You Are What You Write

I have made a decision. . . I will no longer respond to ANY posts or threads that contain gross SPELLING or GRAMMATICAL errors. With a couple of exceptions for a couple of Trainzers who are handicapped, I feel there is absolutely no excuse for some of the really terrible spelling, grammar, and sentence structure I have seen lately on these forums.

Surely most of us have at least a sixth grade education and (in my day at least) by the time we made it through the sixth grade, we knew how to spell and write grammatically correct sentences. If you have no concept of how to write a legible and clear sentence, how do I know you can create a nice route or well-made assets? If you don't take the time to format a clearly understood post or thread, how do the rest of us know that you will take the time to create a well-made and decent asset for trains?

If a poster writes: "yes, i WIL do a resken for yoou uf a uNien Pasiffic lomotve." Can you imagine what the reskin will look like??!

Of course, this is just my opinion. If the rest of you want to overlook such terrible English, so be it. But I won't be reading or answering any such threads or posts.

Have a nice day,

Dave

Doesn't this belong in the Trainz Community forum?

I tried writing "I am a millionaire", but it didn't work. So much for that theory. :hehe:

Seriously, that's what the ignore list is for, I have uhbowt too duzzin bad spelers on my ignore list simply because it's too painful to look at. The trick is to have the self discipline to keep them there and don't be tempted to peek, keeps the blood pressure down. :wave:

I agree with davesnow 99%. I'm fairly sure you are referring to a post in the last couple of days that had numerous spelling and grammatical errors. I'm willing to give a pass on grammar errors for posters whose location indicates that English is not their primary language, but regarding the post I have in mind, the location of the poster was a country where English predominates.

If that's your intention, stand your ground & good on you.
I think allot of the grammar & spelling mistakes is down to being lazy.
Surely they can see the red lines under misspelt words at least.

Dave

Depends on what they're using, Firefox has a built in spell checker, but last time I tried internet exploder it didn't. Not perfect, for example it accepts "ain't" but underlines words like "catenary" that are apparently not in its database.

I use an iPad on the forums and not only doesn't it find mistakes but it seems to want to predict what I want to say. I have a couple of attempts after a posting to correct the spelling.

Ken

as for myself I can say that after posting and reading my post I found a few times that I made unnescessary mistakes because of being in a hurry or being too lazy to make sure of my spelling. I then ask myself .." where's the fire ? " There is no fire or hurry really so we must try and post responsibly to the best of our ability to avoid irritating or upsetting fellow trainzers:wave:

The written word has always been important to me. I grew up reading voraciously and I love the language, and have always tried to expand my vocabulary. I don't much care for the limited communication skills of some members but I try to be patient. Dave is addressing grossly deficient grammar skills, not the occasional misspelled or incorrectly used word.

I use four different PC's to read the forums, and they each have a different combination of browsers and tools, and I often find mistakes in some of my posts. I'll always edit them when they are discovered, as I am embarrassed to represent myself poorly.

I totally agree with the sentiments of this thread.

I accept that we all have varying levels of education and writing experience, plus, as in my case, some appreciation of English classics, but I cannot accept the utter rubbish written by some posters (from English speaking countries). One individual, already quoted here, has spelling and grammatical mistakes in virtually every word; it's all pure carelessness. As you say any content by such people should possibly be avoided. That bod is certainly on my ignore list.

Most posters from non-english speaking countries write quite well here.. putting others to shame... so no gripes there.

And Ed, your use of the language does you proud.

PS. the ieSpell addon works well with Internet Explorer

PEV said:

And Ed, your use of the language does you proud.

PS. the ieSpell addon works well with Internet Explorer

Click to expand...

Why thank you Sir, as does yours. As to the spell checker for IE, I can't seem to convince the IS crew at work to allow it!

While I may agree with the sentiments of this thread I am concerned that there are those out there that do not have the capability of correct grammar and spelling. I'm not referring to those whose English is a second language - or those who are known to be disabled, but those who are not. For example I am an ex-special needs teacher. One of the biggest issues I've come across is those who are dyslexic. Many of them often do not admit that they are dyslexic or in many case do not even know it.
So please spare a thought for these people who may actually be to embarrassed to admit it or unaware of it. Bad spelling/grammar does not always = lazy

As one whose career was in teaching or (later) supervising the teaching of languages, I fully support the need for correct spelling and grammar when posting to forums - or indeed in any form of writing - allowing, of course, for regional differences or 'local idiom' - "I say railway, you say railroad ..." etc.

My keyboard does not always agree and often makes 'typos' - which is where the preview and edit facilities come in! It only takes seconds to check through a post.

Of course, even the most careful checking - whether it be of the written word or a newly created asset - can fail to notice errors.
My local evening newspaper is a good example ...

Ray

Having said this, someone, somewhere will probably find a mistake!

NB Posted before the previous post with which (having had responsibility for a special needs school) I also agree.

I agree with the other posters in this thread. I can certainly understand and respect if one is handicapped (such as by having a learning disability, such as dyslexia) or has a native language other than English, but not caring about the spelling of your typed words out of laziness, or using chat/SMS-speak abbreviations like "u", "ur", etc. outside of their more proper usage in messaging systems with a very low character limit (a usage which I can understand and would even use myself if absolutely necessary to get the intended message across) because of laziness or thinking it is "cool", is not good. Using such language because you think it is "cool" makes you look not-so-cool to us folks who use proper English. "Leetspeak"/"1337-speak" is atrocious and certainly doesn't make you look very "elite" to me.

If one is simply a bad typer, perhaps that person should slow down a bit with typing and review his or her posts more carefully for mistakes, perhaps using a spelling checker to assist with detecting and fixing typos. If one, for some reason, has English as his or her native language, but does not have a proper education about grammar or spelling, perhaps that person should wisely invest time, if possible, into properly educating himself/herself about grammar or spelling with educational material/guides on those subjects.

My 2 cents.

Regards,

Zachary.

I agree with what's stated here. I've had a few instances where I've had to ask a poster to explain what they mean (and that's an English-speaking one) due to spelling/grammatical issues. I can understand that there may be issues if said poster has a learning difficulty (of which I am one), but for others it is definitely worth checking spelling where possible (and for those using Internet Explorer, either the IeSpell or SpeckIE addons can help). I can also understand possible issues if English is not a poster's native tongue, but I would normally recommend that they are best using the forum for their language where possible, although I will do my best to help them.

Shane

I think another issue has to do with a person's manners on how they conduct themselves when, and what a person types, instead of having "potty mouth", they have "potty keybord". -Robert-

I once had the audacity to correct the spelling and grammar in a note sent home by my son's teacher.
The teacher wrote back that "language is constantly changing - we do not speak like Shakespeare any longer." "Language is a living thing."
Then we have the differences in spelling between US English and say, Australian English. Color and colour - aluminum and aluminium, and the use of 'z' rather than 's' in words like realisation.
I personally do not read posts written in SMS English or any other abbreviated or poorly spelt fashion.
As for grammar, we have the cultural differences such as 'one time' versus 'once', 'two times' versus 'twice,' etc.
And don't get me going on about 'SHOUTING.'

Ummh - TrainZ?

Bob (CRO)

After a while one gets to know some of the guys who are posting, and I can clearly see that there are people who have improved their spelling and grammar, either by constructive critism from other posters ( there are a quite a few posts similar to this one ) or self discipline. One can also see when a poster has made a normal mistake like we all do. I think I have improved for the sake of my own pride and wanting to 'fit in' with the majority.It would be against my nature to shoot down anyone with a disability , nobody is perfect.
Every person who reads a thread like this should learn something from it seeing that nobody is perfect.
I would also like to add in general that people should try smiling more at others , you will be surprised how many smiles you get back - it does make one feel better and costs nothing, if you need stiches after smiling, I am sure we can all club in and pay for it.

sniper297 said:

Depends on what they're using, Firefox has a built in spell checker, but last time I tried internet exploder it didn't. Not perfect, for example it accepts "ain't" but underlines words like "catenary" that are apparently not in its database.

Click to expand...

A few weeks back I tried to correct my 9 year old daughter by saying "there is no such word as ain't".
Yes there is daddy.
No there is not, go and get the dictionary and I'll show you. Off she goes and comes straight back with the page open and a finger pointing to the word ain't.
Err, well, um, well don't use it as it sounds bad (blushing).

And then there's this "1337" garbage and people "Accidentally" press Caps lock or they think its cool.

sniper297 said:

Depends on what they're using, Firefox has a built in spell checker, but last time I tried internet exploder it didn't. Not perfect, for example it accepts "ain't" but underlines words like "catenary" that are apparently not in its database.

Click to expand...

Did you make a spelling error there (Internet Exploder?) or was that on purpose? Also Safari, which I use, accepts single letters as words, so if I accidentally put r instead of or it wouldn't give me a red line and I might not notice.