Have you noticed that most all our new AV users have excellent grammar and spelling?
Unlike most of our new user influxes, the “old guard” hasn’t had to admonish the former ask villians (that sounds wrong, somehow) for txt spk or poor grammar. Should we make a concious effort to steal the “cream of the crop” from all the question and answer websites?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
40 Answers
Have I noticed? Yes, an I appreciate it.
Should we make an effort to take members from other sites? FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY, NO!
Over on… um, that other site, answers are actually voted on, so there is a certain motivation to polish up one’s prose. Sloppy writing is a serious impediment there. personally, I feel that I’m less careful with my writing here than I was you-know-where
I learned (from a discussion board on an unnamed site) that you can download a spellchecker on the google toolbar. It has been a lot of help!
You can also just use Firefox or Safari.
@Harp, plus there are spelling and grammar N@zis over there. :D Meant in the nicest possible way, of course.
As Harp mentioned, the competition does lead to better spelling and grammar. I would far rather read an answer that is grammatically correct than one that is sloppy. There are times that all of us let a typo through, and that doesn’t bother me. It’s the answers (or questions!) with terrible spelling, frightening grammar and excessive “IM-speak” that I dislike.
I’m sure the Askvillagers (better than Ask-villains, no?) appreciate the compliment, Breedmitch! Thank you.
I do not know of this AV of which you speak. I am a newcomer from the ether.
It’s nothing really to bother about jenni. I find it funny how ‘we’ refer to them as Askvillagers or whatever, in my eyes it’s ‘just another wave of people from the internet’, I wouldn’t group the people that came through a Digg posting or from a slashdot post, so why these ;) I’m not trying to offend anyone, it’s just a statement.
As for the spelling and grammar I’ve not noticed, and am I really bothered? Not really. I find that if you’re looking for these things, these mistakes, It’s not so much looking for a needle in a hay stack but more so of the hay in the hay stack. What I’m saying is that looking for mistakes isn’t something I’m going to do because I know for a fact that everyone is riddled with the nature to make mistakes. Why go looking for it?
Oh, welcome to fluther jenni, this Askville stuff will blow over soon. I hope. (I’m not saying they will leave, I’m just saying that the whole ‘Askville’ business will blow over and these new people will just become a part of the community as opposed to where they originally came from) enjoy your time here all the same :)
I wouldn’t say that Askville users in general have particularly good grammar or spelling. But the AV users who were driven off the site do *. Not that that’s why they were driven off, of course! Nonetheless, I’d say that AV management managed to lose some of their best people. I should probably note that I’m not one of the banished 16, by the way.
The whole subject of people being driven off of websites is extremely interesting to me (I was a refugee from Advicenators before I found Askville), but I can certainly understand why most “native” Flutherers would be sick of hearing about AV. Which is why I won’t be bringing it up except when answering questions that specifically refer to it, like this one.
Plus, let’s face it – it’s just a website. It’s not really worth talking about all that much.
PS – Google toolbar’s spellcheck is great. I love the Firefox feature too, but we’re not allowed to have Firefox at work.
—————————————————————
* “Gideon’s Band”, Judges 7
I beg to differ, PeterM. We were driven away by a rather unfriendly and short-sighted administration. That site was so big into censorship. For example, my avatar was banned there. That so ticked me off!
While I wasn’t among the seventeen, I am a camp follower. While many of the seventeen have returned to their old home, I spend much less time there, now, because I am quite enjoying Fluther.
As to grammar and spelling: I’ll make a point here that I make everywhere—I really don’t care how proper the grammar and spelling are, so long as I can understand the ideas the words express. I’d rather have an interesting idea that is expressed ungrammatically than a boring idea expressed with perfect spelling.
Grammar Nazis make me want to pull my nails out. It is so not the point! It is also a kind of prejudice that indicates a narrow-minded approach to the various cultures of the world. Now if this paragraph doesn’t bring the Grammar Nazis springing out of their prissy little dollhouses, armed for loonies; I don’t know what will!
But…I didn’t say that they weren’t driven away! I only said that they weren’t driven off because they used proper spelling and punctuation. Which clearly implies that they were driven off – but for other reasons.
I might be called a spelling grammar Nazi, I suppose. I love the English language, and it annoys me to see it misused. But I try not to be an asshole about it.
Not everyone is as kind as you about grammar, Peter. At least, not over on AV.
And thanks for the clarification. I think I misconstrued your first few lines.
”@Harp, plus there are spelling and grammar N@zis over there. :D Meant in the nicest possible way, of course.”
Larssenabdo, I see you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting our lovely gailcalled yet.
@lefteh: oh no! Please don’t tell me you have them here, too!
daloon wants to find a grammar free zone
Gailcalled does it a nice, non-judgemental way, though. Justs points out the facts, and doesn’t hold it against you. Plus, she is an invaluable asset to all of us here. :)
She does indeed, which is why I love her for it.
Just, not justs by the way.
@lefteh: I can’t believe I did that!
Why don’t you go back and edit?
The edit button only lasts for a short time:(
It’s definitely too late at this point.
You can only edit a few moments after the post.
Oh. Anyone know how long? Know why it doesn’t last longer?
It might be a minute? That’s just a guess though.
If it lasted longer, you could go back and edit the meaning of your post after others had replied to it. That would be a disaster.
For example, you could flame people, and then change it later.
Me: You’re a real good guy, johnpowell.
johnpowell: GO TO HELL YOU SON OF A BITCH.
I laughed a little too much at that lefteh.
Wow, I didn’t know it was that long. Thanks for timing it.
Yep, harp is right, you can edit your response for 5 min after you complete it.
Sometimes it has seemed much shorter to me. I wonder if there are any other factors like whether you navigate away from the page.
Nope, navigating away doesn’t change anything though it does make the time seem like i’ts passing faster
I guess I didn’t notice that we’d attracted that much attention here.
I have noticed that our former Askvillians :^) are refreshingly polished. And polite, with just the right amount of sass.
Are you being snarky, knotmyday, or is that genuine?
I happen to think you’re correct, but I can’t quite tell if you’re serious, or just exhibiting “sass.” Of course, once you get to know me, you’ll find I’m often barking up the wrong tree. Well. Maybe not barking. I speak in another language than that! ;-)
Genuine sentiment, my friend.
All sarcasm is strictly monitored by the Regulation of Sarcasm Department.~
This thread establishes a fairly accurate means of interpreting tone
People actually mark their sarcasm here?!? How precious!~
Well, I don’t believe it for a second.
In my experience, the technique is much more subtle than something that can be marked with punctuation, and the best thing is when people can’t tell whether you’re serious or not. People who act like they are being totally upfront, often are lying, or are unaware of the mixed messages they are giving out. I say you pays your money and you takes your chances. I’m a conversational Libertarian, I guess.
I guess you could call me a conversational Independent, then.
An unaffiliated conversationalist? What will they think of next!
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
