A special message for language pedants (AKA Grammar Nazis).

Guilty!, re: Bloomin' - I guess it puts its more indicative of how its said (or used to be said) in a historical or cultural sense. By shortening it you are gramatically alluding to the way it is (or was) pronounced back in the day.

Just as each publishing company and magazine has its own "house rules" for grammar, style, and spelling, MMO communities set their own, more or less by consensus and in practice. No-one should confuse professionally copyedited, proofread, and published writings with these self-policed online conversations.

Incidentally, once upon a time, I contemplated creating a joke character: the Grammar Cop, a level 1 n00b assigned to the Atlas Park beat to watch out for unproofed character biographies, misspelled super groups, and idiomatic orthography in toon names. There was, however, no way to guarantee everyone would be in on this rather thin joke, so it never got past the concept stage.

I'm not the greatest typer, especially late at night when entire words tend to misplace themselves in sentences. I do try to check myself, but errors will slip through. Minor grammar errors are no big deal to me.

But I think there's a place for different styles of typed conversation.

Among various online groups and friends, I have no problems with casual typing. For example, using asplodey slang or typing how I tend to talk, y'know? L33tspeak style silliness is okay here in small doses, like that new thing coming out that I WANT NAO!

But, for the love of the gods, don't type cutesy in a business email or official document or the like. It makes you look bad.

Though if u always typ liek dis, and if you can't be bothered to take a few extra seconds out of your apparently extremely busy life to sound like an intelligent human, don't expect ME to treat you like one. Really, did your English teacher touch you in a bad place that you have such a vendetta against the language?

good luck D.B.B.

It annoys me that people still don't understand that there is the word Newb and then there is the word N00b... One means a new person to whatever while the other is person that acts like they are new and never learns despite all efforts of other people to help them.

Truth be told I am a bit of a spelling nazi. I successfully keep my neurosis in check most of the time. I can tolerate the odd typo or minor misspelling of a multisyllabic word. Text shorthand is fine places where it's appropriate, such as Twitter, IM's and of course text messages. I can even deal with leet speak in small doses.
That being said however, my biggest pet peeve is when people spell the word 'than' with an 'e'. Seriously, it's four bloody letters! I even made a slightly tongue-in-cheek video rant about the subject on youtube.
These forums, and indeed in-game, are far from immune. Don't even get me started on the abomination that is 'dieing'.
My neuroses aside, the language is evolving at a blistering rate. Trying to keep up can be arduous.

----- Union's finest underachiever -----
Farewell CITY of HEROES
The First, the Last, the One.
Union: @ominousvoice2059

I'm sorry it's a gosh darn forum, and I don't need feel like everything I am submitting needs be freaking graded. The world has enough red tape; I don't need it in my off time when I'm trying relax. I sometimes have alot to say and don't quite get to the end of my thought till I need rush off to work or some other obligation. Perhaps I'm arguing with several posters at once and trying get a word in edgewise while thought I'm projecting is still relevant. Mistakes happen but trying invalidate me will not invalidate my point. If that bothers you, please by all means put me on ignore.

I've dealt with tons of people had english as a second or third language over the years on the web. So I naturally fill in gaps where people make errors.(which if you go to Gamefaqs/comic forums, Superbot400 makes some really difficult posts to understand at times due to him being from another country. I usually agree with his posts as he's a smart guy. He's getting better though.) That's why I wouldn't ever made the shallow judgment someone is or isn't intelligent solely based on presentation. The intent is far more important than the manner it is expressed.

I'm chaotic by nature as I let whatever thoughts come to mind fly when I in a rant, and presentation comes secondary. I try clean it up a bit in afterwards. Anyone that willing give me a hard time over that simply has made the process of knowing who I should ignore that much easier in return. If they're that hung up on that side of things, chance are they weren't too worried about having a real discussion anyways.


Edit: Where hell were all you language nazis when Woot! found it's way into english language? You failed us all.

I don't mind improper grammar. After all not everybody is highly educated or typing in their native language or completely without learning defect.

On the other hand I despise text speak. Text speak in a situation where one is not pressed for time is much like using ***** speak in everyday life.

Do you say "I'm heading to the store to get groceries. Do you want me to pick up anything for you?" or in order to save a few seconds of time do you say "Me go store. You want?"?

I like to slake my thirst on this stuff.

But for me, what really irritates me is using an incorrect word.

For Example, on the message boards here, the biggest infraction I see is the use of the word "roll" when they really mean "role". I know some people will use it as a type of slang since you "roll" dice while playing Role Playing games, so I usually let it slide.


But then again, That's just me.