To wonder if the nit-picking pedants realise just how idiotic they sound?

[LoverOfCake]

MN has always had an element of pedantry over e.g. Grammar for instance, but these days it's gone beyond ridiculous to picking at people's behaviours etc and singling them out for the smallest thing. It could look like this:

Poster posts "I'm really worried about us all as a family. My children have serious behavioural issues, my daughter has been through a series of bad relationships, my eight year old told me to fuck off the other day, my husband thinks the answer to us rowing is using his fists, and he's also shagging one of the school mums. I'm currently locked in the bathroom after the latest row between us, my face is bleeding and I have a black eye. I need to go to the shops to buy food for dinner but I'm scared what will happen to me if I come out. So at the moment the kids have eaten the last of the haribo in the cupboard. Please help me mn." but someone will then respond "I can't believe you let your children eat haribo. Do you know how unhealthy they are?"

That is an extreme but isn't in comparison to some of the pedantry seen on here of late. Do these people who feel the need to read an entire thread and pick at one minor detail really think it makes them look good and superior? Because it really doesn't, quite the opposite actually.

YANBU. You will spot an error in the OP, and know, just know that in 3, 2, 1... someone will be along to pick up on it.

Hooting at the vulva police.

Context is everything with this.

Generally snotty comments about spelling mistakes? Very rude and unnecessary.

Correcting someone who has themselves been snotty about someone else's lack of knowledge/poor spelling/poor grammar? Always entertaining.

There does seem to be a proliferation of teachers on mn, maybe some people are in the habit of correcting people's work and just can't stop themselves?

I can't stand the Haribo ads. The ones with adults talking like children.

I can't stand the Haribo ads. The ones with adults talking like children.

Me too! I can't explain why but I find adults doing a pretend child voice really really creepy.

I hate to disagree about the vagina thing - it really is just basic anatomy. The approximate equivalent mistake is to call your face you trachea. Or the buttocks your rectum.

This ^^

OP, I agree with you. Nastiness and superiority and nit-picking are uncalled for, especially on threads there the OP is clearly troubled/in an awful situation.

It's not adults doing a pretend child voice. It's children & the grown ups lip synch.

Ooops. Sorry! That came across really pedant-y. I shall mix there/ their / they're wrong all day as penance

YANBU. You will spot an error in the OP, and know, just know that in 3, 2, 1... someone will be along to pick up on it.

This.

There was one yesterday, the title was something like "AIBU or should he not of done this?"
Within about 4 posts someone has posted. "No, he shouldn't have done this", with no emphasis on the "have" so it was ambiguous as to whether or not they were posting about the issue or the grammar.
But sure as eggs is eggs, about 3 posts later someone else jumped on with "should have done this' with one of those infuriating 'hey, I'm clever me' emoji things.
Arseholes.
If a post is so badly written that it's hard to read then maybe just don't read it. It usually obvious that maybe the Op doesn't have English as their first language, or is posting in a hurry or whatever, to jump on those posts and only criticise the spelling or grammar and not offer even a tiny bit of helpful advice is the work of an arsehole.

It's not adults doing a pretend child voice. It's children & the grown ups lip synch.

The voices are so creepy that I had assumed it was adults impersonating children. If it's actual children then I think I hate the ads even more.

Oh great, I just spat my tea out on myself! 'Vulva police'

It’s all part of the humour of MN. And often the OP will reveal what the post is “really” about from some such detail. I like how nothing gets taken at face value on here. So while I know what you mean about the spelling pedants, YABU

In fact it was one of my all-time favourite posts:
OP - Aibu to worry about the white stains on my husbands running clothes. He identifies as bisexual and runs for long hours in our local woods.
MN - YABU. Why isn’t your husband doing his own washing?!

So the pedants are idiotic? What would you call someone who starts an entire thread to express this view?

Once I did a thread about getting buggy shamed while we were out blackberry picking ("those children are far too old to be in a buggy" - they were three, and our route to the blackberries was along a busy road) and someone accused me of being a troll based on the fact that where she was, the blackberries weren't out yet

I always think, if I wanted to troll, I'd make sure my story was completely water tight. It's exactly those posts where some of the details are open to interpretation that convice me they're true. Nobody comes on AIBU asking about situations where it's 100 percent clear that they are in the right. It's those awkward situations where someone is a total arse to you and you think, did I do anything to deserve that? And then of course you come on here and some arse will delight in telling you what a total affront to decency you are.

It is entertaining though to see a mistake in the pendant's post. Or correct something and turn out to be wrong.

Not that it happens that often (sadly). Usually you get the idea they have deliberated in depth about every character on the page.

Yes. It's quite good when someone is proved wrong if they've commented in a petty way.

I wonder if in real life there are this many people who go round correcting other adults and telling them off. I know one or two myself who'd contact the school to inform them there was a typo in the newsletter.

I hate the swearing ones. Where someone puts "I was peed off" and someone will say - "you can say pissed you know". I'm sure the poster is aware of that, they've chosen not to. And why the hell does it matter?

Without exception, posters who pick apart someone's spelling, grammar, line spacing etc. on an unrelated thread are insufferable and pointless. Why they are so arrogant as to suppose that a poster needs or wants to be corrected is beyond me but there are quite a few that do this. If you pull them up on it then another poster comes along with 'Yes, but...'.

I'm all for debating points but that kind of thing is just so snide and unnecessary and I wish MNHQ would just ban them outright as they have the potential to cause as much personal upset as any troll.

I think the worst ones are when the OP has done something slightly wrong but what's been done to them is the actual issue and all posters go on about is the slightly wrong thing and just ignores the whole post issue!

I totally agree with you OP. Totally.

The kind of competitive "correctness" on MN is staggering. Only this morning I've witnessed I'm greener, I eat less and I feed my kids better smug one-upmanship on MN. It is grating to say the least

So the pedants are idiotic? What would you call someone who starts an entire thread to express this view?
I can't tell if you're taking the piss or if you're one of the subjects of the thread

Vulvapolice pp! - you say vulva - I say vagina and so do my dds incidentally - vagina is now generally accepted as the word to describe the whole female genitalia....

iklboo

I'm a grammar, spelling & punctuation demon - it's part of my job. But I wouldn't post comments on threads correcting people.

Unless they're being a bullying goady arsehole with grammar & spelling errors. Then they're fair game grin

Are you an important sub editor?

wasonthelist

So the pedants are idiotic? What would you call someone who starts an entire thread to express this view?

Erm...how long have you got?!

I think the fact that people DO start threads on this subject and the responses show how fed up posters are getting of the same pedantic, attention-seeking twaddle.

If you can't read a post, for whatever reason, then move on. Nobody cares and your contribution or lack thereof won't be noticed. It's just arrogance to assume that the board will grind to a halt without your pompous pointing out of SPAG or whatever issues.