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Originally Posted by KenWittlief
I agree with you that everyone should strive for their fullest potential, and that lazyness is not something to be nurtured
but how many quiet, shy or disabled people are you willing to risk offending, or scaring off from posting here, buy creating the impression that CD is a hostile and uppidy place, just to rebuke the occassional sloppy poster?
do you do this in person? if someone is speaking to you do you stop and correct their grammer or syntax? or insist they do not use slang in your presence?
if Steven Hawkins called you on the phone, without his speech synthesizer, would you listen to him for a minute and they go "hey man, Nmm Mnnn Hmm gbym Nmmmm mum mum! I can understand a word your saying - announciate dude, AYE NUN SEE ATE!"
?! :^)
Im not trying to pick on you here, Im pushing for a kinder, gentler CD - where people can post their thoughts and ideas, without someone examining their english with a spell checker and syntax compiler. The gracious part of GP is to expect people will make mistakes from time to time, and to let them go without shining a spotlite on them.
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Actually, it seems to me that the "quiet, shy or disabled people" are more likely to take their time and get their thoughts out in reasonably proper language. They also tend to improve in this ability with time. Ken Leung is a shining example of this. I used to get very frustrated trying to read his posts, until I realized that he was not a native speaker of english (then I gave him grace
). Now I have no trouble reading his posts, because his langauge and usage have improved, not because I became more accustomed to his style. If somebody is actually having trouble with the language, then that becomes obvious over time and we should ( and generally do) make allowances.
But it seems to me that the consensus of the members is that the language of this forum is standard american english, not IM speak. This has been discussed before in other threads. I have no problem with handing out a few negative rep points to people who obviously know better and are just being sloppy. Think of them as grammar corrections on a physics lab report. They are there to remind you to do better, but don't necessarily count against you in any real way either.