Do you judge people by their spelling?

[The Diabolical Biz]

To an extent, yes. I wouldn't say I dismiss their opinion entirely, but I'm a lot more likely to than if the post was well worded, eloquent, witty, and, of course, grammatically impeccable.

EDIT: The comma in front of the 'and' is an Oxford comma, which I have always had as an unshakeable habit, and I am the kind of person that, upon noticing a tiny grammatical flaw, or spelling error, will immediately go and edit the post.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

I can excuse spelling to an extent, but I admit I'm a grammar Nazi. More on myself than others (I'm not so bad as to correct a stranger over the internet). My general rule of thumb is that if I have to slow myself down or read the sentence more than once just to be able to comprehend it, then I don't want to know. It's a dickish way to think, and I know it, but I just can't tolerate nonsense like this.

those dotz in teh languag that tell u when a sentens iz over r stupid cuz evry1 who deservz 2 c wwat i say can tell that neways its liek a catch 22 sort uv and i luv it when tehy r liek i cant understand :0 cuz then i can lolz in their face cuz their dum and i iz smarts rofl i cant c y sum peeps r 2 dum to reed this i tell them 2 stfu n gtfo b4 i mess their shit up!!!11!1!!111!!11

On my part, it might be a remnant of sorts from growing up in a redneck town where a shocking number of people don't give the slightest damn about this sort of thing, and proper grammar and a vocabulary beyond the 8th grade is actually a hindrance (I literally have to dumb myself down if I want to speak to anyone in my girlfriends family). Of course, this is also a town that largely thinks that Transformers 2 was a masterpiece and literally nobody I know back home could make it more than 20 minutes into District 9...

When I was growing up I read a LOT, and I played almost nothing but RPGs before voice acting became to norm. I have a large vocabulary, and I like to use it. I don't like having to talk like a 15 year old just so someone can understand me.

Okay, I'm going to stop now before I make myself seem even MORE like a smug jackass.

 

[Kargathia]

There's a distinctive difference between occasionally making a typo, not fully having mastered a foreign language, and the outright mutilation of the English language by people who don't care whether they're forcing everyone else to spend more time deciphering their rambling, grammatically incorrect bullshit.

*takes a deep breath*

In the end I doubt whether anyone isn't influenced by mistakes, or lack of them. After all it is one of the few ways to form an opinion of the poster. If you want to make a positive impression you'll always have to put some effort in how you present yourself. This isn't really limited to internet forums, so I don't see why it should be that different there.

Dyslexia is usually quite easy to spot though: you'll generally see mistakes that make sense when you read them phonetically.

My general rule of thumb is that if I have to slow myself down or read the sentence more than once just to be able to comprehend it, then I don't want to know.

My first association here was my first-time reading of La Divina Commedia: an excellent text, but damn, did rereading every line about five times make me feel stupid...

 

[Sinclair Solutions]

While the occasional spelling error is fine, butt wen some1 spels liek this, it rely bothres meh. They should rely try hrder.

 

[RivFader86]

Well yes and no....i don't care to much about spelling...BUT...if someone whose first language is english doesn't know whether to use "then" or "than" (constantly...not as a typo of course) it's kinda sad ;P

 

[Matt-the-twat]

I do judge them, but only on their grasp of English. I think that's a perfectly reasonable judgement to make. I have plenty of good and insightful friends who are bad spellers though, if that's what you're getting at?

 

[Fraught]

You must be American and think English is the only language spoken in the World...

Hey! English is my second language, and I am terribly fluent in it. At least, that's what I'd say, even though I am very humble.

Though yeah, I get your point. It's not really a privilege to be here, a privilege only reserved for the most weathered of linguists. Everyone can join, and if you want to ignore those who don't use those they'res and theirs and stuff correctly, then it's your loss. Their ideas might not match their spelling.

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

I judge a little bit. I.e. if it's absolutely sloppy it will bug me and devalue some of what they say. However, if it's obvious that English is not their native language i will cut them a lot of slack. Honestly, it's mostly the "u" and "ur" crap that makes me dismiss people.

 

[eatenbyagrue]

I'm an English teacher, so it's kind of my job. To be fair, I also have to teach them why it'd be wrong, and how it's supposed to be done.

 

[Macgyvercas]

I forgive errors like mixing up their/there/they're, to/two/too, etc, but if someone is so bad at spelling that I have to spend more than 60 seconds trying to decipher just what the hell they are trying to say (i.e. lolspeak, leetspeak), then yes, I'm ignoring that.

 

[Vigormortis]

I catch myself often dismissing people entirely because of their spelling. Not the occasional typo, but the consistent mistaking of words like their/there/they're or where/were/we're, words that sound alike when spoken out loud.
If someone posts anything starting with "My aunt and uncle own a shop and when were going to there place..." I tune out, decide that this poster is an idiot and completely ignore anything they have to say, no matter how valid or thoughtful it may be.

Does anybody else have this experience?

PS: Since I'm sitting in a glass house throwing stones, let's just assume any errors in my own post are put there for satirical purposes.

I don't hold slight mistakes against someone. For example, occasionally misspelling a word or two, or confusing there/their/they're once in a while. Constant misspelling, egregious mistakes, run-on-sentences, and a complete lack of punctuation on the other hand...

I find it hard to listen to or take seriously someone who can not form a cogent, cohesive sentence or line of thought for no other reason then they didn't take the time to proofread or were too lazy. If they're not taking the time to think about what they're typing, then they're probably not taking the time to actually think on the topic at hand. Thus, it's hard to take their opinion seriously.

No.
Those that do should introduce a foot to their bum.

Well excuse those of us that (correctly) assume someone should be spell checking themselves. Especially given that their post isn't submitted until they click the "post" button. Besides, at this point, virtually all web browsers automatically spell check for you. So really, there's no excuse anymore beyond laziness.

You must be American and think English is the only language spoken in the World...

Right. Because it's somehow "bad" and "American" to assume people can spell check themselves, regardless of what language they are typing in or translating to. Please, keep the irrational, anti-American sentiments coming. It's really constructive and definitely adds to the conversation.


[edit]
Just to clarify, if someone is typing in English, or any other language, and that language is not their primary language, I am definitely more forgiving of spelling errors and the like. It would be both arrogant and idiotic of someone to expect perfect spelling in that regard. My point is more towards those who are fluent in both the spoken and written forms of a language but still make terrific spelling errors and fail at sentence structure.

 

[plugav]

I won't always ignore a person's opinion based on their spelling, but if you think about how you write, you usually think about what you write as well.

 

[Furbyz]

I'm an aspiring English teacher, so yeah, I totally judge people based on their spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Not to the point of thinking they're a complete idiot, but I often contemplate sending them a pm about all the things wrong with the so-called sentence they birthed into the world after violating the English language.

None of that extends to non-native speakers, of course. Kudos to all of you for doing something that I never could.

 

[Alade]

I do, it's almost always a good indicator of their intelligence.

 

[Psychoid]

I would only tend to judge someone on their spelling or grammar if what's written is supposed to be formal/professional. For example, if I received a letter or email from someone representing the company they work for and it was full of errors, I would think it reflected badly on them/that company.

In a less professional setting (casual emails, conversations on instant messenger, posts on a forum, etc.) I tend to just ignore any mistakes. Unless they were made by one of my friends, in which case I'd probably make fun of them a little

 

[drisky]

No, mistakes are just that, mistakes. Holding people to grammatical perfection on the internet is just ridiculous. You're not making a news publication, you're making a post on a forum.

P.S. If I wasn't being particularly grammar aware do to the nature of this thread, I would have accidentally said your instead you're. I guess that means I'm a complete idiot with how shouldn't have an opinion.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm forgiving for the occasional mistake, I'm not perfect myself. If the whole post is hard to read because of the errors though, I'm disregarding that post.

 

[quantum mechanic]

Not really on their spelling, more on their writing, of which spelling is a component. For example, if I'm reading a piece of fanfiction that is otherwise well written but has a few spelling errors, I won't think any less of the writer. If it is particularly poorly written but has no spelling errors, it's still poorly written, and then I might think that the writer is lazy at least (for not getting a beta reader). It's mostly when I come across a piece of writing that the author has put out in public for people to read, and said piece of writing is in lolspeak, that I am inclined to think of them as an idiot.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Generally no, unless their bad spelling is clearly intentional like they're speaking in chatspeak or 1337 or something.

 

[KoalaKid]

No, my English isn't great so its hard for me to condemn others for something I myself am so poor at.

Also something I think people never consider is that language is irregular meaning that for every rule there is an exception to that rule and then an exception to that exception and so on. In other words language is difficult because there is no design concept. Now with a constructed language like Esperanto obvious mistakes would be harder to overlook, although judging someone harshly over it would still seem a bit silly to me.