To think it is literally not possible to be "offended" by poor grammar and punctuation as some posters claim.

[ElleBellyBeeblebrox]

Honestly, who gives a shit? The amount of smug wankery on here sometimes is unbelievable. Is there really any justification for snarking at someone about their use of full stops,( other than to try and make yourself look like a smartarse.)

limited. Are you one of the posters who goes around correcting punctuation and grammar because I am writing a list. I truly am

This forum is full of people competitively groaning about how offensive they hate normal OED words like moist and gusset. I think it's okay for someone to admit badly-constructed sentences make them feel a bit funny

I think that's fine tillytelltale, though I don't mind moist and gusset distressing and throw panties in there too.

What I am struggling to understand is that an aversion to badly-constructed sentences is a disability. Particularly when expressed by someone who mangles sentences.

I really think she is having a laugh.

I fucking hope so.

limited. Are you one of the posters who goes around correcting punctuation and grammar because I am writing a list. I truly am

Good to hear it ppplease. I can assure you that I'm not, and if you'd RTFT you'd have realised that.

So, if you're sad enough to be writing a list, you can leave me off it.

hth

good.

I think the thing that bugs me is, if you can't read the thread, say 'Oh well' and carry on. If you can, and have useful advice to offer the OP, stay and offer the advice.

Don't correct their spelling and grammar; if they wanted an English lesson I'm sure they'd ask for one.

It's like seeing someone hurt themselves, and instead of either walking on by because you can't help, or realising you can help and helping them, you drop your trousers and shit on them. It makes no sense and isn't helpful in any way, and only serves to make them feel worse.

Hear, hear, Moomin

Llimitedperiodonly

WTF are you attacking me?

Because on prior experience, you're reasonable, intelligent and all-round decent, and I think there's a point telling you your posts aren't very nice. If you were new, I'd just put you in the "if it looks like...and walks lie..." box.

It's possible she has it in exactly the same fucking way I do. Or she has it for another reason. There's a range of neurological disabilities. You've been on mumsnet for years, limited, surely you're acquainted with neurological disabilities by now? Did you see my synaethesia analogy, or is that something you've not heard of? I'll link again. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

One misunderstanding after her first post is forgivable. After she's clarified? Why would you attack her again? Was this supposed to be just a "yeah, YANBU" thread? Someone was brave enough to explain their sensory issues, and the OP, who started it, very gracefully accepted that, and apologised for not thinking of that as an explanation.

Why do you have such a problem?

"I think the thing that bugs me is, if you can't read the thread, say 'Oh well' and carry on. If you can, and have useful advice to offer the OP, stay and offer the advice."

Or ask politely for clarification, then comment if you have something useful or supportive to offer.

I too have noticed Limited's posts from time to time. She can post well, and sometimes posts badly.
There are certain elements of society that she does not care if she offends.

She appears to be missing an empathy part to some of her personality. I dont think that she can help it.

Ah, here's another analogy, which almost everyone should understand.

I hate tuneless singing. I won't comment if someone is singing out-of-tune, because it is rude and hurtful. However, I can't sing myself! If I'm singing, a choir is needed to drown me out!

Is it hypocritical for me to detest tuneless singing? No, I hate my voice too. Fortunately, we don't communicate by singing so I can avoid it easily.

I also have some sensitivity to spelling mistakes. Unfortunately, this sensitivity has fuck-all relationship with my fingers, so I have abominable typing, and my ability to proof-read has a direct relationship with the size of screen I'm using. On my aging smartphone or a touchscreen tablet, my posts are awful and when I see what I've submitted, I wince.

I understand TillyTellTale but as you have said, you would not presume to correct the posting errors of others.

My son has asd and massive sensory issues. He finds it intolerable when people talk in the cinema. But I am teaching him to cope with that because it is his issue, even though being quiet in the cinema is a considerate and polite thing to do. I don't stand up and shout 'shut the fuck up'

Good point Pagwatch.

Bless you all for your analysis. If you don't mind, I'll continue to post in my flawed way.

Exactly, Pagwatch. Also it takes a wilful effort to post a snarky SPaG post, so I still see no excuse. I appreciate it may be bothersome, so hide the thread. It is not mandatory.

Why, I'm sorry you were upset by what I posted. I have never heard of anybody having actual sensory issues from reading badly written English, so I assumed you were speaking metaphorically and I thought it was OTT. I am still finding it hard to understand what you mean, but I will take your word for it that it has a bad effect on you. My daughter has Asperger's so I know very noisy environments, certain textures of clothing or food and other physical things like that can be a big problem for some people. I'll see what she has to tell me about sensory issues around language.

Pagwatch

Ye-es, but WhyBeHappy has already explicitly explained that she has that bit of social etiquette down. She didn't say she corrected people at all, but people assumed that her first post in the thread was meant to justify correcting people.

Then she clarified. And then she got attacked some more!

I don't comment on it but I am irritated by it. Anyone can make typos- that does not bother me. It's the poor grammar, spelling, punctuation that interferes with the poster's communication that I hate.

I don't understand why people think those things don't matter. Of course they do! It makes the people who can't/don't write accurately appear uneducated. Why would anyone want to look like either they don't know any better or don't care. Whether we like it or not, the world judges us by our ability to communicate effectively( verbally and in written form). It is the most important lifeskill. It affects every aspect of our life- relationships, work, success, self- esteem, ability to get on with others, education.

Something like 70% of prisoners have low levels of literacy and numeracy. People with low levels of literacy and numeracy are much more likely to be unemployed, to earn poor wages if they do work, to have a job rather than a career, to end up divorced, to have children who do poorly at school. It affects your whole life and takes lots of choices away for people.

It matters!

We are not attacking, we are discussing in general.

Of course it matters LuLu. A lot.

But there is a time and a place and respect.

I have always corrected my childrens' spellings. Still do and they have left school!

But the people on here are not my children! I cannot see them. I do not know them.
I have no idea of their capabilities. For all I know English could be their 4th language, and they have been up all night for years trying to better their English.

Plus which, this is essentially a chat forum. And definitely not an English exam.

I always feel that to correct a poster's spelling and grammar is potentially racist.
Because there are a large number of international and immigrant posters on mumsnet.

Well, what this thread has achieved is a "perfectly normal" non-pedant who said she'd dealt with an issue on the thread in question being openly attacked and disbelieved here.

She was a prolific and longstanding poster and I didn't see any posts from her at all yesterday.

When you are all happily compiling shitlist spreadsheets, does this mean that even only those who draft so well that they are never misunderstood will escape the mob?

TAATs are a bad idea. This one seems to show that MNHQ is OK with a much higher level of personal attack, and even admissions of deliberately targeting posters to make them leave (unless I read that bit wrong). Stalking posters from thread to thread used to be considered unthinkably nasty here.

Until very recently, issues (including posters being nasty) was dealt with on the thread. The number of TAATs has shot up recently, and I wish the ban against them were still in place.

As it doesn't seem to be, I was wondering if posters here had seen yesterday's thread about why certain threads don't attract many responses. Fear of reaction by other MNetters was one of the reasons.

As this thread seems to make it OK to TAAT/stalk/admit to attempts to drive out, it's not surprising people are so concerned.

That was far longer than I'd meant, and I am now expecting to be the next target. Especially as I don't think I'm a perfect poster, and it's utterly possible that some or all of what I've put will be misunderstood or downright disbelieved.

This was in no way intended to be a taat or any kind of personal attack, just a vent about what I see as rude behaviour. I'm sorry if it's been construed that way, I would never "stalk" posters or try to hound them out,and am far too clueless to have a shit list spreadsheet!

TillyTellTale

I was not attacking whybehappy! I didn't assume she meant it was ok to correct posters.

I was extending the analogy.

It's a general discussion. I thought I was adding to it because I have some experience of sensory issues and how they can hit up against social manners.

If I have attacked her I would like to apologise. But I'd love you to show me where. If others have attacked her perhaps tell them.

Correcting a poster's grammar is potentially racist.

I've heard it all now.