AIBU to mourn the loss of punctuation and capital letters on MN?

[DarrellRivers]

The world is continuing to go to hell in a handcart.

[maxpower]

It's appalling and I'm as guilty as hell. In RL I have to deal with high profile correspondence and I spend all my time moaning about poor spelling and punctuation but on here, I'm just can't be bothered to worry about it.

[chickchickchicken]

yabu

its easier and quicker not to use caps

[chickchickchicken]

of course i do use them in a formal capacity as that is professional and expected. or if i am communicating with children as i want them to learn proper grammar and punctuation
otherwise, nah cant be bothered

[hifi]

yabu

[Nancy66]

While is about 400 years older than 'whilst'

[LadyShapes]

Well, I'm going to carry on using whilst - if Fowler says it's ok, then that's good enough for me!

[nickelbabe]

while and whilst are different - while can be used as a verb or a transition (or whatever the word would be)
whilst can only be used a transition.

It's mainly a UK term, but it's usually the correct form.

[nickelbabe]

wiki kind of sums it up

I used whilst when I mean whilst and while when I mean while.

[wotnochocs]

YABU .Get a life , Weirdo!!

[nickelbabe]

mainly
"The primary function of the word as a conjunction is to indicate that two separate clauses occur at the same time.

"The days were hot while we were on vacation."
"I read a magazine whilst I was waiting."

While can also be legitimately used in the contrastive sense, comparable to the words "although" or "whereas", provided that it is not ambiguous (although some commentators, such as Eric Partridge, have frowned upon such use):

"While I like cats, my husband is allergic."
"While Sally plays, Sue works." "

[Nancy66]

Nickelbabe - that's another popular misunderstanding.
The words are no different and totally interchangeable.

[gkys]

OP am bf while typing

if this is all you have to worry about you are a lucky person.

If that makes me a "poor linguist" then so be it.

[nickelbabe]

you can't use whilst to mean spend time.
(while away the hours)

you can't use whilst for the contrastive sense.
that just sounds wrong.

I'm sticking to my guns on this one Nancy
(but I repsect your opinion too)

[nickelbabe]

it'd probably be allowed to slide in the english exam....

[Nancy66]

Whilst has been a bugbear of mine for years....to the point of weirdness and obsession (I admit.) I've spoken to countless professors of English about it!

It's used by people who, when writing, would use a thesaurus to make themselves sound more intelligent.

Its use is banned in journalism and by most publishing houses.

[nickelbabe]

I noticed that form the wiki link.

If it makes you feel better, I don't use a thesaurus to try to make myself sound more intelligent.

[BlooferLady]

While/whilst to mean 'whereas' are interchangeable

But they are not interchangeable when referring to portions of time, ie 'Nancy66 rolled her eyes all the while Bloofer was typing'

So sometimes interchangeable, sometimes not, we're all happy no?

Never will understand why people get hornets in their trilbies over English usage. Heavens to Betsey, only consider how it has developed and changed since Chaucer and onward - it's a cause of celebration, not censure!

PS I use 'whilst' sometimes (for 'whereas' obviously: I'm not an animal) and would rather eat my own toes than try and appear more intelligent than I am. So there .

PPS none of the above applies for people who say 'pacific' for 'specific', all of whom shall be shot at dawn when I am Empress.

[LadyShapes]

Right people, no more posts until you have digested all of this:
Guardian style guide

[BlooferLady]

'Tis a style guide though mind. Not a rule book. And anyway coming from the famously poorly proof-read Grauniad....

[BoattoBolivia]

'hence why' ......arrrgghhh! Have seen this so many times recently on here. Makes me flinch every time.
Capitals don't bother me as much as missing full stops, which make posts so much harder to read.

[LadyShapes]

BoattoBolivia - Yes, that was my point. Nancy was complaining about 'whilst' not being acceptable on style grounds. I thought it was taking pedantry one step further!

[DriverDan]

Yabu.

Some threads move really fast, some people are using their phones or typing whilst managing a baby or whatever. They certainly don't need to justify themselves to you. You don't like it, don't read it! Why on earth start a bitchy thread about it?

This thread isn't so bad but some of the ones started about other peoples use of language, grammar, spellings or whatever are really mean and bitchy! I sometimes open a thread that's full of text speak or no paragraphs and can't be bothered to read it and close it but I really don't feel the need to start mean threads about it!

People get really put off by posting at all or their post is filled with "Sorry I'm using my phone, breastfeeding and unicycling while baking my own bread so sorry if I make any mistales"

Then "Sorry I meant mistakes " and "Oops, meant whilst " for fear of being dismissed as lazy, stupid or indifferent. Threads end up littered with corrections because nobody wants to be seen as stupid or whatever. Just let it go or don't read!!!

Sorry about the massive rant but this is really annoying me!!

[DriverDan]