Isn't about time MNHQ started deleting posts that attack people's spelling and grammar?

[cuntycowfacemonkey]

(In advance I will say any of my posts are likely to have spelling and grammar mistakes)

It's such a shitty thing to do and often it is directed at poster who then feel they have to explain themselves and disclose they have dyslexia. I don't understand why MN tolerate people with potential disabilities being mocked in this way?

Why can it not be regarded as a personal attack and such comments deleted. Very often the arses that post comments about another posters spelling bring nothing else to the thread and usually it derails the thread and the OP's original issue gets lost in the ensuing bunfight.

confused - cross posted, but if it bothers you so much, it's subjective and you're using the indicative.

Where someone is just posting everyday stuff I can understand someone correcting it.

Why though? What's to understand about it?

Do you really think the person doing the correcting is genuinely concerned because a stranger on the internet can't spell as well as they can?

Do you not cringe every time you read someone apologising or justifying themselves by saying, "Sorry I'm dyslexic", "Sorry English isn't my first language" "Sorry I didn't go to school much".

Because I really do cringe when I see people feeling the need to explain these things to a bunch of strangers, when all they want to do is chat about what's for dinner.

Not as much as I cringe for the self righteous sounding idiots, who take it upon themselves to run around the internet correcting people though...

I think anyone who lacks the good grace to resist this sort of thing, should log off and think about what's lacking in their life.

I'm laughing at the idea that we should be looking up the spelling of words before posting. That'll do wonders for a nice fluid discussion.

And MN is not a job application process. What's next - are we going to tell posters who have English as a second language to stay away till they're fluent?

I'm laughing at the idea that we should be looking up the spelling of words before posting. That'll do wonders for a nice fluid discussion.

Quite.

Dare I suggest that people are more likely to learn the proper spelling for words if they keep reading MN, and see how everyone else is spelling those words, than they are if they get clucked off in the direction of a dictionary every time they dare to join a conversation?

Some of my neighbours are having a long-running dispute, and one of them huffed about the other: "I'm not going to get told what's right by someone who doesn't even have a university education".

I was , you've lost my support right there. And I feel the same about the Correctors on here.

(Should add that I love reading dedicated Pedantry threads - nothing wrong with being a bit too fond of spelling and grammar, I am myself - but that's a voluntary activity and posters there are basically asking to get corrected.)

It bugs me too Confused

I mean to the point where I'm sometimes literally gnawing at my fist

But this is a chat forum. People should be allowed to come and chat and not have to worry about being made to feel stupid, because other people don't have the manners to ignore their spelling and grammar issues.

For all the people who say they would prefer to be picked up on their spelling and grammar, there will be plenty who certainly wouldn't.

And it's those people who are made to feel MN is not for them because they don't fit in somehow.

I don't think that's true, confused.

Every time I get into a thread like this, I get loads of PMs from people saying they felt really upset and hounded, and didn't dare to speak up. And every time there's a thread like this, it runs and runs, and there are people who regularly post saying why it worries and upsets them.

I am sure some people are good at cheerfully ignoring being corrected, or just take corrections on board without it bothering them, but I think they're actually in a minority, because good SPAG are so habitually used as indicators of other, not necessarily related things (good education, good literacy, lack of laziness, etc.).

I can really live with someone pointing out my mistakes - I'm sure I make many because I type in a hurry, don't proofread my posts, and above all don't consult the dictionary every time I post.

But you know, I am university educated, am in a job where I write reports all day, have written books. I can afford to take a knock (though I'd still think you were a twat if you did it). I'd still know that I am articulate and competent, because I get lots of other feedback and evidence to show that is so.

What about people who have low confidence about their literacy or language skills? Who didn't do well at school? Who speak English as a second language? Whose parents always told them they were thick? Who have generally low self-esteem? Who find online conversations easier than RL conversations? Have the Correctors even thought about what it would be like to be in their shoes, and get slapped down every time they try to contribute? Or do they think, in the manner of an 18th missionary among the feckless poor, that they just have to told What Is Right?

But I don't think they do worry, not the majority of them.

I think it completely goes over their heads.

Well they're all individual people but even if it's true and the majority of people don't worry, that still leaves a minority who may be too embarrassed to come here and post.

That's not right considering this is a chat forum, designed to help parents.

Well said Devora

confused - but that's a false dichotomy. Most people do know that their SPAG is poor, when it is. I know mine's faulty. And all that people telling me about it does, is to make me feel insecure and stupid and lazy. It's really unpleasant.

I don't deny that there may be a few (very few) people who go through life 'blissfully unaware', but I don't think it is common.

Do you really want to know? Because I can help you with syntax/punctuation/tense if you are genuinely asking?

And yes, well said, devora.

But wouldn't you rather know if you repeatedly used the wrong spelling/grammar, instead of being blissfully unaware?

Yes I would but what has that got to do with it?

This isn't about me or about you preferring to know.

It's about people who don't want to be picked up on their spelling and grammar when chatting on an internet forum.

There may be many reasons (as stated above by PPs), why they don't want or need that while trying to have a simple chat.

Oh and if you think it's calmed down, try starting a thread saying "I could of cried when someone told me I need to loose weight"

Go on I dare you

Or do they think, in the manner of an 18th missionary among the feckless poor, that they just have to told What Is Right?

This may be one of my all time favorite sentences ever on MN.

I barely notice dodgy spelling or grammar although I'll seek clarification if there's a bit I can't understand and it's important. Most of the time it's not necessary because the person is typing as they speak - as I do myself - so you can hear their 'voice' behind the words. I try to listen to that voice and that person.

But, confused, when you say he 'still' asks, doesn't that indicate that there is much more going on than could be solved by ad hoc corrections?

If he keeps asking, it would seem to me it's something he struggles with persistently. It's not that you could say 'oh, it's this one' and he'll never make the mistake again.

18th missionary among the feckless poor

Ho, yes.

My DH is another really bad speller who had a successful career as an executive. I am pretty sure that he has undiagnosed dyslexia, though much milder than our son's. He once famously sent an email to his team inviting them and their spouses to our house for a "stake dinner."