AIBU: Re the grammar police on this board

[RedRoosterLondon]

AIBU to think that the grammar police on here sanctimonious cunts?

And I refer to your latest post

I'm not too bothered about the grammar BUT I despise unnecessary swearing. It's vulgar.

gillian I think netmums would be more to your liking then their site automatically bans fuckin swear words

Often, too, the people doing the correcting (or the bemoaning if it's one of those I-hate-should-of threads) have a fairly shallow understanding of language. They often seem to think that the rules that govern English usage are highly prescriptive and that the rules they learned in school twenty years ago are immutable. And they certainly lack understanding of how accents and the elision of words in speech contribute to what people write.

Well why point it out in the first place with than/then and a little sarcastic 'hth hun' afterwards?

Misuse of "then" / "than" is rarely a typo - it's a mistake by people who don't know which one to use when. Similar to the "they're / their / there" conundrum. You didn't miss a word or make a typo. (I also pointed it out as the subject of this thread is relevant but wouldn't have normally, was slightly poking fun at myself)

Posters patronising attitudes regarding the subject is far more cringeworthy.

That's your opinion, and that's cool! But I find poor written communication to be far more cringeworthy, myself.

they certainly lack understanding of how accents and the elision of words in speech contribute to what people write

Seneca surely you don't mean the acceptable use of "should of" in place of "should've", or - horror of horrors - "axe" instead of "ask"??

Oh good, an excuse for my currently favourite pedantic meme.

Ha, that's great.

I've seen quite emotive posts from people obviously distressed and then some twat will say "you need paragraphs" I find that almost bullying behaviour.

I think bullying is putting it a bit strong. Unhelpful at most. But I can't be the only person who opens a thread, sees an impenetrable block of text and goes away without even reading it. So by not putting in paragraph breaks and making the post more inaccessible the OP is potentially losing out on a lot of views and opinions that might have been useful.

When faced with a wall of text I usually click off without comment.

But if you really wanted to help you could quickly C+P onto a document and put your own paragraphs in so you could read it more easily.

I've never done that, but realise the option is available and preferable to snarking to a possibly distressed person about typesetting and SPAG.

I don't know whether that's bullying, but it's not very nice to do.

It's not bullying. The phrase "bullying" is often overused by people who can't take / don't like any criticism whatsoever (particularly on MN).

Just because you're kicking someone when they're down (ie they're in a vulnerable position) doesn't make it "bullying". It makes it

• snarky
• unhelpful
• rude
• belittling

I can see how the confusion arises when it seems cruel and nasty (and irrelevant to the OP's question and distress), but it's not bullying.

goodnight I didn't say "should of" is acceptable. But there have been several threads in which posters insist that if people just pronounced "should have" correctly, they wouldn't make this mistake when writing, which is, of course, a really wrong-headed notion.

Was just trying to clarify what exactly you were referring to.

Yes, it's silly to say we should emphasise "HAVE" over "VE", no arguments from me on that.

goodnight Bullying or not its horrible behavior and luckily the majority of mnetters don't do it.

Yes, Lois, I know it's horrible behaviour. Hence my use of words like

• snarky
• unhelpful
• rude
• belittling

I would never do it to someone who was obviously in distress.

I would never do it to anyone.

If something is snarky, unhelpful, rude and belittling then it shouldn't matter whether the person on the receiving end is in distress or not.

Surely?

Because otherwise, that would just be being a cunt for the sake of it.

Which would be very weird a character trait, and someone I think most MNers would steer well clear of.

Tbh I find it more irritating when adults use the term 'meh'

I don't mind bad grammar meself.. What does get my goat though is anyone over the age of about 14 using the word 'random' inappropriately.

I think I might be the only one but I think it's pathetic to pull apart someone's spelling or grammar even when they are clearly knobs and 'need taking down a peg or two'

The only time I think it's OK is when someone is being a dick about spelling/grammar and has made mistakes themselves.

It's also ok if it's done really really nicely.

Sorry, the "HTH" and "hun" was a reference to people talking about them upthread. And smiley faces often look passive aggressive, so you can't win!

Because otherwise, that would just be being a cunt for the sake of it.

Well, last time I did it I was trying to debate with a misogynist poster who said he didn't believe female objectification existed but refused to give me any reason other than the fact that he "hadn't seen it personally". After trying to get a sensible answer out of him and reading his smarmy self-important posts, I figured I'd point out that he wasn't as all-knowing as he thought, because he couldn't write or punctuate correctly. If you enter a debate and refuse to give logical reasons for your opinions, you're fair game as far as I'm concerned. If that means I have no friends on MN I'll live with it.

#noregrats

(Yes, that's a deliberate mis-spelling.)

Most of the spelling mistakes are due to the way people speak - diffrent - rather than different - should of instead of should have -

You can also tell when a poster has English as a second language (not that I can read/type French German or any other language)

Every one has a point to make, and you can usually work it out.

Just because you're kicking someone when they're down (ie they're in a vulnerable position) doesn't make it "bullying"

In this situation, I always ask myself: 'What would Jesus say?'

I think he'd say I was being a cunt,

Limited, I'm not excusing it. I don't think Jesus would say, "Hey, now, that's bullying" either though.