Spelling in the RH Forum

[rinkrat94 1]

There you go Chadd. If this topic would have been approached like that from the start we wouldn't have wasted time talking about grammar on a hockey web site. Instead of calling people ignorant and dunces, you were grown up about it.

No I didn't mean you TBL. I agree with you. I am talking about the people who post just to correct your spelling or tell you your topic is stupid. I'm sure these are the same people. It dosen't seem like a big enough problem on this board to warrant people bitching about it.

[gman 0]

I too hate it when people virtually scream at you for posting something that has been covered before and then tell you to search. I had probably tried searching and could not find what I was looking for so then I had to post.

I do think there is a huge and obvious difference between ESL members and lazy English speaking members. I think one has to have a pretty solid command of the language to come up with things like "sk8", "bcuz", "2by" and the like.

[TBLfan 25]

I agree completely. I hate the search, i use it but I still have trouble finding what I need to know or the thread I'm looking for.

I'll never understand stuff like sk8er and the like. I just don't think of skater when I see sk8er, it takes more time for me to comprehend what you are saying then it would take you to hit one more key.

[beaucoup_fish 0]

Wow, this topic is hilarious. I believe that most 12 year-olds on this board do generally make a concerted effort to ensure that their spelling and grammar is in fine form, but the reality of it is, most 12 year-olds today don't have the necessary skills to have perfected their sentence building at this point...

That said, there are others on the board that like to use "alternate," spellings such as "eye," or "r." From an anthropological standpoint, this is likely a side effect of the proliferation of Internet chat rooms and instant messaging services - it's like the one gentleman who works in education's example - he gets kids handing in papers with garbage like "rotflmao." This is (on term papers only):

1. plain laziness, or

2. idiocy

However, since this is an Internet forum, it should generally be accepted that shortforms like "lol," or "lmao," are going to be used.

So, as nice as it would be to see everyone on this board use the English language properly, it just isn't going to happen. I would like to think that most people do make an effort though (especially non-native English speakers), although there are of course, the few that don't.

As an aside, I do imagine that the members of this board who type with awful (and I mean 4 year-old awful) sentence structure and grammatical errors abound also talk the same way in real life. Sad as it is, many people today just plain lack the linguistic skills that should have been learned when he/she was in 3rd grade.

EDIT: I was tempted to use terrible grammar and spelling, but at the same time, I wonder how many people making posts to this topic spent an hour spell/grammar checking their comments...

[stevoc 0]

I just wan sme advise on wat sk8s 2 bye.

Wow, that gave me a headache!

I can't stand text messaging, I think mostly because of the way grammer is used. (see example above)

Spelling errors are one thing, shortening words to speed up typing is irritating.

[TBLfan 25]

I understand completely about using "internet lingo" such as:

lol

lmao

wtf

imo

imho

and the like.

And of course "Modsquad lingo" such as:

MSH

LHS

PP

and the like.

I don't expect everyone on here to use college-level grammatical language in every post. I just ask that everyone proof read(just a glimpse is all you need) their posts for spelling(wtf do you mean by "smoe sktaes") and horribly worded sentences.

[beaucoup_fish 0]

I don't expect everyone on here to use college-level grammatical language in every post.

It's funny you say that b/c it seems that sometimes, a lot of "educated," adults can't put together a sentence to save their lives.

[gman 0]

I don't expect everyone on here to use college-level grammatical language in every post.

It's funny you say that b/c it seems that sometimes, a lot of "educated," adults can't put together a sentence to save their lives.

That is very true. There was a post in another thread by a twelve year old new member. His grammar, punctuation, and spelling were prefect. This issue has far less to do with education than with attention to detail and caring what the reader is going to see.

[TBLfan 25]

I agree completely. It's really a shame that more adults don't know how to write a simple sentence. Whether it's education or the fact that some people simply don't care is up for debate. Nevertheless in my 600+ posts here I haven't had more than a few times where I had to explain what I meant. Whereas I see some members have to explain 1/3 of their posts because "tehy no undrestnad teh enlgish lanugage."

[Drury23 0]

I jst dnot get wut u r ol talkng bot.

Just kidding. I try to use perfect spelling and grammar as much as possible because lazy people really get on my nerves.

gman, I think the 12 year old kid had a username like ConnorJoyce or something along those lines.

[--notorious 0]

I too hate it when people virtually scream at you for posting something that has been covered before and then tell you to search. I had probably tried searching and could not find what I was looking for so then I had to post.

I do think there is a huge and obvious difference between ESL members and lazy English speaking members. I think one has to have a pretty solid command of the language to come up with things like "sk8", "bcuz", "2by" and the like.

I think Id rather see someone make a spelling error than me getting "virtually screamed at" over not searching.(More than 3/4 of the time I do so but I can never find anything)

[Dante2004 0]

I too hate it when people virtually scream at you for posting something that has been covered before and then tell you to search. I had probably tried searching and could not find what I was looking for so then I had to post.

I do think there is a huge and obvious difference between ESL members and lazy English speaking members. I think one has to have a pretty solid command of the language to come up with things like "sk8", "bcuz", "2by" and the like.

I think Id rather see someone make a spelling error than me getting "virtually screamed at" over not searching.(More than 3/4 of the time I do so but I can never find anything)

Amen!

I just put a spelling disclaimer in my signature file. :-)

[RSobkowz 0]

I don't mean to be a snob or a dick, but please check the spelling on your topics... even if you are 12. It makes us RH people look bad.

I'm new to the forum but about did a backflip when I read this. Every other forum I am a member of I get called a dick for mentioning someone else's spelling or grammar. Muy bueno on making this a point.

[Penguinsfanatic 0]

I could see how if you misspell words that are big or just easy to typo ya know, but other than that i hate it too when people misspell everything or try to shorten it

[Ogie Oglethorpe 14]

I think it has a lot to do with how popular that text messaging has become in modern culture (especially with the "younger" crowd). Suddenly it's OK not to capitalize, punctuate, or the weird shorthand becomes acceptable by many.

Me? I'm of the opinion that you have a big keyboard in front of you, why not use it? I mean, if I have to read the post 3 times before I fully understand it because there's no punctuation or because I have to figure out the shorthand it's just not worth it.

For instance, the last sentence could read: if i have2 red post 3x b4 i fully undrstnd bc no punctuation or bcuz i hv2 fig out the shthnd itz not worthit well, ok, so perhaps I'm not doing my point justice, but I think you catch my drift.

[mattzilla 0]

There is no good excuse for it. I send a million texts a day and even my texts are easily readable and the spelling is dead on.

It's just being lazy.

[roller to ice 0]

i do not puncuate correctly or spell alot of things correctly simply because i do enough spell checking and editing in my college courses and thats not why im here and im here for hockey. but i make an attempt at the very least to search the topics before i start a new one, to use periods, to spell as well as i can, and make my ideas clear and no one seems to care despite the fact that a english professor would die reading my posts. most people here seem to be mature without being uptight and thats why i continue to comeback to this board and not the others i have given a shot (an n0n3 of ths cr@p)

[s4gobabygo 0]

I know this thread was about spelling, but I had to chuckle a few times at how many posts comment on the poor spelling and the level of "literacy" on the forum, while making grammatical errors.

This is an "important topic"!?

[Ahriman 1]

With an exception for correcting product and branding names when it's clear the person is confused or wrong; you should never comment on grammar and spelling

Google any etiquette advice column on correcting grammar and spelling; it's one of the rudest things you can do. Some people strive for perfection, some people don't care as long as it's readable, some people never proofread, some people just plain don't have the education to know what's right or wrong, some people have disabilities (learning or otherwise), and some people are just plain poor typists.

Regardless of those factors, correcting someone is incredibly rude, even as helpful advice, it sends a completely different message and reflects poorly on you. Unless you are responsible for their efforts (eg You are the person's boss, and thus their work is represents your managerial & QA/QC ability) you have no business correcting a person.

TL;DR version: You look like an ass when you correct other people's mistakes or make a big deal out of people making small errors.

[pantherfan 0]

While I'll agree that it can be a dick move the way I remember it was described on MSH made alot of sense. It was that alot of the members here don't use English as their first language (off the top of my head - French/German/Swiss/Swedish/American butchered English :P) so by using "text speak" it can be very difficult for everyone to feed their addiction, thus the need for a whinge thread.

MSH for all! ;)

EDIT: spelling

[ExitTwoEighty 7]

With an exception for correcting product and branding names when it's clear the person is confused or wrong; you should never comment on grammar and spelling

Google any etiquette advice column on correcting grammar and spelling; it's one of the rudest things you can do. Some people strive for perfection, some people don't care as long as it's readable, some people never proofread, some people just plain don't have the education to know what's right or wrong, some people have disabilities (learning or otherwise), and some people are just plain poor typists.

Regardless of those factors, correcting someone is incredibly rude, even as helpful advice, it sends a completely different message and reflects poorly on you. Unless you are responsible for their efforts (eg You are the person's boss, and thus their work is represents your managerial & QA/QC ability) you have no business correcting a person.

TL;DR version: You look like an ass when you correct other people's mistakes or make a big deal out of people making small errors.

I agree 100% Ahriman. :)

It is annoying when people use "4" and "becuz" but I have never seen it here.

This thread reminds me of school, first day of my upper division bio course the professor said "don't correct my spelling, scientist don't care about spelling" If we understood what he was trying to write then it was ok.

[Bammers 0]

The best part of this thread is how long that this went on. This amuses me immensely.

[Aussie Joe 0]

I generally quick edit 1-2 out of every 5 posts, due to spelling or really simple grammar errors. As part of my work I have to type very fast and this has filtered into my MSH posts. It means instead of making excuses I simply re-read my posts and try and filter the madness out.

It's not hard to make a bit of effort and essentially a bloody good habit to get into. I used to work for a billion dollar corporation whose managers couldn't even put together a simple "well done" email to the troops without fudging the spelling or basic grammar. Spell check is your friend. If you are unsure about something just cut and paste it into Word. It's not a sign of OCD to try and spell words right. ;)

[Chadd 916]

I generally quick edit 1-2 out of every 5 posts, due to spelling or really simple grammar errors. As part of my work I have to type very fast and this has filtered into my MSH posts. It means instead of making excuses I simply re-read my posts and try and filter the madness out.

It's not hard to make a bit of effort and essentially a bloody good habit to get into. I used to work for a billion dollar corporation whose managers couldn't even put together a simple "well done" email to the troops without fudging the spelling or basic grammar. Spell check is your friend. If you are unsure about something just cut and paste it into Word. It's not a sign of OCD to try and spell words right. ;)

Firefox will even underline the words it believes you got wrong.

[mr13lcky 4]

I think it has a lot to do with how popular that text messaging has become in modern culture (especially with the "younger" crowd). Suddenly it's OK not to capitalize, punctuate, or the weird shorthand becomes acceptable by many.

Me? I'm of the opinion that you have a big keyboard in front of you, why not use it? I mean, if I have to read the post 3 times before I fully understand it because there's no punctuation or because I have to figure out the shorthand it's just not worth it.

For instance, the last sentence could read: if i have2 red post 3x b4 i fully undrstnd bc no punctuation or bcuz i hv2 fig out the shthnd itz not worthit well, ok, so perhaps I'm not doing my point justice, but I think you catch my drift.

My cmpter chrgs me 4 evry kystrk. hehehe

Seriously, though, I think most of us can tell the difference between an honest mistake, or a typo, and someone that is just being lazy. I appreciate all the input and hockey info that I have received on this forum, and as respect to the rest of you, I do my best to make my posts clear. However, nobody is immune from the occasional mistake. I think the most important thing is try to be respectful of the other members of the board by trying your best to minimize grammatical and spelling errors, but also understand that sometimes mistakes are made and not make a big deal of it when it happens.