Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is a post that was posted on an entirely unrelated forum, however it explains the importance of proper grammar and spelling on public forums very well. This is not a post with intent to attack those who do not use proper grammar and spelling, but it is an explanation as to why it is wrong.

-post begins

(collin vicious wrote:
... but i c no reason 2 care bout spellin if u can understand it y spell it correctly ill spell correctly at school ... )

I really hate that attitude, and let me tell you exactly why, you seemingly uneducated simpleton:

1 – Deliberate grammar butchery and an exemplified lack of concern for proper grammar and spelling shows a lack of respect for your audience: you simply show that you don't care enough about your ideas or your audience to articulate your thoughts properly and clearly.

2 – Not all of us use English as our first language, so deliberate or careless grammar and spelling makes it difficult for those people to understand what you’re saying.

3 – You are asking question, hence, you seek an education from us. Hence, this is your school.

4 – Your assertion that proper spelling and grammar is a thing that requires effort and would be saved exclusively for when school requires it only shows that even the smallest intellectual efforts are too taxing for you, and that is sad. It says that you can not be bothered to intelligently articulate your thoughts. That it’s too bothersome to sound intelligent, and that is pathetic.

Intelligent, well mannered people in polite company address each other using proper linguistic skills. Failing to do so – let alone deliberately avoiding doing so– indicates a lack of manners, a lack of education, and a lack of discipline. It is rude.

-end of post

So next time you post, please take these points into consideration. I see this as an increasing problem amongst the newer generation of children that flood the net nowadays, it's as if they speak a different language.

-Lemur 6

Good Lord, thank you Nothing annoys me more than people who cannot take the time to spell and speak correctly.. I plan on being a teacher, I guess it's in my genes... haha.
Anyways, yes it is annoying to try to decipher the posts that are one long sentence and the average word length is 3 letters.. hurts the eyes!
Good post.. good idea
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Unbelievable, my jaw literally dropped at this post! You start off saying the post is not meant to attack then you throw a line in that was utterly unnecessary and more rude (in your opinion) than those who purposely misspell and don't use proper grammar.

Misspells and grammar flubs are not 'wrong' to post; it's pretty simple to deal with, actually; if you don't like the way it reads, simply ignore it and go on about your merry way. No harm done. "Intelligent, well-mannered people in polite company" also address each other with simple manners and pointing the finger by using a line like above is NOT a characteristic of well-mannered OR intelligent. Language is an ongoing, ever-changing part of humanity; probably the biggest area where 'evolution' is most prevalent. This is the way it is, has always been, and it's not going to change.

Obviously proper spelling and grammar make posts easier to read and understand, and are much more pleasant to respond to, but to tell people it's wrong to post this way because you hate it or because this is what's wrong with the younger generation is absurd. Those 2 points may very well be true, but they are not, in any way, valid reasons to bring a new post into the works to call someone a simpleton or demand your wishes and expectations be met.

Many of the posters on these forums are very young children - some do it on purpose, some do it because they don't have a mastery of the language, some simply because they don't know how to type very well; of course there are those that do it because they think it's cool. It's a generation thing, it's part of life, and very widespread - if you want to point fingers and single someone out as a simpleton, do so at the parents for failing to instill the characteristics you speak of; then single out our educational systems for the many imbalances there.
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Denise (Mom) and/or Jared (son)
Take care!

1.0 Ball Python - Jake
1.0 Bearded Dragon - Merlin
1.0 Pixie Frog - Pixel
2.0 Chinese Fire belly Newts - Fred n' Ed, and Ed n' Fred
1.0 Black Cat - Shorty
1.0 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa - coming soon (completing brumation with present owner before joining our home)
0.0.4 Tanks waiting on us to decide what is going in them! LOL

if u look in my posts i abreveate every thing, or else im probably ganna spell the words rong. for instance abreveate, i prob spelld that wrong. would it be easyer for you to sound out a 3 letter word, or try and pronounce a word fully spelled out but tottally incorrect? i work, and go to school. i need to spell in both places because im ganna b graded on it, oh yeah and i have spell check. and the simpleton thing, yeah that was kinda directed at me, iv alwayse sucked at spelling. i was held back in 4th grade because of it. CrittersMailToo, i agree with u on every thing in ur last post. thank you
nevin
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1.1 brazilian rainbow baos-sunshine&chaos
1.1.1 leopard geckos-killer, narvana &sallean
1 blizzerd lizzard-grim
.1 bell leopard gecko-ecstacy
.1 tremper leopard gecko-euphoria
.2. amazon tree boas-sweetness&carnage
0.1.0 kenyan sand boa-stimpy
0.1.0 bearded dragon-blaze
1.0.0 uromastyx-chubby
2.0 brothers
0.2 sisters
3 cats-fat max, spiderman, &toby
1 miniture mutt-brutis

"dont be afraid to die, only be afraid to not live"

"dont become classified. if you are nothing, then you can be anything."

I think that comment was a quote from the thread that was copied from the other forum.
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

i generally use not much punctuation... quite often and i mean QUITE often make spelling mistakes, mistakes in grammar, oh i type in all lower case because of ease and i am 30 years old........ and not uninteligent or uneducated... the reason i post is to comment or help... i cant see well so to reread my posts (my typing skills suck) and change everything would possibly take double or triple the time and considering i have a whole slew of animals to care for a full time job and a husband with needs (shoot arent men just needy beasts??) i do not have the time to correct my many errors
thing about me is that while i am typing i can not even see the screen so after typing i have to stick my face up in the screen read it over and correct and then reread that ... im telling you you sighted people take so much for granted... but i bet ya cant haul a$$ through the house in the middle of the night and not hit one single thing or have the sense of smell or touch i have =oP and trust me i can hear a mouse fart two blocks doen hahaha.....
because we are on the net and im not only refering to the young but others as well, we do not know what type of disiabilities or problems one might have.... i mean like being visually handicapped or deaf or dyslexic possibly mental p[roblems, learning disabilities ect.

i do not care for the posts writen like that but who am i to say jack when i cant even spell or type correct myself
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-robin struck
R2 Reptiles

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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

LOL yeah i can verbally carry on a great coversation ... shoot i can talk you into boredom,insanity and quite litterally talk your ear off and make eyes roll and head spin hahaha
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-robin struck
R2 Reptiles

I understand that many of the posters here may be young, do not have a command of the English language, use abbreviations, or are just in a hurry to type and don't always proof-read their posts. Heck, KS doesn't have the responsibility of spell-checking, so there are bound to be some typos.

But, I will not read posts that I have to mentally translate! As a sponsor for this forum, and having a leopard gecko business that brings me literally hundreds of emails a week, I just don't have the time, energy, or brain-power to sit and try to figure out what someone is trying to say in a written language they made up themselves.

So far, I haven't seen a Rosetta Stone for Cyber Ebonics!
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

I can think of one example that particularly drove me nuts. it was a while ago, and a kid was posting on "m8ing" his leos....i sat there and read it a few times before I finally realized he was trying to say "mate."
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~Melissa~
1.3 Leopard geckos (Guido, Oasis, Gypsy, Marli)
1.0 Bearded dragon (Pharoah)
1.0 Hog Island Boa (Michelangelo)
0.0.1 Crested Gecko (Picasso)
1.0 Ferret (da Vinci)
0.1 Chinchilla (Eevie)
And Jack the cat!

Melissas Menagerie

there are just some words that you dont need to think that hard to figure out. yes m8ing is deff uncalled for, but if u use u instaid of you, b instaid of be, and so one. is it really that hard to figure out, or is it just lazyness on both parts?
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1.1 brazilian rainbow baos-sunshine&chaos
1.1.1 leopard geckos-killer, narvana &sallean
1 blizzerd lizzard-grim
.1 bell leopard gecko-ecstacy
.1 tremper leopard gecko-euphoria
.2. amazon tree boas-sweetness&carnage
0.1.0 kenyan sand boa-stimpy
0.1.0 bearded dragon-blaze
1.0.0 uromastyx-chubby
2.0 brothers
0.2 sisters
3 cats-fat max, spiderman, &toby
1 miniture mutt-brutis

"dont be afraid to die, only be afraid to not live"

"dont become classified. if you are nothing, then you can be anything."

The thing is (dont take this as an argument please), when you read anything, like a book, magazine, etc, your mind is used to all the words being spelled out so you read it across smoothly. Then you come to read a post that has a bunch of letters substituted for words and, even though they are easy to figure out, it stops you from reading as smoothly because you are just used to reading the words completely spelled out instead of having to stop and realize what the letters stand for. if that makes sense, lol. Maybe its just me, but that's the way I feel when I read posts like that.
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~Melissa~
1.3 Leopard geckos (Guido, Oasis, Gypsy, Marli)
1.0 Bearded dragon (Pharoah)
1.0 Hog Island Boa (Michelangelo)
0.0.1 Crested Gecko (Picasso)
1.0 Ferret (da Vinci)
0.1 Chinchilla (Eevie)
And Jack the cat!

Melissas Menagerie

It makes my brain hurt!
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

I agree with Marica, and also Agent. I also won't read messages that use big words and are hard to understand, and I also won't read messages that are gibberish. There is a comfortable medium however. Not to single anyone out but Preston Berry (Coolgecko) has posts that are very hard to me to read (spelling errors), and some people talk on a completely different level.

For me what it boils down to is don't abuse cyber language, but don't make me pull out a dictionary.

But wait a minute, this is a help and questions forum for leopard geckos, not an english class. Looking down at all the recent posts, we seem to have forgotten that. Let's bring it back down to common denomiator of our love for our pets.

Michael

michael, preston however is deaf and signs and sign lauguage does not translate exactly into a correct sentance... he is a remarkable your man whom is extremely intelegent and you know what he posts to help out and he trys to comunicate and live in a hearing world... do you expect diabled epople to lay down and just accept that they cant do this or that because of there situation? i know i can speak for myself and preston but we strive to excell and stive for excellence so what we cant spell but we work on it... shoot preston gets the point across alot of times better than me LOL and im 30 and he is only 14... like i said in my other post you dont know who is across the screen and what if anything might be wrong ot perhaps not with them.
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-robin struck
R2 Reptiles

I was getting so sick of this "ghetto cyper" typing. I agree we shouldn't bash it but at the same time we shouldn't encourage it. I teach science to young kids, kids are getting honestly stupider and stupider, everything is getting "dumbed" down in an effort not to offend or emotionally scar kids. But what we get is north american kids who can't properly write essays or do fractions.

I agree with Marcia and Robin since they are very knowledgeable people on this forum - don't read or reply to stuff you don't understand. It'll make them re-write their posts if they really want a response. Abbreviations are fine since who want's to type carrot tail over and over again. However b r u ok g? is just plain ridiculous. And i spell things completely wrong too, but i make an effort to make it sound right and i'm a 3 year University student.

Omg, I never knew. I'm sorry. He's 14?! Thats remarkable. I thought for sure he was a big breeder. Wow. I'm shocked. Thanks for filling me in.

yup 14 and been breeding geckos since he was 9... quite a remarkable young man if i say so myself hearing impaired or not
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-robin struck
R2 Reptiles

Robin is right about sign Lanuges. I meory all spelling best as I can and you (hearing) will voice it out to make it sure it is right.
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Preston Berry
www.freewebs.com/coolgeckoUnder Construction
restonberry@austin.rr.com" target="_blank">Prestonberry@austin.rr.com

Excellent point. Hopefully many of the young kids will carry the torch and the English language will survive. Having lived through the sixties and seventies, thank God "groovy" didn't survive - always hated that one. One that I really hate is "" for free "" as in "Buy a rack system from us and get a leopard gecko FOR FREE." Bad grammar! By the way, what happens when one's photo posts hit the limit. Can photos be deleted to make roon for new ones? My grammar is OK but I could use some serious technology tutoring from some of these kids.

As a child of the 50's and 60's, I can relate! The harsh reality set in when my children said, "Come here, Mom. I want to show you how to help me do my homework." And I'm a college graduate! lol! Now, my 9 and 11 year old grandkids think I'm pretty cool because I made my own website. Not so 'old school' after all?
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

Mass multi-player online role playing game... When you are running your ass off to not get killed, words are not needed

I actually find it quite alot easier to say for instance.... wtf r u doing im gettin my arse shot off here omg....LOL

Ps im 34 and run a large business (business produces a million a year) which I dont make near that, but anyway I have to stop myself from abbreviating while Im at work.

I vote for butchered up typing.......just my two cents.

Maybe someone will get a chuckle out of this post

Life is too short to care about punctuation in a herp forum imo.

>>Mass multi-player online role playing game... When you are running your ass off to not get killed, words are not needed
>>
>>I actually find it quite alot easier to say for instance.... wtf r u doing im gettin my arse shot off here omg....LOL
>>
>>Ps im 34 and run a large business (business produces a million a year) which I dont make near that, but anyway I have to stop myself from abbreviating while Im at work.
>>
>>I vote for butchered up typing.......just my two cents.
>>
>>Maybe someone will get a chuckle out of this post
>>
>>Life is too short to care about punctuation in a herp forum imo.
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

Sorry if it sounded otherwise. I did read it, and it made sense somewhat. I guess I'm too "old school."
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Marcia McGuiness
Golden Gate Geckos
www.goldengategeckos.com

I know I have misspelled words. Sometimes I know I am doing it and it bothers me but I'm just trying to get a question out. It's not a spelling bee. Yins guys don't want us ignoromesses ta stay doumb by not askin questions do you!! Anywho, a spell check like yahoo has would be nice.
Wingert

The comments were aimed at DELIBERATE mispelling of words and butchery of grammar out of "convenience" and the attitude that because the individual is "out of school" that it doesn't matter. Mistakes in spelling happen, especially if you're typing fast and in a hurry, but most of the time you can tell what that word was out of context.

I don't know if it's just me, but although I can understand when I read a post written entirely in onomotopeaic/anacronymic/ebonic english it changes the way I see the person and the person ultimately gets less respect/attention from me.

Forums are a place of learning, and if your ideas are not written in a comprehensible manner, then the purpose of archiving is lost. 5 years down the line when someone looks through the forums he won't understand a word of it due to obsolete slang.

I'm not pressing this into everyone as if it were dogma, but more suggesting that we do it out of courtesy.

-Lemur 6