It seems to me that some posters on this board deliberately adopt Text Message English. I h8 it. It also seems to me that some people are deliberately misspelling words and using incorrect punctuation.

Is it a fashion to dumb yourself down or perhaps an affectation? Like, say, e.e. cummings?

Okay, maybe some people don't know any better. If you don't I forgive you. and I respect you for giving it your best shot. Second language English speakers too are forgiven and anyone of us can make a typo.

However this board gives you a chance to preview your post and doing so is a good opportunity to clean it before submitting. It's a good tool and I recommend its use.

Surely, if you want people to read your post then you should make it easy for them to do so.

Kortpeel

PS This a fall back posting that I've had in mind for a while. Really I wanted to post about politics but censorship's evil hand has afflicted even this board.

I do my best to spell everything but I am dyslexic. Sometimes when I run the spell checker it doesn't even recognize the word I am trying to spell, and other times I pick the wrong option. Like Carport Greed instead of Corporate Greed.

Also I work so hard on spelling that I sometimes skip some words :-\

I too am mildly dyslexic and although I have Firefox's spell check add-on installed it still won't catch those pesky homophones, they're for their and vice versa, your for you're etc.

The weird this about dyslexia is that you're not really aware that you're making a mistake.

Of course there remains the question of what is correct spelling, even for an honourable writer not seeking to colour his words with unwarranted hipness.

Kortpeel (imported) wrote: Wed Nov 05, 2008 12:49 am It seems to me that some posters on this board deliberately adopt Text Message English. I h8 it. It also seems to me that some people are deliberately misspelling words and using incorrect punctuation.

Is it a fashion to dumb yourself down or perhaps an affectation? Like, say, e.e. cummings?

Okay, maybe some people don't know any better. If you don't I forgive you. and I respect you for giving it your best shot. Second language English speakers too are forgiven and anyone of us can make a typo.

However this board gives you a chance to preview your post and doing so is a good opportunity to clean it before submitting. It's a good tool and I recommend its use.

Surely, if you want people to read your post then you should make it easy for them to do so.

Kortpeel

PS This a fall back posting that I've had in mind for a while. Really I wanted to post about politics but censorship's evil hand has afflicted even this board.

First of all, it is not necessarily the evil and heavy hand of censorship. This board was becoming a rabid cesspit of venomous political spewing, This is the Eunuch Archive, not the Political Archive. Call it a time out. The political board will come back, but there will be civility.

Speaking of civility, we will NOT get into any of the BULLSHIT about spelling, language use, punctuation, et cetera, ad nauseum. A number of our posters are dyslexic and do a mighty effort at writing to their best ability. Some just are not the beneficiaries of the extensive education others have had here. They do their best. Some folks are not proficient with computers and various software - most can learn. At least they try and they post and contribute to our discourse - they and their posts have value, even poorly spelled. Rather than criticize, it would be better, me thinks, to instruct for those who wish it. Tell us not that we ought to use spell check, but rather "This is how to use it." Much more constructive.

On the other hand (OTOH), at best minimal IM Speak is tolerated, but very minimal. We will not accept posts that are loaded with it. Ordinarily, I just summarily delete them regardless of their content.

And regarding homophones, I love them. I know several homos who have phones.

I find posting about religious matters as bad or worse than political posts. However, this is not my forum. I visit here. But that is my take on shutting down part of the forum. The posts made members more vivid.

For myself, I doubt that I have posted anything over-the-line in a long time. I also grew tired of the political threads, but I won't expand on that comment.

In terms of the complete forum, I have found much on the fourm helpful to me as I age and as I adapt to medications and changes in libido. I find issues about gender and transgender especially helpful because until we had the internew, it was hard for people to make contact with others. Having lived in a place where surgery is done and where people once tried out living as the proper gender they knew themselves to be, I have at least some sympathy but no real experience.

For a bit, I am going to take leave of the opinion section, except maybe to respond to Mac's day in the life posts. Those of you who know me and have my e-mail, please contact me anytime.

As I have stated, this is not my forum. I am a guest here and I follow the rules. I am somewhat upset by the turn of events on the forum this week, but I don't really care about the political discussions that much. Many of the posts about religious offend me, but religion is an important background to much that we do discuss here.

Some political issues do belong here when they concern problems fundamental to the aims of the forum.

I struggle with spelling and grammar. I write and rewrite. I can read most posts here and none of the styles bother me. I often make a draft on Word and transpose it here or copy what I write here and test it on Word. Even at that, I find mistakes when I reread my posts.

I have requested my membership in this forom be removed. I did cry last night. Disgusting that we cannot share our feelings on this forum, utterly digusting.

Blaise,

You are a sensitive soul with many good things to say. I will miss your posts and hope that someday you will return.

Hugs,

Danya