Animation Source Forums

If there is a topic like this forgive me, I must have missed it, but I honestly think this is becoming more of an issue lately. I've seen it done time and time again. But how hard is it to use proper grammar and spelling? Not just on the shoutboxes, but wherever on the site you go to. I'm going to try to be a little organized here so I'll just start with various excuses I've heard made:

Nobody does it anymore: If you look around you'll see several people who do not post things like "R u ther?" or "dis is gud, grat job." If you were on a phone with a crappy keyboard texting someone, fine do as you wish. But you're on here with a full keyboard and full capabilities to type correctly. Go read roleplays by people like Windancer or Black Rose or Moki Hunter and I'm sure many others who use good grammar. You sure as heck don't see them posting like that do you? And those are people who roleplay, I don't even have to mention people who write articles or reviews or go in the shoutbox.


I'm too lazy: Are you serious? Really now? I will not call any names, but I've had a member use this excuse on me recently and I could only shake my head. Too lazy to take what's probably a few seconds or even less to type one more key? Or hit the backspace button when you hit the wrong one? That's just sad. Imagine if steet was "too lazy" (not about the innerworkings of the site here XD) in his grammar when he was typing articles or constructing the site. Imagine Blato source, spirti source, borhter brear source. NO ONE in their right mind would visit a site like that.

It's the 21st century, people shorten stuff all the time: To quote my buddy Skul on this Truer words were never spoken. This kind of goes back to the first excuse in similarity but I'm going to say this: When you type like that, it looks really bad. You could be the most sophisticated person on the site, with a degree from Harvard, but when you type like this "how r u doing" versus "How are you doing?" Which looks better? Now, I wish not to give away my age here, but I am significantly younger than a lot of the members on this site, and you don't see me talking the way some adults and teenagers do. In fact, people think I'm much older than I am because of the way I type. Not to blow my own horn but I think I have decent reputation in that at least. Would you write a college paper like that? Heavens no, the teacher would take one look at it and give you a big fat "F" (which you would deserve obviously).

I'm just a bad speller: Now for this I can invoke the "21st century" clause. I don't know how many browsers have a built in spell/grammar check on them. But if you can't use those, there's always the dictionary : P All I have to say for that one.

It's too hard to break that habit: Maybe, but it's not that hard if you take your time. When I first came on here, I did not know how to type, one bit. My replies were slow, I was a noob. But one thing I do remember was that I tried my hardest to use proper grammar and spelling and avoid text speak. I taught myself how to type by coming on here so often. All you members who still use grammar, thank you. You instilled in me a good habit, before the rest of the juvenile world got to me. I got into the habit of typing correctly, and I have to force myself now to use text speak. So no, replies in the shoutbox tend to have 30 seconds to a minute in between replies, so that's plenty of time for you to edit the post so that it looks nice. And don't you dare do something like that in a forum, you have all the time you need to correct things here.





Now I want to move on to a more positive approach on why you should use good grammar and spelling, etc.

It just looks better: I've already said a lot on this so there's not much more I can say. But it's still a lot more pleasing to the eyes of not just me, but many other members who I'm sure would agree on this.

People will respect you more: I've looked at many different people who go on the shoutboxes, and the patterns I noticed is that members who type in text speak tend to be a lot more immature then members who don't. Not always the case, but I've seen it enough to notice it. If you want people to form a good first image of you, type correctly please. You would know that we encourage that just from reading the rules (another thing people seem to forget).

People will understand you: You may not think much of this but I really want to point this out. There are people who come on here very often who don't speak English as their first language. Now they have an excuse here so I'm not in anyway calling them out, I hope they would be nice in the same way if I went on the French side. They may be semi-fluent, they may still be learning since it's one of the harder languages to perfect (only from what I hear, I would love to learn French, but I digress). When you type badly, it makes things VERY hard for them to understand it. Another thing though, I have a friend who frequents the French side and English is not her first language, she "speaks" better English then some of the natural English speaking people on here. Now that IS sad (not that I'm saying she shouldn't, I mean she's awesome, but come on guys really?).

Well that's it for what I believe is my first and rather lengthy rant, I think most of us have the same views on this, and I think it's something that needs to be stopped or at the very least cracked down on. Most people continue to ignore suggestions and such on this; either that or get away with it completely. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

THIS!

I'm not picking out names, and I think all of us have been guilty of this at some point or another...but yes, it's becoming more of a problem on the site. It's annoying, it's sometimes downright disrespectful, and it makes people who are really good people seem like idiots. (yes, that's my quote in there, I gave AFD permission to include it.)

It's not something that I'm really angry about, but it is annoying. I'd like to see at least a LITTLE effort when people write their sentences here. Even using the backspace bar would be nice.

Dudette, you are amazing for posting this!
I completely agree with this, 100%

If there is one thing I hate is failure for someone to use grammar properly...There is no excuse for that, as you said, browsers now have spell check to fix your mistakes, and if you're too lazy to right click, then why are you on a computer?

I have a solution, let's make a keyboard that has both capital and lowercase letters on it? No need to use the shift key ever again!

By the way, the new way to spell "don't know" is dono xD Sorry, just had to, I saw someone spell it this way.

I also completely agree with this.
Though, I have issues with chat speak in any form. I sometimes refuse to return text messages from my parents or friends unless they at least try to spell everything out. The whole idea of chat speak gets on my nerves. ^-^;

Back on topic. Another point you could make is for fan fiction authors. I don't read fan fiction on Animation Source, but if the writers here want people to think their stories are any good, they need to use proper grammar and spelling around the site as well as in their fan fiction. If I read a fan fiction, sometimes it only takes one error (depending on what the error is) to make me stop reading and find something else. If I know anything about the author beforehand and they use chat speak everywhere, then I won't even bother with their stories.

If there is a way to get around it, rest assured, they will find it. Even if such a thing were to exist. lol It's all about defying the "conventions of society and authority". And laziness too.




Personally I also am annoyed by this stuff, as it is really a no-brainer. And for native English speakers to use such horrid grammar and spelling, especially in these times (not only with the available spell checker, as mentioned earlier, but the level of English grammar and spelling most native English-speaking members of this site would have had by the time they have BECOME members), is absurd. There is no excuse. None. Ever.

And it makes things all that much more difficult for non-native English speakers to understand them.


I know JUST whom you are referring to. ROFL And that person's usual follow up is a defense of his alleged offline capabilities in English grammar, spelling and prose. So, routinely, when he is challenged on his atrocious grammar and spelling here, he usually throws out a retort of the following nature (I corrected what would usually be the horrendous and almost illegible wording): "hey -- I can write very well. I just come here to relax. And besides, no one cares when its online. That's the way it is now. I just finished a twelve-page paper on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire and my professor loved it. Here, I'll PM you a copy. Go ahead and read it."

A COLLEGE STUDENT (which this person is) never, ever, EVER has an excuse that can be taken as legitimate. NEVER. But then, according to him, NONE of the current youthful generation (and I am speaking generally in a...ooooh, say 13-23 age range) think that good spelling and grammar are important when communicating online. NONE. And that it's come to a point where it doesn't matter anyway. Seems his view is flawed...based upon what I'm reading here (and seeing in the shoutboxes).




Now there WAS a British girl in the BS shoutbox last night who was also using SMS/text/chat speak, with the lack of punctuation and capitalization of proper names and pronouns, and poor spelling and some poor grammar. However, this situation was a bit different in my interpretation. She tried to be nice throughout the whole thing (from the point where I had come into the conversation at least), and showed no hostility or whining. She did claim that she would try harder, and that it was just what she was used to doing. But I couldn't find it in myself to be blunt with her about it. Others were. VERY blunt, in fact. One or two were outright rude. Now, I KNOW this bad English usage is infuriating. It is to me too. You have no idea. But I think people need to take things on a case-by-case basis. This was not some lazy college student with a chip on his shoulder and a "I don't give a flying...about what you people think" attitude. This was a younger girl (probably a preteen I'm supposing) who could've been cut a little more slack than what almost everyone else showed her last night.

(That being said, if she were rude or melodramatic about it, and started bawwwing and whining about how no one likes her and how she should just end her life and all that nonsense, I would have been just as relentless as the rest were. Because very few things bother me more than that whining, bawwing, attention-seeking garbage).

Oh man, same here. I always try to use this when I write a story. I've read stories like that and they are just atrocious! Rest assured I left rather lengthy, but polite reviews detailing everything they should fix. They may not like it, but it's the truth and I was in no way mean or flaming them.



Exactly as I said. Not only is there no excuse, it's VERY inconsiderate and selfish of people.




Completely agree here. I tried to tell said person some of the same things I did here but there was no arguing with ignorance. It's pretty sad. I told him I didn't want to see his paper, I wanted to see an effort on here to talk like a normal person, not a five year old with a keyboard. It's as I said earlier, I'm more likely to believe that a 9 year old who typed 2-3 good sentences, all properly punctuated and whatnot; was far older and more mature than a 21 year old who typed a full paragraph with every other word misspelled and no punctuation. That's seriously the way it works with me.






I try to have patience with people like that, really I do. The last straw really only came when the "I'm just lazy" excuse was made to me. I understand that the children will probably act like this, so I try to be friendly and help them around the site if they need it. And maybe it will rub off on them.

I think it happens to be a big first impression issue here. People probably saw how the person typed, assumed she was immature, and jumped on her case (now I do believe that both parties had fault in the issue, one kept relentlessly attacking while the other one tried to defend herself and attacked back). It got quite nasty and I thought the mods probably should have intervened sooner than they did. I call no names. But mods hear me out, you CANNOT treat every member like they've been here for that long and know better (some of them should I admit, but as Jersey said, it's a case by case). Kids form a lot of bad habits these days, with all the technology and garbage to fill their heads at such a young age. The worst thing you could do is insult a party like this, it doesn't help them, it probably just makes them more hostile. An informative pm I think would be best in this issue, tactful and kind, but straight to the point about what needs to be changed. Everyone was a noob once okay? We may all have been on a different level of "noob" but there still was that point on here.

It's mostly the people who have the means to type correctly, yet refuse to do so, who I'm calling out over here. If you've been here for long enough, then by now you shouldn't be excusing yourself either.

It would almost be worth the lulziness of it to see how he'd react if he knew this topic existed. lol

But after all, we don't want this locked now do we? And that is really the crux of the problem with topics like these, isn't it? The people whom we are talking about, and who NEED to be addressed on these issues, are the same kinds of people who never READ these topics, much less take heed of the same frustration and response of other members when they do the stupid (yes, STUPID...I flatly refuse to dance on broken glass about this) stuff they do. And if such topics are ever brought to their attention, then it's gangbusters...and locked (and possibly censored and edited) topics...and warnings for those who shouldn't have gotten them in the first place simply because they spoke up about something that is bothering us ALL (or very nearly all of us).

That is too true. But there would be no need for topics like this if people just had a little consideration and common sense. And the fact that they choose to continually ignore good advice (you and many others including myself have told people to use good grammar at one point yes?) is what makes it so infuriating. Aside from that, I really don't think the mods would edit something like this very much when they KNOW what I'm saying is actually true and useful. If they do then fine, I would then expect them to at least try to do something about it. By the way, your avatar perfectly describes the mood I am in about this

That depends. Not only upon which particular moderator, but just how pointed these topics get. The closer they are to identifying the person being discussed (or people), the more likely the topic will be censored, edited, possibly locked, and possibly all the participants being given a warning on their files without being TOLD they have a warning (so many warnings, as you know, equals a ban. I still think it may be three).

Though, admittedly, it used to happen a lot more than now. But that bunch is largely gone (and just as well, thank you very much).


Thanks! ROFL I owe it all to Mighty, and my own ability to come up with some good classic Looney Tunes material to fit the situation.

True enough, but know that I am not specifically trying to target any member used as an example. It really isn't my fault they chose to fit the equation so well XD. I'm just trying to encourage people to make a better effort.

I realize that. And I am with you on that. Entirely. It was just convenient and rather amusing that he happened to fit the profile at the moment...because he is one of the worst offenders. And, being a college student who prides himself on his writing and language skills, one of those with the least excuse to do so. In fact, as I said, he has none.

But we've beaten that particular horsey to death, so...

THIS! ^
Yes. Just yes.
Couldn't have said it better.

i agree i think ppl shud used well gd grammer coz they was–

Okay, I give up. It pains me to write like that.

I concur with what virtually everyone else has said. I remember when I initially joined the site, my grammar was horrific. I've face-palmed many times in the past few months, especially when reading what I've written in the past. Nowadays, I think it is incredibly important to have at least decent grammar.

And about that College kid...

Then again, I was called a "grammar nazi" again recently, by a couple of regular attendees of the Balto Source shoutbox, because I was correcting someone. "Grammar nazi"? Really? Really? Does anyone realize how offensive that is? Especially the latter half of that term?

I responded by calling them "grammar neanderthals". ROFL As far as I am concerned, if the shoe fits...