Poll: Does bad spelling on the internet bother you?

[ACman]

So, there you go. This poll was brought forwards out of a discussion I was having a while back on a poll about pronounciation and since poor spelling online is often a hot topic in the literary world, I was wondering what the Escapist community's thoughts were on the subject. Personally, although I feel good spelling makes your post look more proffesional, I like the way that chat shorthand has developed in way that shows the dynamic nature of language in order to make it more efficient and thereby shaping it into new forms (i.e. lol, sup, irl).

I find it quite hilarious that you start off this poll with 2 misspellings.

You mean:

I find it quite hilarious that you'd begin this poll with 2 misspellings.

Just thought I'd correct that for you.

 

[ACman]

No it doesn't bother me, I quite like seeing other people spell words incorrectly because I then know that my spelling is superior.

Twat senses tingling.

Does that mean your vagina is itching?

 

[Belbe]

I'll admit, it bothers me. I can't take them seriously unless it's clear it's Engrish from a non-native speaker or a young kid. Because when you see adults do it, it makes them sound like they're an idiot. Either way, really bad grammar/spelling just hurts my eyes.

 

[Owlly]

it bothers me a little in that i don't really like to see a persons chosen language lazily thrown across a page, it shows that they haven't considered what they are about to say and just felt like they wanted to just type, and in this way it bothers me, as you should really be using correct spelling if its your first and only language (which is the case for many people). In other cases though its not such a big issue, like a small typo here or there - fine, or if its not your native language, no big deal, but if you can't make the effort to word your statements correctly, why should people care in the first place?

 

[i7omahawki]

I wouldn't say it bothers me, it's just that if I'm reading someone's post and it has consistently bad spelling I will usually skip it rather than read it through. That said, if what they're saying is interesting enough I will probably still venture through the horrible mistakes, though fortunately that occurrence is rare.

 

[kinapuffar]

Yes.
Bad spelling means you're stupid. I don't find any benefit in talking to idiots, so I want the people who occupy the same little corner of the internet as myself, to be proficient in expressing themselves effeciently and correctly.

It's not life or death. But I expect correct use of they're/their, its/it's, and a complete lack of 1337-5p33k or shorthand unless used ironically.

 

[Robert Ewing]

I try to use good spelling and punctuation, but typos are inevitable. And for people whom English is their second language, I understand if they don't spell words correctly or use punctuation in the right way. At least they've tried.

However I do hate people that misspell words on purpose with a completely straight face. Let me give you a perfect example from one of my facebook 'friends'

"weekend is gowna be so amazing buzzin aready fur it yassss Love danny boy ♥ ♥"

"‎2 weeks since me and daniel gemmell has been gown out fur canny believe its 2 weeks already one thing tht matters tht i love him wai all my heart and i hope i neva lose him♥"

"my poor wee conore ma wee bro is not getten any betta a tall man the poor wee soil i hope he gets betta soon love u conor xoxoxox♥"

THAT PISSES ME OFF!

 

[newdarkcloud]

The odd typo or two doesn't bother me won bit.

It's wen u txt like tis tat we hav a problem.

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

It kind of bothers me since most browsers have spell-check right? I mean, Chrome and Firefox do...

and Safari, too.

Bad grammar isn't much of a problem for me but bad spelling really does annoy me a lot. I mean basic words that people should have learnt in grade 2...

Nonetheless, I chose the first option. Because we all know everything sounds better in the Queen's English.

Oh god. That's brilliant. Do you know if they've done other Meet the Team videos in the Queen's English?

 

[nuba km]

I am dyslexic so I am bias on this topic, but I want to mention something related to this topic that drives me nuts. When I tell people that I am dyslexic and they say 'well you just have to try', and my reaction to this is normally 'don't you think that I do'. I look over my post and try and get rid of all the red squiggly lines but because of my dyslexia I don't really notice that some of the bigger words that I use are misspelled and are actually a different word entirely. On another side note I have a grammar nazi friend who also goes on this sight.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I double check my own from time to time, but it doesn't bother me as long as I can still read their comment.

Also, I'll just leave this here:

 

[Dr_Horrible]

mixing up there and they're is just plain stupid, but accidentaly misspelling onomatopoeia isn't.

It's funny, in this context you present "onomatopoeia" as your example of a word that is fine to misspell, yet this particular word is like "Aluminum" a bastardized American degeneration of the original word, (Aluminium/ Onomatopoetica) created by a large population basically "giving up" trying to teach it's original spelling and instead just rewriting the language.

This kind of laziness is much to prevalent in America.

I guess my point is, don't throw rocks in glass houses.

I wouldn't call it a degeneration, and more of an evolution. The Queen's English and American English are, to me, two distinct languages and while neither is better than the other they have been allowed to change and grow separately. So while the Queen's English still uses Onomatopoetica, I see onomatopoeia a equally valid, due to there being two languages.

Anyway, as for rocks and houses, there is a huge difference between a word that has been officially changed in our dictionaries and simply misspelling and using poor grammar.

 

[schiz0phren1c]

I'm a total spelling Nazi,
I can't help it,grammar doesn't bother me so much but misspelling makes me cringe,
its becoming so common nowadays that I'm starting to feel like the grumpy guy's from the Muppet Show,
seeing a shitload of spelling error's in a newspaper or news website is appalling to me,
one or two mistakes in a personal post is fine,but anyone who writes for a living should know better,
and the whole "YOUR" being used for "YOU'RE" thing REALLY bugs me.

 

[HaMSt3rBoT]

It does irk me to no end but I keep in mind that everyone with access to the internet and sites I frequent aren't fluent in English, or AT ALL, for that matter, so the literary skills of people on the internet isn't THAT much of an issue to me. Unless it's a person CONSTANTLY talking in of those "Awh, kawaii, u so desu, do u lke 2 b frenz?" sms or lolcat languages (whichever suits it best), when they most certainly do possess the brain functions to comprehend decently written English. I like it when such writing is used patronizingly or when people troll, for the lulz, but that's just about the limit.
This GrammarNazi status is a personal pet peeve I've developed as I've become more and more obsessed with the language.

But what REALLY ticks me off is when people/gangstas/Capies (come over to my home country, South-Africa, you'll know immediately what I mean!) have every capability needed to enunciate and converse in fluent and intelligible English or Afrikaans, yet they slaughter their linguistic prowess with these subculture-created dialects, for status points with the other intellectual black holes they accompany, which has almost brought me to the point of homicidal rage! (not really, though. I live with one such a sibling, so I have weathered my conditioning towards it, but it really is frustrating to hear.)

Tho I doo plai along 4 t3h lulz wif teh lulcat landvich!!1!, when I REALLY don't want to be taken seriously.

 

[inFAMOUSCowZ]

I don't really care if you have bad grammar or not. Partly because I'm terrible at grammar, so it just wouldn't be right for me to judge.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

Typos here or there are fine, but someone who makes tons of errors about things that should be fairly common starts to irritate me.

 

[brinvixen]

I'm not so big on grammar, mainly because I can't tell "good grammar" from "bad grammar". Plus, I routinely ignore my green lines in Microsoft Word because hell, if I like this sentence, then I like this damn sentence!

But the red lines? Bad spelling? They drive me bananas. I don't even text in text talk. The most I will do is "lol" or maybe other shortenings of that type. But that's mainly because those types of shorthand have become damn near close to being their own actual words. They have their own meaning, and when I type them, it's universally understood by readers. If I write something completely off base (as seen by the many examples already presented in this thread) how is anyone supposed to know what I'm saying?

Also, misuse of words is misleading. Saying "they're" when you meant to say "their" is disorienting. Saying "waste" when you meant to say "waist" is disgusting. Take the time out to create the best message possible. That way when you do make a mistake, people won't harp on you for it. But just being indifferent and typing whatever makes you look foolish.

 

[TimeLord]

Yes because plug-ins for Firefox and Google Chrome itself tell you when you spell something wrong. So unless you are using a browser that doesn't have a spell checker then there should be no excuse.

 

[Dyme]

I wish people on the internet would actually care about English. If I misspell a word, I want to know it, to correct myself and improve.

 

[magnuslion]

It only bothers me when someone is trying to sound smart and prove a point. Ridiculous amounts of spelling and grammar issues in that scenario puts my hate-o-meter way up.