Spelling! Is it important?

[Donut]

On a recent thread about the British Goverment there was a short debate about whether correct spelling is important on the internet.

As a matter of principal I try to spell words correctly but although I pour over the various threads I don’t often correct incorrect spelling.

Sometimes however, people are so careless about they’re spelling that I’m sorely tempted to correct it.

There are far to many mistakes made by native English speakers on Ironworks. People are careless and feel that they have free reign to make mistakes without having them corrected. Perhaps we could diffuse the situation by putting our posts through a spell checker. As long as everyone tows the line there should be no problem.

If, like me, you want to spell correctly, you’ll need to practice more. Then there will be on arguments!

What do you think?

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

I agree that the simple act of running a spell checker can pick up every mistake. Donut's post up there proves it. Eye see no miss takes. Can ewe?

[Vaskez]

Know, I sea no misstaeks in Downuts post eether

[Assassin]

Then there will be on arguments!

Say again? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

IMO, as long as I can understand what the heck the person's trying to say, it's all fine with me. I mean, spell 'the' as 'teh' is pointless nitpicking. However, l33t talk is really, really annoying. I personally try to use good english when I post, but that's just me.

A spell checker wouldn't be useful. People might use it now and then, but IMO, the vast majority wouldn't. Only some people will, and if you really, really want to run it though a grammar/spellcheck, then copy and paste in Microsoft Word/Wordperfect or something.

[Legolas]

Yes, I do think proper spelling is important, if only to keep things legible and save others a headache. That and it minimises the chance of someone misinterpreting a message, an all too common problem on a purely text-based medium.

On the other hand, stubbornly correcting every mistake you run across won't make you many friends. Chances are your helpfulness is misinterpreted as nitpicking and making fun of others despite their best efforts.

There is one thought bothering me though. Where is the punchline?

[Ladyzekke]

I always try to keep my spelling correct, punctuation as well. I'm not perfect, but I do make an effort.

You sure though Donut that you don't enjoy a little textspeak? U no what i mean ~grinz~ [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Gangrell]

I always try to use correct spelling. A lot of my posts are probably edited because I go back to spell a word right that I didn't catch before. I can understand if people post and have mistakes here or there, that I don't mind but it bugs me when people use bad spelling for every word, take that Lord of the Rings chat session that was posted here awhile back, I could hardly read it.

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

I guess what they say about leading a horse to water is true...

Edit- My response was intended to be right after Assassin's, as it was in reference to that post, but it seems that about three of us tried to post at the same time, so I felt I had to clarify.

[ 07-20-2004, 10:26 PM: Message edited by: Illumina Drathiran'ar ]

[Vaskez]

Hmm if I am to take this thread seriously:
yeah I do take spelling seriously - after all the jokes I've made about people's spelling, I try not to make the mistakes I've taken the piss out of so if I do, I'll go back and correct it

Some spelling/grammar mistakes do annoy me a lot though, like when people get mixed up with "their", "they're" and "there". Another one that pisses me off is when people mix up "your" and "you're". It just makes them look dumb and I prefer to look at people in a positive light if I can.

[Ladyzekke]

My one and only pet peeve is probably people mistaking "no" and "know".

you no what I mean? know?

[img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]