im on a lot of forums both automotive and military and i hate when people dont use any punctuation or capital letters and just lay down a constant barrage of letters for people to try and decipher and make heads or tails of its just very annoying are these people in such a hurry that they cant stop the fraction of a second to use the proper rules and conventions of grammar there are a few people on every forum ive been on dont even get me started about the poor spelling rant over

 

Point taken!

Yah, some of these guys write like Kerouac and Burroughs- real stream-of-consciousness stuff. Trouble is, Kerouac and Burroughs made it work, and I doubt many posters here are as drug-fueled as they were.

 

It would help people to understand what is being said if the proper grammar was used, but I for one am a terrible speller. Also there are some members whose first language is not English. We will make allowances.
All in all I concur. Please take the time to write clearly - we will better understand what you are trying to say.

 

That is funny!

 

I had to laugh as I read that post. At first I didn't see the satire and thought you'd gotten trapped in your own pet peeve. Well played. However, I would like to offer a defence I am certain you inherently already know.

Obviously written skills are important to you; they are to me also. Clearly the pet peeve you described also underwrites some personal frustration. However, grammatical errors are an innate feature of written contributions to almost every forum site. Most people simply don't have time to craft a college document into their post; and time for most is precious. So what gets posted sometimes is the bare minimum of what is needed to get by. Sometimes we just need to practice patience and demonstrate the ability to read between the lines. From past experience, I can tell you it's not worth the duelling war of words.

I think many of us understand and respect your point. Some others will find it offensive. The nature of this site however, is not to teach literacy - it's to promote Oldsmobile. This is a place where fellow enthusiasts should feel comfortable to express their opinions, ask questions, share knowledge/expertise and have some fun. The common issue is basic communication, and most posts generally tend to do exactly that. Spelling mistakes and punctuation errors are made by even those most dedicated to the written craft.

I wish these dialogue boxes had a spell check and grammar options, but that isn't going to happen without a huge influx of $$$ dropped into the data base programming. While that would address your concern, it only provides a tool for some folks to use solving grammatical problems. There's no guarantee it would be used. FWIW I think you work around the grammar issue very well. I enjoy reading your contributions to the site. Hang in there.

 

Every time I read "needs restored" or "needs finished" I want to scream!!
'to be' people!! 'to be' !!! A car needs tires not restored.
I made this rant elswhere here. The alternative is 'needs finishing' or restoring'

Oh theeeeere's just one more thing! 'Alot' is not a word - alllllrightythen!!

Thanks a lot.

 

wut iz dis all dat aboot yallz

 

I find improper grammar and punctuation annoying too. I don't understand how using improper grammar and punctuation to demonstrate your annoyance with improper grammar and punctuation is going to amount to anything. People who are annoyed with it are still annoyed with it, and people who are oblivious to it are still oblivious. IMO, you have accomplished nothing and annoyed people who agree with you.

 

It does spellcheck when I'm typing stuff??
I'm so ignorant I just don't yoose it.

There are a lot more important things to worry about.
You'll just end up with hypertension trying to be the grammar police.
These rants always happen on the forums at this time of year when people start turning on each other from the effects of the dreaded cabin fever.

Da texztin stylz of riting is watz getz 2 me.

 

Mine does. Perhaps you're using an outdated browser (or, God forbid, Explorer). I thought they all did by now.

Hmmmm... That's an interesting one. It's a US regionalism that goes back hundreds of years. As far as I know, examples can be found dating back before Shakespeare (I believe it's used in Middle English, ie: Chaucer), but it would take me a while to find the documentation, and I'm working today, so I can't do it soon. Perhaps someone else can provide some examples.
So, no, that one don't bother me none.

For one example of my feelings on the subject of careless posting (out of a few times when I've lost my patience), see here and succeeding posts.
The irony of that post is that I didn't realize I was berating a poster from three years before. How's that for hubris?

- Eric

 

Thanks for the reminder Allan. As much as my wife calls me **** retentive I am aware that I should value input in any form, and not assume that others must communicate in "my way".
It is hard to put aside those years of being wacked on the head with a ruler whenever I made a spelling mistake (it happened often - still does).

 

Oh yeah. We all make mistakes, and we all have our pet peeves. A couple of mine are sell and sale, their and there. But as I said, we all make mistakes.

 

I do not think a message board is a place to air your pet peeves, unless it is a message board pertaining to pet peeves.

 

people post on forums like they talk....its improper most of the time, but most feel comfortable to just type as if they're talking and rambling to you in person..

my pet peeve is people pointing out bad grammar and punctuation as if their opinion really counts..because people that abuse grammar, dont care who they offend...in their mind they are not obligated to be proper on a forum, its where they come to relax and have fun..not a place to have some one complain to them for being who they really are...

 

Huh?? Couldn't understand any of that!

Despite my low tolerance to bad grammar, I do not mind some mispellings or such, as we are human and make mistakes - myself included. Also, we are not trying to impress our English teachers, we are talking more informally. Also, to proofread everything is too time consuming.

As long as some effort is made to make it readable, it is fine. Making one huge long 'sentence' with no caps or puncs makes it too difficult to decipher and I (and many others) will quickly give up on it.
So lets all make a good effort and we will be fine...

 

Yes, but it's a two-way street, and the obligation is not ALL on the person doing the reading to try to decipher what you say. Everyone has at least a minor obligation to make what they post readable. There is an "edit" button. You see a major blunder in what you wrote after you've posted it? Go back and fix it. Takes two seconds.

Remember, as everyone has pointed out, people should feel free to write like they talk or like they're having a casual conversation. Fine. But we're not actually having an oral conversation. The medium here is the written word.

Write whatever you want, but if you write like crap, no one here or anywhere else is obligated to plow through it trying to understand what you wrote, so don't be surprised if no one does.

 

My view of this issue is that if a poster is asking for help, they need to describe their problem as clearly as possible including correct punctuation. It annoys me to have to try and decipher what they are asking because they use no punctuation etc.
I like to help when I can but I have gotten so disgusted trying to figure out what they were asking because of their lack of punctuation or grammar that I just moved on.
You can usually tell if someone's first language is not english so I do take that into consideration whe someone is asking for help.

 

A perfect example of what I said would happen in my post above. Thank you.

 

I live in a condo. that doesn't allow pets. If I had one, I would name it "Peeve". Ha-Ha. We are here for fun and to possibly enlighten a fellow member who might be stumped on their Oldsmobile. Getting upset over someone's writing or speaking style is your business, but to mock or voice that opinion here publicly (in my opinion) is not a friendly thing to do.
Some of the contributors live in a country outside our beloved United States and maybe they don't fully understand the English language. I can speak enough Spanish to communicate if need be, but I couldn't WRITE a "correct" sentence if a prize was given to do so. I can only wish that my life was so good that the only "pet peeve" I had was how people wrote on a car forum.

 

This is a red herring. Maybe 1% of the users on this forum are non-native English speakers, and everyone is very careful to be friendly toward them when they do post. It doesn't remove the obligation of the "99%" who are native English speakers to post readable messages.

 

I know most of the non-native English speakers speak better than some of the native ones I have seen... It is all about putting some effort into being understood. The non-natives do well..

 

A very interesting point! I've noticed the same thing. And do you know WHY this happens? Because the non-natives are taking pains to write as best as they can because they are proud of how well they have mastered the language and so that people reading their posts don't get tripped up trying to do so. Would that the native English speakers felt the same way!

 

"The shoe that fits one foot pinches another" Jung

 

In my own defence, my little rant came more from playful boredom and my sarcastic sense of humour than from actual annoyance. It was NEVER my intent to put down or alienate anyone. This is definately my favorite forum, by far, of the many I contribute to. I am certainly no closer to perfect than anybody and do not wish to convey an 'air of pretension' when contributing. Honestly, I didn't expect such a response! Thanks for that. I love you guys for keeping this GREAT forum so enjoyable.

 

When someone replies to a thread saying, "this has been discussed before,use the search feature".
My success rate with the search feature is slim.

 

Seriously...??? I admit and apologize for my lack of speelling and gramr skillz both past, present, and most assuredly future. Lets get back to our regularly scheduled program!

 

Words have to be spelled the same way as you would spell them in order for the search to work...

 

At least nobody has gone to the crap this young people use in text messages (y r u unhappy). This forumn covers all parts of the country and several more parts of the world. Some people spell better than others but nobody should be upset over a misspelled word. Often times it is a typo. In this message alone, I have already corrected 4 typos. My suggestion is to go back and read your post before you click on the lost reply button. We are talking Oldsmobiles here, not Shakespear.

 

That is just the guy whom led to poor grades in English. My grammar was great, but that literature stuff was so boring I never could or would read it!
I then realized that I could guess well...

 

Well said.

You had a lousy English teacher, then.
Good literature should leap off the page at you if it's read properly.

I would like to add this point:
As much as I am annoyed by people who clearly don't care whether they are writing in a way that anyone else can understand, I find that there are fewer of those people on this forum than on most others I've seen, and would go further in saying that I, personally, have never been annoyed when trying to read any of the posts by any of the people who have posted to this thread, saying things like "I just can't spell perfectly all the time." -- It's not you guys who annoy me or (I would hazard to guess) any of the other crotchety correction curmudgeons on here. Nobody is busting your chops, so please don't believe that they are.
It's a few other people who post from time to time who drive us nuts.



- Eric

 

There's only been a few that've bothered me, but that's usually when a word or three have been left out, and guessing still doesn't make sense.

 

This site is nothing. Yall should go to the 'Adsense' forum over @ forums [dot]digitalpoint[dot]com and read the posts there for a few days. Will drive you nuts. It is not just the bad English and grammar... but the general retardation of many.

 

I post quite frequently on this site and yes I have "fat" fingered syndrome. Mostly because I think faster then I can type. Not everyone has taken keyboarding classes and are doing the best they can before they time out. Unless they are using text message language I look past all of it.

 

I hope i'm not too bad.... English class was not one of my best areas in school .... and that was a looooong time ago

 

Rob, This reminds me of the time the honorable Joe P. and to coorect somone's search for " Disc breaks"

 

Which is yet another reason to check things over before posting your message or going back and fixing an error if you find it!


There's actually a service out there (probably more than one, but I know of only one), that will search ebay listings for you based on common misspellings of search terms.

Looking for a "Chippendale" chair? This service will also check "Chipendale" and "Chippindale" and probably half a dozen other variations.

Of course, the guy trying to sell the chair and mispells the word in the auction title probably wonders why his auction is getting few visits and no bids.

 

I didn't know that. Yes I use Explorer and so far I'm ok with it. What are you using, and is there a way to have the S.C. and grammar options using Explorer?

An excellent point. That's why if I want to recommend another thread, I will search it out myself and post the link. My reasoning is that if I can't find it, there's no way I should just be passing the buck to them by saying look it up using the site search option. I have on occasion enlisted help from others to post the link I can't find; but I do not give up looking. Sometimes the search result is not contained in the thread topic, but somewhere within a lengthy thread. It can be very time consuming trying to parse through that accumulation of posts.

 

Well, I don't know about Explorer, since I don't use it (won't use anything made by Microsoft - too many open doors in the code, or so I have surmised over years of reading stories about new ones being discovered).

I know that Firefox, Chrome, and Opera all correct text as you type (this text box flagged "MicroSoft" and "FireFox" as misspellings, so I took out the mid-word caps).

- Eric

 

Thx Eric
My next 'puter' will likely be a Mac. They don't use MS applications for network?

 

By "network," do you mean as browsers, or for deeper network interface?

There is a version of Explorer for Mac, but I believe it hasn't been updated in years, since nobody used it anyway.

As for other stuff, all Mac network interfaces are created within the organization, and those that use software (such as their "AirPort" WiFi routers) are Linux based.

- Eric