I must be living in the dark ages. I have only heard of leetspeak in this forum, but have no clue what it is. I've seen it typed 1337, so I'm assuming it has something to do with typing in all numbers. But, I would have no idea why someone would want to do that. And camel caps?!? What is that? If it it is what it sounds like I would assume it would Be LiKe ThIs, BuT WhY? Again, I don't spend alot of time on forums and chat rooms. I just go to where I need to, so I don't run into alot of things like this. And if I see weird things, I just don't pay attention because I just don't understand it.

But as for grammer and punctuation mistakes, yeah I make them. Everyone does, though not all will admit to it. We are only human. I try to correct all that I see as I'm typing, because I hate to do things wrong. I will usually reread things before posting here to make sure there are no mistakes (but not always). And I will be the first to point out mistakes that I find... in my head, not to the person that made the mistake. I just find that to be rude. I know I wouldn't like it if someone did that to me. Like "You mis-spelled heard in your first sentence. Try and be more careful" I would find this demeaning.

Yeah, leetspeak is pretty much the art of making your writing illegible, using a lot of numbers and punctuation marks. I think people type in leet and alt-caps because they think its cool, or that it looks good (strange I know). Anyway, I don't think the occasional spelling error would be a huge problem, but maybe people who are chronic misspellers could get a spellcheck toolbar. Someone who picks apart a post because there's a mistake on line 23 is just being a jerk IMO.

Then again, I'm new to this board, and most of the ones I'm used to don't have any rule like this at all.

Well, yeah, I suppose you're right. But then again, I don't believe there are many "typo-hunters" here .


Most of the posts in this topic revolve around exactly what you said. We're not after the occasional spelling mistake or grammatical error, but rather after the chronic mistakes, as you so adequately put it.


Mistakes are a human nature. But when we're part of a group, we have to make sure our mistakes don't have a bad effect on others. If 80% of what I write is wrong, then that would be a huge problem in a forum, where the only method of communication is words... (well, aside from the occasional smiley )



Well, they're not actually rules, more like guidelines perhaps. This specific topic shows how much members of AstaHost cherish it as a community, and would like to keep it accessible to everyone. Many members here are NOT native English speakers. The last thing they need is someone who makes their life here harder .



Cheers.

This post has been edited by tamer3kz: Sep 9 2006, 07:05 PM

Now here's a good thing that can be discussed. Even though many people aren't native English speaker (including me), they still manage to maintain a certain level of grammatical correctness (and I'm so sure this sentence is not correct ). Some might find it to be rather difficult, but they continue learning and improving their language skills. And now, why can't everybody try a bit harder and make their posts easy to read? I can stand a few mistakes, but the worse thing that can happen is to see a post written in bad English, by someone from the USA (for example)!

Also, why should anyone be allowed to write "hy, i need hlp lol m mice is not working"? If he/she can't write proper English, he/she should visit forums in his own language. And I'm sure there are always at least a few of those... If you can't help the community, try increasing your knowledge - it doesn't always have to be language knowledge.

I completely agree, since, as a non-native speaker I sometimes get confused with some words' meanings or am not sure about some syntax. About typos, Firefox spell checker is helping me a *lot* on avoiding them, mainly on complex (confusing) words. There are always "grammar nazis" everywhere, but up until now I haven't seen any in Astahost (though I'm a newcomer, so...).
Correcting up someone who has written something wrong or such is ok, if the guy knows how to do so. Being kind and understanding, pointing out the mistake, might prove very useful to the one who did such mistake. But some prefer to correct others with an air of superiority, what just sucks...
So feel free to tell me if I'm wrong or senseless in my posts. But in a gentle way, please.

Yup, I'm inclined to agree with you on this one, pyost


I, for one, am not a native English speaker, but I believe my posts are easily read and (hopefully) understood by anyone with a background in English. Yes, I admit that I occasionally go overboard with veritably peculiar vocabulary (), but I try not to make a habit out of it.


What I'm trying to say is that not being a native English speaker is not that much of an excuse. It might be a reason, but still it's a poor excuse.



Primitive human nature at its best, my friend . Most people only care about themselves. They make an effort to make their message as clear as is needed for others to understand and respond to them. The problem is that those people fail to realize that if we don't understand what they mean clearly, we won't be able to help them in the first place!


I'm not saying that people should learn English. That's their prerogative. I'm only saying, paraphrasing pyost's words, that if they're going to join an English forum, then they should know how to communicate properly. I'm not being condescending here; I'm merely being practical.


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I have nothing to add here. You said it beautifully, KDEWolf .



Sorry for the long post. I feel I might have got a little off-topic, but hopefully I didn't get carried away too much .



Cheers.

This post has been edited by tamer3kz: Sep 9 2006, 08:34 PM

It really depends on how much education you have had in a foreign language [English]. For instance, if Astahost were a French board, my posts would be littered with grammar and spelling mistakes, and that's not because I don't want to try to better myself in French. I suppose the most important thing is to write in a way that everyone can understand. Now I could come here and post as if I were Shakespeare and have immaculate grammar, but if no one had a clue what I was saying, it still wouldn't be effective communication. That's worse than semi-bad spelling but getting my point across.


They should, but it's also likely that whatever topic they want to discuss is not available in their native language. Or that they don't seem to get any replies off of someone who is speaking their mother tongue. If that's the case, then they have no choice but to go on an English forum, which is better than leaving their question unanswered.

Nonetheless, I agree entirely with KDEWolf. Condescending posts only eventually lead to flame wars, which is not effective communication.

That's an entirely valid argument, Arbitrary .


But, assuming I have a question that cannot be answered except on a certain Russian forum, wouldn't be more reasonable that I spend 10-15 minutes to write a decent description of my question in Russian, instead of pouring out the few Russian words I know, and hope that someone will understand?


I mean, this is MY problem. *I* am the one that needs help after all. I should care enough to write an understandable sentence in Russian, right? It doesn't have to be perfect, but I should put as much effort as I can. At least, that's what I'd do. And I believe that's what YOU would do, as well .

This post has been edited by tamer3kz: Sep 10 2006, 12:32 AM