Poll: Do you correct innocent / obvious mistakes ?

[z0nbie]

You know when you're talking to someone and they make a mistake about whatever subject they're talking about and you know you can correct them ... do you ?
I had a friend of mine who was shopping around for some Christmas stuff for our friends and she bought what she said was a "marvel "Flash"" hoodie. I fought to correct her that the Flash was a DC character not a Marvel character since this information wouldn't mean anything to her. But there would be friends of mine who would have sadly of ripped her apart.
Now my fellow escapists, are you one to constantly correct, do you just hold it inside when someone makes a mistake that for all intents and purposes doesn't need correcting ... or are you even reading this far ? (examples are welcome...as they will most likely be of nerd/geek nature... and we can all get a laugh out of some peoples lack of knowledge of our "world" !)

 

[Trivun]

I do, and my mom gets pretty annoyed at me for it. I guess I should probably not do it, but then again, nobody apart from my mom really seems to get annoyed when I do it...

 

[LockeDown]

If you don't correct them, then they go on believing that they are correct. It's best to nip ignorance, even the innocent variety, in the bud.

 

[Lord_Duke]

When someone does it on a constant basis like saying your when they mean you're, I tend to correct them, They get pissed at me mostly but in fact im helping them (And it just annoys me)

 

[El Poncho]

I do correct them but once they have finished speaking then I go on and talk about what they were talking about.

 

[Geekmaster K]

I usually don't mention it unless I really care about the mistake they made. If it has something to do with nerd culture, I usually don't bring it up unless that person IS a nerd. I once heard a gamer friend of mine saying that BioWare made Fallout 3 and BioShock. Not only did BioWare make NEITHER of these games, but they were made by two different companies. I HAD to correct this, so I kindly told him that Bethesda made Fallout 3 and 2k made BioShock. He was embarrassed that he made the mistake after that, but didn't hold it against me. I do this to nerd friends all the time, and they don't complain about it.

 

[z0nbie]

I usually don't mention it unless I really care about the mistake they made. If it has something to do with nerd culture, I usually don't bring it up unless that person IS a nerd. I once heard a gamer friend of mine saying that BioWare made Fallout 3 and BioShock. Not only did BioWare make NEITHER of these games, but they were made by two different companies. I HAD to correct this, so I kindly told him that Bethesda made Fallout 3 and 2k made BioShock. He was embarrassed that he made the mistake after that, but didn't hold it against me. I do this to nerd friends all the time, and they don't complain about it.

I'm pretty much the same way... if it's a nerd friend of mine who would retain the information and would basically tear me apart for making the same mistake, I'll correct them... if it's my mom or someone that will have no idea what the difference between their mistake and my correction is , I'll just say "cool" and let it go when they're done talking

 

[Pimppeter2]

Depends on the person. I would mock them if they were my friend, but I wouldn't say anything if it was someone else

 

[War Penguin]

No. I feel like an ass if I do.

 

[Vimbert]

I do whenever possible. I get a nearly obsessive-compulsive urge to do so every time I know a mistake is made.

 

[rokkolpo]

i used to do it all the time.

not so much now.

 

[Mookie_Magnus]

Yes, but usually not in a mean fashion. If they make a mistake, I usually ask a question about it, rather than outright telling them. That way, they'll look it up and learn it themselves.

 

[Kiefer13]

If you don't correct them, then they go on believing that they are correct. It's best to nip ignorance, even the innocent variety, in the bud.

Pretty much this. Some people may find it annoying to be corrected on what they feel are trivial matters, but ignorance irritates me and I'll do my best to remove it. I'll be polite about it though. Similarily, I never get annoyed at people correcting mistakes I make assuming they aren't rude about it.

 

[Vet2501]

Yes, I do. Ignorance, even innocent ignorance, should be corrected (or else it spreads like a disease).

 

[Monkfish Acc.]

Option number three. Only if they make the same mistake several times.
And even then, I tend to do it gingerly.
Working your way up to it politely is likely to be more well recieved than blurting out that they are wrong.

 

[historybuff]

Not if it doesn't really make a difference. I don't care enough to correct everything.

 

[reg42]

only when I'm feeling particually pretentious

 

[imp_spittle]

There's a right way to do everything, including correctly people. I aim for politeness, focusing on the factual, and avoid a sort of dickish elitism. But then there are the people that, even after being corrected a million times over, still make the same errors. I have given up on them; no sense wasting my breath when they have already displayed a tendency to not listen to me.

If I'm wrong, I'd rather someone correct me. As long as they maintain civility, I have no problem.

 

[Distorted Stu]

I done this yesterday in the pub when my mate kept saying that Happy Hardcore was a band/group. Its a damn genre. He told me he thought it was because of the download titles that he gets. Silly boy.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

I nail people when they use THIS or THAT to start a sentence then don't have a word that it describes when they are writing an english paper.