Why is everyone here so strict with spelling?

This site holds us up to higher standards than the other Q & A sites.

Because obviously misspelled words are horribly annoying.

If someone accidentally types a word wrong, that’s one thing. But if someone is all over the place, it’s… well, annoying.

And text speak is FAR FAR worse than plain old misspelled words.

Yeah – the misspelled word here or there is to be expected. But the idea behind the site is that both answers and questions are to be thoughtful. This means that they should be composed in a manner showing consideration and depth of thought (well, not all the time – but as much as possible and appropriate).

A constant disrespect for spelling, the rules of grammar, punctuation and capitalization demonstrate that, more than likely, someone just barfed what they were thinking into a text box and hit “Answer!” without taking any time at all to look at it and ask “Wait…does this make any sense?”

@kenmc omg y r u h8ing on how sum kidz talk??! wuts ur problm???

edit: one of the reasons I joined Fluther was the virtual non-existance of txt spk on this site. You can actually read an entire thread here without wanting to claw-out your own eyeballs.

Life is just one constant self-improvement program.

Because bad spelling is annoying. No one here is getting on someone’s case for “improperly” using the word “impact”. The very basics of spelling and grammar — you know, the stuff they made you do in ELEMENTARY school — is all we are really asking for. I spend so much of my day trying to figure out what time and where my family wants to get together because they couldn’t be bothered to spend an extra 5 seconds on that text message, and I don’t know that I’d hang out here if I had to do that here as well. In the realm of grammar and spelling standards, our’s really aren’t that high – they just aren’t non-existent like most of the internet’s.

Lolwut.

Because the good grammar and the readibility of answers here is part of what makes Fluther better than, say Yahoo Answers.

How is babby formed.

For Christ’s sake kids, it’s called fucking Spell Check. Use it.

The site does slightly enforce some writing standards. And I appreciate that.
Still, I get annoyed by the spelling police myself, since I usually see it occurring in a heated debate where one opponent no longer has anything relevant to back up their points with and attacks the other person’s spelling, which has nothing to do with what going on, and therefore, to me, seems to highly delude the point of maturity this site aims for in the first place.

You can’t escape the more disappointing bits of the online world, it’s anywhere. There will always be some jerkfuck who thinks they’re better than all because they play English Teacher. It’s not because this is some high brow site that I don’t recognize YA or AB behaviours every now and then. Ooops, I mean behaviors. Sorry for being such a European.

To be fair though, as compared to many social sites, this is actually quite rare here. I don’t see it often that anyone is strict with it, beyond a question or answer being removed for spelling issues. (Which you are able to rectify, and then get your shit back in the spotlight.)

And through a kind Fluther user, I learned that it’s water fowl, and not water foul. Laugh if you shall, I speak French originally, and I do highly appreciate the honest and genuine correcting, it helps me learn.

@Symbeline . . . uh, it’s jerk fuck, with a space, not a compound word . . .

Swearing shares not the limits of your annoyance! :)

I figure since nobody here can tell if your armpits smell bad or if your breath stinks, there has to be sort of an equivalent way judging your social compatability. Why not grammar and spelling?
BTW, what is a jerkfuck [sp]?

@josie Just a swear word that originates from ’‘jackass’’, as modified by Homer Simpson as ’‘jerk ass.’’ Nothing grammar has to worry about, haha.

When you wrote “threw” instead of “through” in that other thread, I noticed but didn’t comment. However, I gather someone else did, heheheh. You gotta learn sometime.

Their just making sure your typing clearly.

First of all, it’s spelling Nazi. But seriously, there’s a difference between writing “lykomgzkthxbaifshon1ggazazz” and confusing “its” and “it’s”. The former is annoying and childish; the latter is an honest mistake. Personally, I like the fact that this site doesn’t allow misspelled and hard to understand posts, but it does get a little annoying when people correct someone for something like “its” and “it’s” confusion and then yell and bitch about “HOW DO PEOPLE NOT KNOW THE DIFFERENCE?” Well, sometimes people make mistakes. Anyway, that’s just my little rant…

And since we’re being forgiving here (and I also noticed the “threw” and also refrained), I won’t mention the difference between they’re and their.

You know, it is so difficult to communicate clearly as it is, without making things less clear because you can’t tell what word someone meant, or because the sentence construction made it seem like they were saying the opposite of what they meant.

Spelling is both a courtesy and a practical thing. We’re serious here. We want to understand and we want to help. We can’t help if we can’t figure out what someone is saying.

That’s How We Roll

@gailcalled . . . yew our sew rite

See, now @Blondesjon wants to talk about the rites he is celebrating that involve sewing and yew trees. Don’t worry. It’s not suicide. It just plays one on TV.

@Blondsjon: Mene ulos ja syödä matoja.

Please get the references. Pleeeeeeaaaase!

@wundayatta

True, but in something like my first purposefully-misspelled sentence “Their just making sure your typing clearly”, everyone knows what the sentence means despite the spelling errors. It’s corrections for those types of common mistakes that I sometimes see as a little unnecessary (because a person doesn’t necessarily make those mistakes because they don’t understand the correct spelling; it could simply be a casual error).

And @gailcalled, if you were referring to me, know that I misused “their” and “your” on purpose to be funny, but I’m not surprised you didn’t pick up on that.

“Go out and eat worms???”

Is confusing the meaning of “deliberately” and “purposefully” worth mentioning? Is misspelling “misspelling” important? Probably less so.

I love that there are spelling standards. I love being able to read through people’s questions and answers without going cross-eyed trying to figure out what people are trying to say.

Everyone’s susceptible to the occasional typo or misspelled word here or there, but really, sometimes it’s just ridiculous. Dictionary.com, people. It’s not hard. Or if that’s too much, just Google it. Google will correct you.

@gailcalled

No, because I didn’t confuse them, although “deliberately” would’ve worked as well. Nice try, though. :)

@gailcalled . . . Sinun vesikouru kieli innostaa minua.

Semanticks!

@Blondesjon…:Kun opin?

@DominicX: Seriously, I would use “purposeful” to mean:
having or showing determination or resolve,
having a useful purpose, or intentional.

You’re correct, of course.

I’d use “purposefully” to mean “deliberately”. Like “on purpose”.

@gailcalled

I think the “intentional” definition works. :)

@DominicX I know that it seems easy to interpret your example, and maybe most people would get it correctly, but I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been thrown by these things, realized I went the wrong way and had to go back to the beginning to reinterpret. It would be so much easier if they had spelled it correctly in the first place, and wouldn’t have had to go through that.

And I also think it is dangerous to assume you are getting it right. You might not be, and that could lead to unnecessary brouhaha.

Well, yeah, it would definitely have been easier if they had spelled it correctly, but I think for the most part, the meaning can be determined even with those common errors. It’s not nearly as bad as my habitual omission of the word “not” when I type too quickly…

I believe I am with @DominicX when dealing with those people who feel the need to correct your spelling in the midst of a debate. It sometimes ends up being resorted to when someone doesn’t really have a comment on your points, but feels the need to “get you intellectually” nonetheless.

FWIW, I see waaay more people bitching about Grammar Nazis than actually being Grammar Nazis. But maybe that’s just me.

@papayalily I consider that a good thing.

@FutureMemory That Grammar Nazis don’t have high numbers, or that bitchers do?

It bothers me not a jot.

Promoting the spread of overall knowledge is one of the goals of the site, including knowledge of proper writing. It’s right there in the guidelines… good discourse kind of requires good writing. That said, I don’t think the occasional typo is a problem at all. That happens to everyone occasionally.

Usually, it happens to me when I’m writing about proper writing!

@ucme You did that just for the lulz, didn’t you XD

@papayalily What? Who? Me? Well I never! ;¬}

@papayalily I consider it a good thing that the people harassing others about their spelling are outnumbered by the people objecting to it.

I consider reading something that is clear, condensed and easy to understand to be a gift to me from the writer. I try always to return the favor. Crafting a modest but lucid statement isn’t that difficult.

OTOH, if I needed my stone walls rebuilt in the woods, I would hire a stonemason.

@gailcalled Is that last part maybe a phrase I’m not familiar with? It seems so… random and off-topic….

No. It’s a sentence that compliments my first paragraph. I have some very good skills and also many areas where I am not competent.

I write clearly, I am a good editor, and I know how to use punctuation. I cannot pick up heavy boulders, but I would love to be able to.

I meant “complement.”

@gailcalled – or you meant both.

No. Once I checked the dictionary, I meant “complement.” I can compliment you on your sentence structure, but sentences cannot compliment.

Don’t you tell sentences what they can and can’t do! That’s racist. ;-)

@gailcalled . . . stonemasons? are you trying to say you need something laid?

ioweyrw hioiw roweo.
Am I right or what, guys?

eets NIRUMARA j00 n00bz0rz!