@shilolo Did you totally miss my point? Of course this place wants high-minded discussions. That’s why you want a specific kind of grammar and spelling. All I’m objecting to is that people call it “correct” spelling. It might be conventional spelling, and it might be what they teach in schools, and it might be the way the majority of people spell (although I’m not at all sure about that), but I think it is classist and ageist and racist to call it “correct” spelling and grammar. And also, I don’t know why you are taking offense, because I have no idea if you are the one, or one of the ones who is doing the things that bother me. My complaints are not directed at you, personally.
Correct spelling and grammar are what works to communicate to the people you want to communicate with most often. To say it is anything other than what works for you, is to create a hierarchy of communication mechanisms, and that hierarchy is classist. It also says that the way older people do things is better than the way younger people do things, and that is ageist. It also says that the Caucasian way of doing things is better than any other race’s way of doing things. That’s racism. Also ethnocentrism, now that I think about it. It could even be dismissive of people who are differently abled. Perhaps text-speak is the only way they can participate in a meaningful way.
All I’m saying is that it is not necessary to bash the other ways of doing things in order to justify a particular way of doing things. All one has to say is that we want it that way. And if we’re going to be honest, we want it that way because it sounds more high-minded and intellectual and educated and serious.
It’s not as if people here are too dumb to understand textspeak, or too dumb to understand words that are not spelled in an educated way. It’s that we don’t want to. We don’t want to be inclusive, grammar and spelling-wise. And, as such, we keep some people away who may have very good ideas that are entirely appropriate for this site.
I’m one of those people who wants high-minded communication. I should think that would be obvious. What I’m saying is that by mandating that preference and justifying it in a way that demeans other ways of communicating is all those -ists.” All we need say is that we like it that way. Then it’s a preference, not something that demeans those who don’t do it. It’s the attitude behind this requirement that disturbs me.
That doesn’t mean I want the requirement changed. I’m not fighting the requirement at all. I’m not even fighting moderation as a means of enforcing this requirement, or, indeed, other requirements. I’m just expressing my discomfort with the way this requirement is expressed. I’m sure it doesn’t bother anyone else, but just because I think it’s classist and no one else thinks that way—doesn’t mean I am wrong to think that way. It just means I am offended by different things than most other people.
@Marina Yes, I have been upset with the way I’ve been modded, but I have not, to my knowledge, ever been modded for grammar or spelling. I’ve been upset when I think the rules have been applied in an inappropriate way—one that is not consonant with the spirit of this site.
The general inconsistency of the moderation is annoying, but understandable. I’ve flagged a number of questions that did not offer enough details to know what the question was about, or weren’t even questions, but it doesn’t seem like many of them were sent back for revision.
I want to say that I do appreciate what you moderators do, even if I kvetch about it and criticize it. I think you play an essential role on this site. And any criticism I make is made to you in your role as moderators, not to you as individuals. I like all of you that I know well enough to like. There are none of you that I don’t like or respect, as individuals. I am, obviously, less than happy with some, perhaps arcane, aspects of the moderation. Sometimes it makes me furious, actually. I sit here fuming with smoke coming out of my ears and all that. But I am not furious at the people, just at the moderators—and I find it interesting that some moderators take it personally, since it is not personally directed at anyone. I have no idea who, individually, is doing these things that make me furious.
@AstroChuck What is an invalid word? One that you don’t understand? One that you don’t like? One that you’ve never heard used that way before? One that doesn’t appear in any dictionary that you know of? Have you never coined a word? “Classist” is a word I’ve heard used on any number of occasions. If you’re going to make a joke, I know you can do better than that.
Ok. I’m now going to get off my soap box and go off into my humorless little hovel and take inventory to see if I have any friends left. (Ok, so that was supposed to be a joke. Laugh already! ;-)
