RE: What would you do if you got warned for this? – This is what I’d do; blog about it

This is in response to this topic, in particular this part or rather the quoted PM. It’s not normal for me to comment on issues that are somewhat external to IF, at least not in this way, however I am feeling particularly malicious today so I shall rant in favour of the little person for a change.

WARNING: THIS BLOG CONTAINS PROFANITY

If cursing offends you or your miniscule mind, please bog off. As explained in my Disclaimer I try not to swear but it happens. And if I’m ranting, you can bet it’s not always pretty. So, don’t click the “More” link and read on only to then complain that “omg u totallee cussed”. I don’t have time for tools.

You can read the topic for all the details but it all boils down to someone being warned because spelling errors. Now it has to be said this Draconian approach to running boards is nothing new, in fact I’ve seen a fair few topics on IF relating to how certain boards enforce measures to “prevent the complete destruction of the English language and conserve legible, grammatically correct and proper writing.” Quote taken from an old doc I have of an RP I used to frequent but it’s an ethos shared by most of these forums. I always find these especially ironic for several reasons:

What’s the difference bewteen British and American spelling? ‘None’, they cry.

The only thing worse than this stupid ass rule is the idea of enforcing a particular spelling format – that of either British or American English. That RP I mentioned was, rather strangely, ran by a Russian but her co-admin was American and hey presto, suddenly we’re all colorizing and refering to individuals as y’all! What the fuck is with that by the way? Someone once mentioned to me that Texans – I think it was Texans – say “all y’all” as the plural and “y’all” as the singular. WHY? Has nobody cottoned onto the fact that it’s a contraction of “you all.”? The very use of “all” is an automatic implication of plural usage. Now I’m full aware that “y’all” is a perfectly acceptable use as a singular noun but I’ll be dead and buried before Webster’s Appendices of Utter Shite is recognised as a proper dictionary. Anyway, my point? Some of these forums actually force people to type in a particular variant of English. Y’know what, you Draconians can do us all a favour and make it REAL English, dipshits.

Dyslexia is just an excuse!

I’ve heard people saying this before but I witnessed it not long ago and by Christ if I hadn’t been post disabled thanks to my “aspirations to political terrorism” – since when do forums engage in politics? – I’d have pointed out the complete stupidity of such a claim. Now having ran forums for some time I’m more than aware of people excusing certain things because of problems or afflictions. I mean, we had some pissy little kid at IFS who blames his actions, such as his constant annoyance, rule breaking and general idiociy, on his autism. That sort of thing annoys me because if misused at the wrong time it can make others look bad; Christ almighty have the balls to accept responsibility for your sheer lack of brain cells, don’t blame it on some sort of medical condition. Prick. Anyway, I can see the point in suspecting it’s a lame excuse if someone is blaming their use of leet speak on dyslexia (I’ve yet to meet a true dyslexic who has to resort to that; most can manage just fine attempting to type normally) but when someone mispells a lot you can safely bet it’s not solely down to apathy. Sheesh, look at our Aaron, his spelling can be atrocious but you don’t see us correcting him.
NOT EVERYONE’S AN IGNORANT DONUT LIKE YOU! Some people actually do have issues with spelling, whether’s it down to bad education, medical conditions or simply that their brain is a slow at these matters is entirely irrelevant and none of your business.

I kan’t always speel rite but it’s phine!

Oh yeah, double standards – that infamous virus that afflicts staff. Thanks to the ignorance of these narrow minded cowfluff, they seem to think that the idea of staff having special privilages (perfectly normal) extends to breaking critical rules. Now we at IFS get certain privilages, as do staff on most forums, but I don’t see anything permitting our Support peeps to go “I don’t know” in half the bloody topics. Or for us Commies to start tearing into people for no apparent reason. If spelling is such a big issue at your forum, get some credibility and hire staff who CAN SPELL PROPERLY. And why are the staff usually the worst spellers? Because inflating your ego AND retaining credibility just isn’t possible; you’re either an egotistical prat or a smart cookie, you sure as hell can’t be both.

And now to the quote at hand, didn’t expect my rant to last this long. Anyway, I digress. This is the response a member of the staff gave to the user who was warned after they enquired about it.

Your reply is alot better grammically. Not perfect, but we don’t want perfection, we want readability. By merging almost every sentence, your post was quite had to read. You had what should have been 4 or maybe even 5 sentences as one. Going on and on like that results in a lose of purpose and direction, forcing the reader to reread large sums of the post. Therefore I gave you a engish abuse warning. Sure it’s strick, but if you came to this forum a month or two ago a majority of posts you would have been unable to read. We are trying to dig ourselves out of a grave, and it’s not easy. I hope you understand. If you wish to discuss this further, forward this message to Quickman. Feel free to go over my head.

Now where to begin? The start seems like an apt place.

Your reply is alot better grammically.

Uh, “grammically”? First off, “grammic-” doesn’t even relate to grammar – if “ically” is to be added, it’s “grammatically” not “grammically”, which sounds like a varient of gram – the unit of measurement. Secondly, unless you lack some major cognitive functions the fact that grammar becomes grammatic (and thus grammatical) is rather obvious, no? This reminds of Jonathon Watson in Only An Excuse and his speech on “grammaramarising.” ^_^

Not perfect, but we don’t want perfection, we want readability.

Readability? It’s a real word, granted, but it sounds far from proper in a sentence. Give me legibility anyday. I wouldn’t want my publisher saying my book lacked “readability”, unless my target audience ranged from toddlers to pre-teens.

Going on and on like that results in a lose of purpose and direction…

Woo, dipshit alert. When a sentence lacks structure and punctuation it doesn’t lose its purpose, it loses rhythm. Big difference. It’s like someone saying an overuse of short sentences results in you going blind; it doesn’t, it’s called Stocatto and it makes reading difficult. Neither affect the purpose of the sentence, they affect the direction and the status quo of the overall paragraph.

Therefore I gave you a engish abuse warning.

“Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeereeeeeeeeeeee’s Wally?” By now I’m wondering how such a horrific speller, and grammatical failure, can refer to anything as English abuse – even if they did manage to pull their finger out and spell it right.

Sure it’s strick, but if you came to this forum a month or two ago a majority of posts you would have been unable to read. We are trying to dig ourselves out of a grave, and it’s not easy. I hope you understand.

I’m not surprised it’s not easy when you have people on the team who can’t spell the simplest words, like strickt.

This may seem harsh, unnecessary, maybe even cruel but what do I care? I’m bored, in the mood to rant and some Grmm0r Nazi bastard got the brunt of it. So, you shameless hussies of the spelling world, come forth and prove yourselves to be the cowardly nitpicks that you are and face me, because here you can’t hide behind your little warn panel.

And I’m spent.