an educated person. Those Science Fiction and Fantasy authors you enjoy seem to place some value on spelling.
It doesn’t really matter if you yourself care or not, but rest assured that others (although not all others) do judge you by it. An HR person might love to see you coming with your new CS or engineering degree, but if you can’t communicate on a high level with non-technical people, you had better get used to that cubicle in the basement, because the only time you’ll see the executive floor is on your orientation tour on your first day.
“Here are the executive offices, now come down here to see your cubicle. Here are your neighbors - meet Clayton, Sydney, Jugdish, Mohammed…”
No one comes down on typos. But deliberately lazy spelling forces people to decrypt your language. If you’re trying to influence opinion, why begin with alienation?
Let me just say, I’m talking about on message boards / informal communication. Lamar Mundane mentions the work communication, and he is totally correct. Work, school, any sort of official communication you might have should be spell checked if your unsure of the spelling. (I love that spell check, lemme tell ya! 
)
I think you’ve made that, uh, perfectly clear. (No offense)
The SDMB has higher standards than your typical message board, IMHO. McDonald’s is a restaurant just as Le Bernardin is, but they are not to be treated equally.
Yes, that was overly arrogant. I should have said the Polaris of my grade: my school has produced Sagans of people much smarter than I. But, by my measures of intelligence, I was in the top 10% or so of my high school. I was including the Sol, Luna, and the planets in my list of bright things, and there were certainly many people smarter than I in high school. Then I came here…
Usually, if I don’t know how a word is spelled, I just guess and move on, rather than look it up.
Odd, vaguely hijackish point: The sentances above read “much smarter than me.”, which is grammat- hell with it, which is wrong.
(Hey, that works.) Upon reading to edit, I changed it. Now, would anybody not get my point had I not changed it?
A study of people’s spelling concluded that not all smart people are good spellers, but all good spellers are smart. If you want people to know for sure that you’re smart, spell well.
In all honesty, when I read a post with bad spelling I assume that the poster is not so bright and lazy as well.
Actually, that’s separate.
Tee hee.
::d&r::
I think using “words” like sux0rs is even worse than casual/lazy misspellings.
What is this crap? I guess it comes from “hax0r”, but what is that shit anyway? You actually want people to think you are a “script kiddie”?
Seems to me these “words” would be pronounced “hack 'sore” and “suck 'sores” respectively.
Thank you for bringing this up, dirty1, you beat me to it.
Nothing makes me so quick to judge than when I see that crap. I’m sure “sux0rs” is all the rage in your circles, but it drives me fucking batshit. I don’t send Emails to my co-workers using the same deadhead surfspeak that my friends and I all use. Know your audience.
I was making a point. Jeez. Whoops. I meant ‘Jesus.’
And if it’s a big deal, I’ll start using spell-check. Fair enough.
Can I get a cite on the intelligence / spelling thing?
That further demonstrates my point. I, as a member of your audience, had no idea you were making a point by using sux0rs. I don’t have any idea what that word means - I only know that it’s something those l33t people use, and assumed, by using it, you were one of them.
Now I gotta bug - the shorepounders are finally getting some swell, and I got a screamin’ green meanie to burn before I start scratchin’ and ragin’.
I often make spelling mistakes and I am not bothered by it. It’s not like my writing is so terrible that you have to stop very long over and over to find out what I’m saying, it’s just a slight inconvience here and there.
So I only laugh when someone attacks my spelling. That only shows they have no leg to stand on in the debate we’re in.
To attack someone’s spelling on something like a message board is like going through a presidential debate and ending with “And my opponent’s tie is not straight!”
Clayton, the point is not whether you are bothered by it (nor is the question posed by the OP), but it is whether others are influenced by sloppy grammar.
The answer is yes, regardless of how many folks you have on your IM or ICQ list who all agree with you.
Ten years ago, many of us thought that newspapers wouldn’t exist anymore. We were wrong, and though you may not want to hear it, grammar, puncuation, and spelling will continue to count.
Check out the history of Esperanto for a blueprint.
None taken. Thats what I get for going back and forth between working and posting.
What is this supposed to mean?
Huh? Looks like this will have to be explained to me too, because I’m afraid I don’t see what Esperanto has to do with this.
Your knowledge of astronomy kind of sux0rs too, apparently. Have you ever seen Polaris? It’s really not that bright. Maybe Sirius would have been a better choice? 