Daily Mail haters who...
...are intolerant of people's spelling and grammar.

OK, a pis pourly speld postwith no punctuaton and missspellling and runon sentances and filed with erros is annnoying to read and I will most like ly skip[ passed it myself.

But, if there are just a couple of comma's out of place or a misused apostrophe here and there? Is there really any need to jump all over the author like they are illiterate?

I remember Marcus Bridgestock on Room 101 (not a huge fan of either him, or the show, but this rung true with me) saying that he was dyslexic and found it completely disheartening when he would pour his heart and soul into a story or essay at school only to have it come back covered in red, with a low score, and no reference to what he had actually said.

If you are going to preach tolerance, then actually show some too.

/rant.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:15, 26 replies)

Was your misused apostrophe intentional?
:P

I agree, I don't mind a few misspellings or grammatical errors if you can see people are trying. There does seem to be an ever-growing number of people who view being able to spell as a bad thing though.
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:20, closed)

ha
No, I'm afaid not.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:21, closed)

Commas
I like commas. I scatter them, liberally, in my posts whether they're appropriate or not. Fuck the rules of grammar.

I use a comma where I'd breath when talking or where a pause would be.

And - dashes are good as well.

Cheers

but I hate semi-colons, the evil bastards.....
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:20, closed)

Commas are fine
in situations like this, where you're almost typing like you talk. Don't like them when they're overused in more formal writing though, it seems lazy.

And semi colons are one of my favourite punctuation marks! Sadly underappreciated these days.
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:25, closed)

I Code
in php a lot. When I'm using my editor a missing semi colon is easy to spot. When I've remoted in to a server and am trying to fix things on the fly using Notepad - the semi colons are the bane of my life. Miss one, just one, and the system comes to a shuddering halt.

There's lots of other symbols that will do the same but semi colons are the worst culprits -the sneaky evil bastards.

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:33, closed)

Haha
Hadn't thought about it in coding terms!
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:37, closed)

Especially
if you have to go through some bastards legacy ASP code at the same time as coding PHP and/or Javascript and C#.

Sometimes, the bloody answer (the ;) is staring you in the face, but you've taken a step back in coding time to put your mind into ASP mode and you can't see it for toffee!
(dchurch bah, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:41, closed)

Punctuation
is for wankers. Lets turn QOTW into a hippy commune for people who use punctuation liberally................................................................
( SpankyHanky, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:22, closed)

AND MY HYPOCRISY?
I FUCKING HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE TYPE ALL IN CAPS FOR ANY REASON.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:28, closed)

I'm going to guess
that the various spelling and grammer errors in this post are intentional to bring the pedants (such as my 'umble self) out of the woodwork. So I'm not going to rise to the bait. I do agree with son of sam - most of the time it's not the occasional spelling error that people get pedantic about. It's, as you describe, the long, badly written posts where one word in three is misspelled.

Some people are genuinely dyslexic, but the vast majority of people just never took the time to learn the basic (and I mean basic) rules of spelling and puctuation. It's not hard. If you can learn to drive a car with all the expense and difficulty that that entails then the least you can do is learn, say, where to put an apostrophe. Surely?

You may say that "I didn't do very well at school, teacher hated me, so I never learned to spell properly." Well, guess what? Unless you left school yesterday school was a long time ago. Think of all the things you have learned to do since you left school. Are you really saying that you couldn't have learned some basic English skills in the meantime?

I went to your everyday, grotty comprehensive school. I didn't enjoy the experience and I came out with average GCSEs. But I can spell. I know the difference between "their" and "there" and "where" and "were". It's not hard, it's just taking a bit of time to learn it. Are you seriously saying that you're incapable of that?

Why should those of us who know how to use the English language be made to feel like scum for just picking people up on their spelling? Tell me why.
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:33, closed)

I don't think scarpe's errors were intentional
But you are breaking the first rule of being a pedant on the internet:

Make sure your rant about it is spelt 100% correctly!!

*grammar
*punctuation

5/10, see me after class.
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:36, closed)

oooh
I missed an "n" out of a word! Yes, I fell into the trap, but you're missing the point that I agreed with you about - the occasional misspelled word - ok. Whole posts worth of misspelled words - bad.
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:41, closed)

You missed an n
and misspelt another word (and the grammar was pretty sloppy in places, but I let you off that).

But when you are ranting in such a fashion about how amazing you are at spelling, nothing less than 100% perfection is acceptable...
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:44, closed)

I didn't say I was "amazing"
I said I could spell. If I had time I would proof read a lot more closely, but THAT WASN'T MY POINT! And I was agreeing with you about how it's generally not the occasional mistake that gets picked up. And you're blowing that argument out the water.

Fuck's sake.
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:50, closed)

I know!
But my point is, when being pedantic, you have to make sure you are actually correct. Or people like me will pick you up on it!

My tolerance for spelling errors in a post boasting about how good you are at spelling is far, far lower than it would be in a normal post.
(Son of Sam-i-am We're all as mad as hatters here, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:52, closed)

294 words in my post.
2 of them are spelled wrong. Pretty good for typing fast so that my boss doesn't notice!
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:57, closed)

You must be pig sick...
...that the two you misspelt were "grammar" and "punctuation" though, eh?

Certainly made me chuckle. ;)
(.click, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 12:36, closed)

Apostrophes
Are awesome.

The proper use of them makes what you write appear much fluffier.

The incorrect use of them make's me want's to burn's you's at the s'take.

Cheer's
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:38, closed)

Actually
I am not saying I am incapable. The mistakes I make are generally through laziness. I know the difference between 'their' and 'there', I just sometimes automatically type the wrong one.

I tend not to proof read my posts here, it's a message board, it's informal. If I'm doing something for work, I will go over it time and time again to make sure I haven't let anything slip through.

Here? Nah, don't have the time nor inclination.

And, to be fair, I was only saying it was hypocrisy if on the one hand you are 'Daily Mail readers are intolerant scum' and on the other you are 'Oh you stupid retard, don't you know that it's its not it's'.

Edit: I just proof read a couple of your top answers. You're not really on very solid ground here.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:40, closed)

Fine, fair point
I do, however, think there's a big difference between being intollerant in a "Arrggh! The immigrants are coming" type way and being intollerent in a "you don't need an apostrophe on the word banana's" type way.

Edit: Still missing the point. Just like you, I type quickly - sometimes mistakes are made. But it's not those types of mistakes that are generally pointed out. "Ooh, you typed HUOSE. Don't you know it's spelled HOUSE you retard?" That doesn't happen.

If you can find more than 10% of words misspelled in my previous posts then I'll eat my shoes. Seriously.
(MrC. Having the most boring username on b3ta since 2004, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:44, closed)

Well yeah,
of course there is.

I had my tongue a little in my cheek. This is B3ta.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:46, closed)

I think you'll find
it's intolerant.
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 12:41, closed)

side note on the dyslexia thing
a couple of my mates are really very dyslexic and yet they spell better than a lot of other non-dyslexics because of the way they think about it.

compared to most (not on here) my spelling is excellent, and I can't understand how people spell the same things wrong over and over and over again
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 11:45, closed)

I was going to say that too...
I'm incredibly dyslexic. So, in order not to sound like a completely illiterate retard, I take a bit of time over what I write, and make sure it actually says what I think it says. Now, there's a funny thing with that - because I do take a bit of time over it, I find that my dyslexia has improved pretty drastically.

"Oh I'm dyslexic, I can't spell properly because of my dyslexia" is just excusing your own laziness.
(gordonjcp, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 12:11, closed)

Fuck tolerance
Lern 2 rite da Engliiiish proper like :p
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 12:13, closed)

For you, I will try
as you are lully.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 26 Feb 2009, 12:16, closed)