Is it OK to misspell in Fluther?

NO. It is not OK to upset the Fluther gods (moderators). Otherwise they may smite thee! Do not mention this again. I already lost my grandma who misspelled Fluther. The great Fluther moderators sent a SIGKILL to her…

Have to give my own 2 cents worth: I am pretty snobbish in this regard about ‘true-written’ communication. But Fluther is more a forum, a chat-room. The more AIM style with all its peculiarities is ok, I believe. You do not want to lose your spontaneity checking and rechecking your spelling, like you would in a business email or article. Or do you? Or maybe you want to be more careful when you are creating a philosophical anwer involving some elaborate thinking. Otherwise – spontaneity rules…

I dno’t crae as lnog as I can raed it, but I do as mcuh splelcehck as psosbile.

Is it okay to spill something on a table at dinner?

Sure.. it happens, no one is perfect.

It just tends to be annoying when I come across people that intentionally write on a question just to tell someone they spelled one word wrong out of 5 paragraphs.

I guess this is a good place to quote an email my grandmother sent me about a month ago about spelling (it’s just a random email semi ontopic)

@porksoda you’ll like this one lol
“Cna yuo raed tihs?
Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can.

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 dseno’t
mtaetr
in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht
the
frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses
and
you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos
not
raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and
I
awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it”

.
Anyways, two years ago or so I became a moderator at the LFS forum, and I just thought it was funny to go back to an older forum where I posted and look at my attitude and how I typed and stuff.

I student of mine I had at church contacted me on facebook not to long ago and it was just hilarious because she typed in “txt speak” it was just absolutely hilarious.

I just can’t do it anymore lol I have to type out full words and stuff. I don’t remember when I stopped typing in AIM speak, but ever since I did it takes me LONGER to type out 2 rather than to or two or too.

I mean I still use cya, but that’s about it.

we can “eat” a letter from time to time :)

I can spell, but I can’t type that well. I appreciate it when people make the effort to get the spelling right most of the time, but mistakes happen.

Granted that good written communication skills are important, and spelling is a part of that. Every great once in awhile, misspelling actually makes the writer’s meaning hard to decipher. BUT too often in online forums (it’s not unique to Fluther), users indulge in a game of spelling “gotcha!” where another user’s spelling errors are thrown back in his face.

I can understand doing this if correcting the spelling is actually pertinent to zeroing in on the correct answer, but it’s more often done as a way of flaunting one’s “superior” language skills or as a way of gaining the upper hand in a discussion. I find that downright distasteful. It’s a cheap grab at status.

If a waiter misspells something on your tab, woud you call him over and correct him? No, you’d just pay the bill. If a friend or coworker sends you an email with a spelling error, would you send back a corrected version? I hope not. Why should our behavior be any different here?

I stopped with the txtspk when I was about 15. Intentionally misspelling is just lazy, but accidents happen.

I generally skip the questions and answers that are too garbled to be clear. If I have to read a sentence three times in order to guess the meaning, I move on. However, if the writer indicates that English is not his first language, I do try harder..

My own personal philosophy is to use the language as best I can. An occasional typo or spelling boo boo is different from (than?) getting diction and idiom really wrong.

Harp’s answer belies his philosophy. (Except for second sentence that seems to be missing a few words; but I got the gist.)

Of course, I wouldn’t ever edit a waiter or a friend (unless asked) but I might mention to the restaurant owner that something is misspelled on the menu, if it is an expensive eatery.

Someone famous said, “If I had had more time, I would have been clearer.” Twain, Vonnegut?

Can you guess how many variant spellings of “definitely” the collective has created?

There is a girl on a forum I’m active on who always types “teh” instead of “the”. I spent a good 15 minutes looking at her posts to see if she ever typed “the” correctly…I never did find a correct typing of “the”. It drives me crazy.

@gailcalled: What do you mean? Is it not definately? No, no wait… definatly. That’s it. Or is it with an e? Definetly? Or perhaps more of a ‘nen’. Definently. There we go.

I’m not as picky about it as some people are, but if it is due to plain laziness, it becomes annoying. I’m sure I have more typos since I went back to work. I have to post quickly between calls sometimes, and by the time I come back to edit , it’s too late.

It’s OK to commit spelling errors, sure. But understand that one’s literacy level gives us an additional insight into their personality for better or for worse.

RichardHenry: I wish that I had started keeping my little list earlier- here’s what I have.

definitely; definately, defiantly, definitily, definatly (plus your definently and definetly)
(I will keep some of the others for a later date, but my fave so far is “stooding”.)

Misspellings chafe at me, whether mine or those of others. I tend to dismiss misspelled or gramatically incorrect statements, often without regard.

I appreciate the forethought and preparation of spelling beautifully, whether one is writing “beautifully” or not.

pardon the pun. or not

It better be okay. It’s tough sometimes when typing on an iPhone. It constantly changes words to what it thinks you’re typing. But often when you spell something wrongly it doesn’t do anything. I wonder if there is a way to turn off the predictive text on the iPhone.
I’ve already had to go back and edit some off the text in this answer because of the predictive text.
Make that twice.

I would appear that most members overlook the occasional misspelled word. If I misspell and am corrected politely, I have no problem with that. If I misspell and am ridiculed, I have a problem with that.

Do the best you can, most of the older generation will have little or no trouble. We all we attentive in school, the younger generation???? Well…. the younger generation….

My spell check missed…. I meant “We all were attentive”

Geez, stupid spell check anyway

I misspelled Nietzsche and OMG, you would have thought I kicked a puppy. One user attacked me and told me that they can’t take me seriously as a thinker if I misspelled that name….yadda yadda .” Well, you know me Nina, I answered back saying something like, “If you are going to be anal about the misspelling of an uncommon name, then I can’t take you seriously.” Then another user read me the riot act for “attacking” the person who attacked me. UNBELIEVABLE.

@The_unconservative_one- Kicking puppies is exceptable here, but we draw the line at drowning kittens.

@AstroChuck Thanks dude!

Such is life! Yes, we all make our little errors in the ‘real’ world! No biggy! :-)