A suggestion about a new rule?

The www is global (hence the first two w in world-wide web). A large majority of the world population do not speak English as an first language and do their best to communicate in a foreign language. If they do not understand the English rules of capitalization or punctuation, I would not want to penalize them. Just as I would not want to penalize the Americans who write "analyze" and "color" or the Brits who write "capitalise". This is a difficult language and I appreciate those who take time to try to use it, even if they don't spend as much time as I do looking up what the correct version or meaning is in the Oxford English Dictionary. When I come across a post that I cannot read because of "txt-spk" or whatever, I just move on and read another.

 

I enjoyed reading this and finding grammar mistakes from the advocates of encouraging the usage of proper grammar.

But i honestly think people should beable to type whatever way they want to type. If you can't understand them, then they miss out on your input but the world will keep turning!
and grammar is lame, cause i like "me and my friends" over "my friends and i."

 

I don't think anyone is suggesting enforcement of "my friends and I" over "me and my friends." What I think is being suggested, and what I am suggesting, is that members use English in a way that is understandable. Such as "no" instead of "know" or "rly" instead of "really" can be awfully confusing to both native speakers and learners. Also, remember that there is a line between using it a small amount of the time to an entire post entirely in that form.

 

Nah i get what you mean, but i mean then we have to wonder to ourselves "Do these people really speak like that in real life?" Maybe they do, and if so why should we change their style of communication? It maybe confusing but who better for them to seek help from then those who understand them? And for being confusing to non native speakers while i agree that would suck majorly for them, this isn't exactly a site geared towards teaching others a language.

 

It's sad that I could read that as fast and as comprehendable as "proper" English.

I think the idea of rules/guidelines is good in theory, but it cannot happen. I have friends who are horrible spellers, and there's nothing you can do to change him. Other people just are typing out raw thoughts and want to get it all out.

I always try to correct spelling and stuff (Firefox helps immensely) and space stuff out to make it easier to read. And the such.

 

I dont think so...

I dont think we should make it a rule or enforcement. As much as a i try to make my posts 'proper', we should remember that the majority of people who use this site are teenagers. Teenagers on the internet, connecting with other teenagers... I dont think it would be right to get them to change it. Its just not gonna happen.
You dont go into 'the hood' and try to get them to stop speaking ghetto, and use the queens english, just as you dont go on a site for (mostly) young people and get them to type like they are writing an essay.

 

and some of us can't spell for crap.

 

Hmm. I reckon it'd a bad idea for a rule, seeing as we don't all speak English as our first language.
I reckon it'd work well as a suggestion to be put in pretty colours in the terms and conditions when you sign up, but not as an actual enforced rule.

 

Im sorry about any of my spelling, but i am dyslcecic (another word i, alas, cannot spell)

So yea, its not like i can control it. Im sure there are hundreds of other reasons for not being able to as well. Its really hard not even knowing how to spell simple words, so i often just dumb down my vocab so i can use smaller words. It sucks cause it all flows beautifully in my head but dosnt translate to paper well. Also my spell-checker sucks so i can only fix 50% of my typos at best.

 

I'm constantly making gramaticle mistakes more often spelling

 

I think if we inforced this rule, half of the members would me gone, including myself. People are bound not to catch little things here and there. Also English is not everyone's 1st language-as stated before- thus making it unfair to kick them off the forums.

I think as long as no one goes into an intense "text speak/chat speak" mode we all should be fine.

Plus some of us don't have firefox-including me-so spelling errors are bound to show up.

 

I think we have concluded that it might be worth adding something as a suggestion but that it is unlikely that anyone would take much notice anyway. We will probably do so when the Code of Conduct is next revised but it's clearly not something that requires urgent attention.

I'm closing this now as we have a good cross-section of opinions here and there is little point in it continuing in this vein.