To think that correcting someone's spelling on a thread is just bloody rude!

[utterMadness]

And that it doesn't make you look big or clever, but like a smug pedantic twat.

Have just seen someone be pulled up on spelling on another thread who is dislexic.

People are unable to spell/write gramatically correct for various reasons.

Just because you can, doesn't make you better than them.

Because in my moral compass it isn't on to comment negatively upon someone's disability? I had thought that was the same for most people, sadly it seems I am mistaken

I am not sure what her point is scottishmummy - I think she is saying that poor spelling can compromise intelligibility, but since I can understand her deliberately poorly spelt post straight away it seems that her argument is dead in the water

Oh it's awful hmc. Thank you for your sympathy and blessing. I am touched that the minor contraction of my stomach causes you distress, especially in the light of the greater distress expressed on this thread by people such as Lonnie.

I didn't say it was OK to correct the spelling of someone who is dyslexic hmc - in fact I said the opposite. It is not in my moral compass to belittle someone with unsolicited corrections in attempt to educate them or merely humilate them either though. That's all.

Oh Jux, what a clever riposte

Don't want to cross swords with you TheFallen - I am just saying that imo, it is worse to pull up a dyslexic on spelling than it is to pull up someone else. But I agree with you that either way, it is rude

Actually TheFallen - scrub all that. I think I was being pedantic re challenging you on that. I did understand your sentiment and agree with it. Just got a bit of a 'campaigning' hat on atm and liable to go OTT!

I did sound a bit arsey there, sorry

I did find the "Don't people want to know how to spell properly?" comment just, well...

No. I find it highly unlikely that people want to have their work publicly corrected

And I spend a lot of time with a red, or rather pink, pen in my hand. Time and place...

You weren't arsey!

It kan mayk it a bit haad too reed if awl v spellllllllllllllling is up v spowt. righting is abowt communkneecaysion arfta awl. If wot uuuuv rittin dozunt mayk sens ore is tooo haard two reid peepoll wil just ignoor u.

It can make it a bit hard to read if all the spelling is up the spout. Writing is about communication after all. If what you've written doesn't make any sense or is too hard to read people will just ignore you.

There is a poster on another forum I post on who writes in one long paragraph with little punctuation and lots of text-speak. I just can't be arsed to spend 10 minutes deciphering it. I don't criticise bad spelling/writing but I often just skip those posts.

Oh, x-posts!

No, it was me. I know you are a woman on a mission. And that's no bad thing

But Tiggy - it took me 2 seconds to 'decode' what you had written ???

tiggy your purposefully misspelt post needs no deciphering it wasnt hard to understand

it did smack of trying too hard

i said the same thing earlier tiggy re: long paragraphs - v. hard to read.

Some people understood what I said, but I wanted to make sure everybody could understand, so I translated myself. (I think spelling the words phonetically made it easy to read).
Bad spelling, bad punctuation, bad grammar, overly long words and uncommon abbreviations all get in the way between the writer and the reader.

you tried to manufacture a made up example and failed.as we largely understood you.and as most posters have said in general spelling mistake doesnt detract from post content

what does grate is spelling zealots

But I'm sure it slowed you down a bit.

My spelling could be better. I use a free program with my Firefox browser that underlines spelling mistakes. Very handy.

Spelling zealots are terrible I agree. As long as you get your point across a few mistakes don't matter.

what slowed me down a bit?your faux bad spelling has no impact upon anyone else

This post is in danger of disappearing up its own thesaurus.
Look - error-spotting is fun, as is troll-tracking and flaming people whose opinions we think are rubbish. Happens on here all the time. This is not RL.
Is this fair to real trolls or people who expose their most vulnerable parts on a post for the first time then get shot down?
I would never 'correct' a post from someone who is obviously unable to spell or punctuate properly. In fact the vast majority of posts have typos or other errors.
Some posters are spiteful, bigotted and just asking for a metaphorical kick up the bum IMO.
Just look at the number of posts on this site. Far more than for some of those from people in real distress.
Trying to be the voice of reason here.

Pass the cocoa and stale buns

I think it's rude too, and irritating.

My posts are often full of typos, because I don't have time to sit there checking and if I'm not quite sure how to spell something, well, as long it's obvious what I meant, I don't think it really matters. This is Mumsnet, not an english exam or a job application.

It makes me laugh though when you see people on here criticising others' grammar and punctuation and then getting it wrong themselves- so tempting to point that out but I shall restrain myself.

If you don't correct people they may always be wrong, but if you do correct them you will always be wrong.

Error spotting is only fun if you are a tedious know-it-all with nothing of substance to contribute. Troll spotting isn't just not fun, it can be seriously anti-social on a forum like this.

Why is it that so many people who think "pedant" is a compliment flatter themselves that they have a wider vocabulary than other people? It reminds me of moany blokes who can't get women to go out with them but are absolute in their belief that they are nice guys.

Agree scottish about the self-correcting of minor errors. Really, you're going to spam a message board with content-free posts just so nobody thinks your mistake was a spelling mistake rather than a typo?

But apparently bad spelling is rude.

Nodded off there for a mo.

i was slowed down by Tiggy's post - but actually not by the phonetic spelling - it was the surplus of llllllllllll that got me! all i could see was the lllllllllll

Imo there is only one situation where it is acceptable to correct people's grammar/orthography on MN, and that is when posters come online to boast about their superior education or put other people down or moan about the decline in writing skills. Then it is an unalloyed pleasure. Otherwise, I just don't see the point. I need to be paid good money to do that sort of thing.