Poll: Should People Use Correct Grammar And Spelling In Forums?

[Lost In The Void]

Yes, but just to screw with your head...

"now for semoehtnig itnresitmg...

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt! tahts so cool!"

Ah yes that little test they cooked up, but back on topic yes I believe that grammar is important in a forum such as this one, for I find it hard to carry on a proper conversation with things like "OMG," or "ROTFL." I just find them really irritating.

 

[ElderScribe]

I think there are certain unwritten forum rules though that when broken irritate even the most patient of people, examples:

Typing with Caps Lock on: it doesn't really make the post stand out and just get's rather annoying.

L33t speak: Thankfully dead, may it remain so.

Wall 'O Text: The Enter key is everybody's friend, it needs to be used more.

As for grammar, as long as i can read it without having to try to figure out every other word written then i'm fine with it, personally i think it's taken way too seriously

If you're going to get on people's case about grammar, you will get ***** slapped every time.

^Sums it up pretty well.

 

[NekoDaimyo]

There is not an emphatic enough "Yes" answer for me.

 

[Labyrinth]

On the Escapist definitely. It's a magazine. The staff are editorial. To quote Joe: "Bad spelling and grammar physically hurt us." It also assists with getting across points, ensuring they're well defined in the detail, legible and accessible to the audience of a magazine with high standards for articles.

 

[Soulgaunt]

Yes, but just to screw with your head...

"now for semoehtnig itnresitmg...

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt! tahts so cool!"

......OMGWTFBBQ (Head implodes)
Now that that's out of the way, correct grammar is a good thing, but certain bits can be forgiven. I tend to get confused between its and it's, and some people put "their" instead of "they"re", such people should not be accessed with a back hand and a "You're a dumbass, it's(yet again, that confuses me) "they're" not "their", idiot LOL"

 

[Ronwue]

Good spelling and grammar is preferred. It makes reading easier.

 

[c0rtha]

its is definitely preferable. We cant ask everybody to have perfect grammar and punctuation but its a lot nicer if they do

 

[runtheplacered]

Yes, but just to screw with your head...

"now for semoehtnig itnresitmg...

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt! tahts so cool!"

You irritate me. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.80331] Please do not use this as a defence against proper spelling. When I take special care to ensure that my writing does not contain spelling mistakes, people making stupid excuses like this horrifies me.

Taking it a bit personal, aren't you? Does everybody need to take special care with their spelling because you do? I'm just trying to follow your logic and I can't seem to do it.

I've also never personally seen anybody use that excuse when misspelling a word before, but I'm sure it's happened at some point in time. However, I'm left with the feeling, "So what?"

I try to be sympathetic as best as I can, and realize that not everybody speaks English natively or is on the same level as everybody else at all times. That's just a ridiculous pipe dream that would accomplish nothing even if it were true. Some people are fantastic writers and some aren't. I don't understand why we should be expecting everybody to be master writers.

As long as an idea can be communicated then the task is accomplished, with or without the bells and whistles. The potentially interesting tidbit is that I'm studying to one day achieve my masters degree in English, yet I'm still nowhere near that anal.

 

[BLOONINJA 503]

On the Escapist definitely. It's a magazine. The staff are editorial. To quote Joe: "Bad spelling and grammar physically hurt us." It also assists with getting across points, ensuring they're well defined in the detail, legible and accessible to the audience of a magazine with high standards for articles.

QFT(quoted for truth)

When I found out of the escapist was like this, It made my year. This site is pretty awesome.

 

[AndyVale]

I try and write properly most of the time. I'll use various spelling/grammatical errors for effect. A base example of this is exemplified below.

"I was checking out this girl earlier, she had boobs."

"I was checking out this girl earlier, she had b0000000bs."

The above merely states the she has developed breasts (or is a mega fat kid.) The bottom one childishly points out that not only are her breasts developed, they are also somewhat sizeable. I could've used an adjective to point that out, but a string of zeroes is equally effective and when used as an isolated incident can garner some humour.

 

[Iron Mal]

While it is nice (and probably better) if people do put the effort in to ensure they have correct spelling it shouldn't be the highest priority in someone's writing (it doesn't matter how grammaticaly and lexicaly correct your writing is if what you've written is complete and utter bullshit, it's a bigger waste when someone fails to do a logic check than a spell check).

All of this 'grammar nazism' sometimes gets in the way (I've seen people on here before who've completely ignored and critisised a valid and interesting post simply because of a couple of simple spelling mistakes, it's still readable but just not prim and proper) and has no real justifacation except for giving some who write on here yet another excuse to flex their intellectual ego and superiority complex.

In my opinion, as long as you can understand what is written without any difficulty then there's no problem, it seems that sometimes we're letting our sense of 'politeness' and 'procedure' get in the way of what is supposed to be a forum (if I remember correctly, the most important part of writing in a forum is ensuring the quality of what you've written, not how you've written it).

 

[Crystal Cuckoo]

I think so, Because It makes the stereotype for a forum user NOT be some illiterate retard.

Lol, OP fail. XD

 

[doctorwhofan]

or
okitzsucs but I try and it makez it easier to read and ppl from china speak english better than me wtf, like phones are so cool & take 2 long to spell or o rly? so phone ftw and who cares about dots and stuff cuz I don't need it thats for old farts except & cuz thats easyer than and and paragraf suck too my teach gave me a F in english and Im like WTF? THis is thefuture and dots are so old school anyways EVeryones talks like this now and you people are soo stupid and OMG trying to tel me what to do god they have like no life and this guy on his rouge was like lol man you suck and Im like Im l33t dog and whay would anyof you care cuz YOU SAID I WAS SCREAMING!!






It isn't about people who have English for a second language. It's about people who have English as their primary language and cannot communicate. And it hurts the eyes. I'm not asking for perfection, lord know I'm not. 5th grade level people, the same as the newspapers.

 

[TheFurryChicken]

Personally, it's nice to see proper spelling and grammar, but I wouldn't say short-hand is completely out. I use the standards (lol, rofl, etc) occasionally and have no issue with the people who use some short-hand every post. What bugs me is when it's the entire message. That can get rather annoying.

 

[Bunnymarn]

Yes, they should use correct grammar and spelling in all aspects of writing/typing.

 

[Inverse Skies]

Really, when you think about it I can't understand why people wouldn't at least try to use correct grammar and spelling - after all it actually makes them look more intelligent to other users rather than someone who has trouble stringing a coherent sentence together.

It just seems strange to me that other members would want to keep displaying poor English skills. Luckily it doesn't concern me much - but it is nice to see correct grammar on display.

 

[SuperChris]

I said "yes" because I am really picky about spelling and grammar even when around friends; I think it annoys them rather a lot.

 

[ZZ-Tops89]

I think so, Because It makes the stereotype for a forum user NOT be some illiterate retard.

Proper grammar is, will, and has always been the expectation, the question is laziness and/or incompetence. Also we can't shoot idiots in the face for being idiots which leads to a lot of spamming.

你们应该用对的语法。因为别的人是狗，所以别的人用不好的语法。请问，你你可以用对的语法吗？
Translation of the above from Mandarin Chinese: You should use correct grammar. Since some people are dogs, some people use bad grammar. Can you please be one of them.

If you don't get the Chinese characters (as in they don't show up right), too bad for you.