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The Spell Check Mistress


Space_Rogue
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I know this must plague many of you, it does me no end. While I can accept it from Non English speakers, I do find it painful as well as tedious to be constantly telling the same member/s to use a spell check before posting.

One member in particular, who has been with us since 2012, simply cannot get the most basic words correct. Seam for seem; theres for theirs and so on: the list is endless. This from someone who had managed to graduate from high school, then gaining entry into University to study Modern History?

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Well I'd like to point out, first and foremost, a Spell checker will not find those as mistakes as they are spelled correctly. What you're more looking for is a grammar checker and sometimes people misspell things as they actually believe that is the way it's spelled. Unfortunately, not everyone has MS Word and even MS Word isn't always correct.

 

I mean something that I personally constantly get wrong is then and than and effect and affect. While I know what both mean and know that they are used for different purposes they still come across backwards in my posts a lot.

 

Additionally, it doesn't help if there are words that are spelled wrong intentionally. That mucks up spell checking to no end.

 

For the most part, as long as I can comprehend the post I'm good with the bad spelling. With the rise in mobile browsing and auto-correct I expect that more words to be not intentional from the user themselves.

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True. Grammar isn't my biggest strong suit. As well I often mix spellings myself, especially with SMF as its US based so you get red lines under words if you spell them the English way. Really for me, it is the most basic words I see spelt incorrectly. The one member I have as quoted can write a 200 word post, getting it 90% right, but its just those niggling little errors that stand out. Leaving out apostrophe's is a big one, as it can convey a different meaning.

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Still can't say I blame them. Some people weren't taught the proper way to add an apostrophe. Other times it is confusing the meaning of the term. While I approve of a basic browser spell check there really is nothing for the grammar checks.

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I give credit for people actually making an effort.  I know there are folks for whom learning correct grammar, syntax and spelling was incredibly difficult, but who still enjoy RP.  It's like how I am absolute garbage at mathematics, but I still make my best effort when completing assignments for that class.

 

What I cannot stand, however, is the sort of people who join an RP forum and write posts like, "billy wnt 2 da store 4 sum milk n he wus attack by a monster n he killd it n took all its money".  At that point, it's clear they haven't made an ounce of effort to spell, check grammar, use punctuation... Ack.

 

Now, there's no rule on my forum which says, "Members must have a firm grasp of the English language and be able to write X words per post," but I had kinda assumed that being able to write in complete sentences was a given with just about any RP forum which is in my native language. xD   

Edited by iReadYerMind
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I'm using the facepalm here. We did in fact have one like that ages ago, even though we have in our rules "Using text speech is forbidden". Grammar as I said and as Morrigan mentioned is difficult for many, including myself; but I do appreciate it when someone tells me what I've done wrong especially Mr Internet. When I see that little red line under a word, I copy and paste it in google to get the correct spelling. The biggest problem with that though is where you have the English/American varieties :D

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I see so many red squiggles under the words in my post I normally only do it when I notice it, if I'm being genuinely honest. Most of my characters names trigger the spell checker. I've added them to my dictionaries before but I, for the most part, forget.

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Oh crikey yes! Lol. I think I've created a whole new dictionary with mine. I love creating new races and worlds so with that comes the chance to be really inventive with language. It is hard though creating a new language, especially when you don't even speak your own language well. :D

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One of my regulars has trouble spelling, but writes excellent posts.  She uses spell check, but has a problem: spell check often doesn't give a single option for a word, it gives many words which use similar letters whether or not they're the one she wants to use.  As a very basic example: whether vs weather.  If what the user wants to say is, "What lovely weather we are having," but (s)he types "wether", spell check could give her both options, and only one is correct.   This is true for every homophone (to, too, two; they're, their, there; etc), and the problem is that she doesn't know which is which because she couldn't spell it correctly in the first place.

 

And for her to go to google for every single word takes time she may not have, and can be frustrating.  So for me, as long as you are making an effort, and I know what you meant to say, it's enough. We all have character, race, creature names that are not legit English words, or may be from other languages, or are alternate spellings.  But when it comes to the homophones....  I can understand the frustration and I don't want to make RP into something that irritates her when it should be enjoyable.

 

 

But for the people that can't take the time to type out the other two letters in "you" and just put "u"... no. No no no no no no no.  xD

Edited by iReadYerMind
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4 minutes ago, iReadYerMind said:

But for the people that can't take the time to type out the other two letters in "you" and just put "u"... no. No no no no no no no.  xD

I actually banned my ten year old from such habits. Fuck that noise.

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Is it wrong if I feel guilty for turning people away for that?  I mean, I know I shouldn't feel that way - but when I see something as cringe-worthy as a text-speak post, I immediately feel guilty for wanting to ban the member.  We all had to start somewhere!  But, damn - put some effort into it! Haha

 

Now, to be fair, maybe for some people that IS effort.  I used to be a teaching assistant at a juvenile detention facility, and some of those kids could hardly print their own names.  They literally did not know what color 'tan' was, and that it was called the "First" of the month, not the "oneth."  For high school kids.  Ohh, the things I've seen. o.o

 

So when I get someone who writes like that I am simultaneously appalled, and reminded of those kids in juvie.  And then I feel guilty for being so appalled. xD I can't help it.

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Perhaps for me it comes from personal experience. Neither of my parents finished high school, though they did improve their educational skills later in life. Especially with Mum, since she left school at 14, then graduated in her thirties, after that she completed two degrees at Uni. She said to me when I was struggling in primary school, it was all about discipline. That message kind of got lost somewhere between 15 and 18 for me, as I had so many medical issues come along, I had to do another two years and never left high school until I was 20.

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Once upon a time, long long ago, I had someone app that could not grasp any concept of spelling. (we literally asked for a spellcheck before we approved the app and they lost their ever loving minds) None, nada. My site focuses on quality over quantity. You can post two sentences, and I'll be fine with that, so long as it's spelled right and effort was put forth (yes, I over look non-native speakers if they let me know, otherwise, I expect you to know the difference between your and you're ect.) I know my own spelling is garbage, but I spellcheck and re-read as often as I can, and when someone notices a mistake, I'll go back and fix it. But if I can glance at your app and the spelling errors jump out at ME of all people, pls honey, spell check.

 

Don't tell me you don't have Word, or Office, because most browsers will spellcheck, and I can find websites to do it as well. 

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I have a separate dictionary in my word processor, but for my browser I don't bother. Though I too see a lot of the red underlines simply because non-american spellings for many things. "Realise" is one that gets me each time. (Though I will also admit that there are times when I use both American and British English spellings.)

 

I don't bother people about having perfect spelling/grammar/syntax because it's not easy. There are lots of rules and exceptions for situations. (For example if you have a word/name that ends in s and is being shown a possessor of an object that starts with s then you omit the s you would normally use to show possessive.... EX- Samus' Screwattack instead of Samus's screwattack.) That said I do have some expectations... at least try to use a period and proper capitalization. Also, no chat speak outside of in-character sections. (It's entirely possible a character might text that, but for the formation of the post... use proper English.) I think that those two expectations are entirely reasonable on a site based around the purpose of writing.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it here, constant/repeated errors (like not capitalizing properly) really do detract from the readers experience. They focus on formation of sentences rather than what's actually being said.

 

I also don't like to push people on this subject though because I've been there. I've been on the receiving end of this and it kind of sucks. (So I don't want to do to others what was done to me.)

Spoiler

Perhaps shocking I know... but in 2006 I was on a non-writing based site that imposed much stricter writing requirements. Proper capitalization, good spelling, decent grammar and whatnot. I ended up getting warned for a few things. I mentioned it happened to a friend, who then mentioned it on another site. A third party then joined that site I was on and blasted the mod that warned me. I nearly got banned for having a duplicate account, though I told that mod that our IPs were different and I hadn't tried to cause problems. Thankfully the mod in question seemed blissfully unaware of what proxies were... otherwise they would have probably banned me anyway. (Even though I had no connection to that other person and had no idea what was going on until I ended up getting another message from staff.)

 

Even still though I have to admit that if someone won't put forth any effort on a writing site... they're probably not going to fit in or do well. I mean their ideas could be awesome, but if no one can tell what's going on in their posts then it won't matter. So it's a kindness really even if they might not see it that way. (There was a talk given recently by Milo Yiannopoulous on a controversial subject and he said "helping someone doesn't always look how you think it should" and I think that applies here.) I mean if someone won't put in any effort then no one will want to write with them, they're going to have a slow and agonizing exile from that site. So why not be up front with them, let them know it's going to be a problem and give them a chance to either change and adapt or leave and find a place better suited for them.

 

Though I do make some resources available on our wiki to help writers. (If you want to take a look, the link for that is here.) So this way if they want to improve then we do have resources to help them. The wiki is likely not perfect, but it's hopefully easy enough to understand and correct enough to help. 

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1 hour ago, VirusZero said:

I have a separate dictionary in my word processor, but for my browser I don't bother. Though I too see a lot of the red underlines simply because non-american spellings for many things. "Realise" is one that gets me each time. (Though I will also admit that there are times when I use both American and British English spellings.)

 

I don't bother people about having perfect spelling/grammar/syntax because it's not easy. There are lots of rules and exceptions for situations. (For example if you have a word/name that ends in s and is being shown a possessor of an object that starts with s then you omit the s you would normally use to show possessive.... EX- Samus' Screwattack instead of Samus's screwattack.) That said I do have some expectations... at least try to use a period and proper capitalization. Also, no chat speak outside of in-character sections. (It's entirely possible a character might text that, but for the formation of the post... use proper English.) I think that those two expectations are entirely reasonable on a site based around the purpose of writing.

I've said it before and I'll repeat it here, constant/repeated errors (like not capitalizing properly) really do detract from the readers experience. They focus on formation of sentences rather than what's actually being said.

 

I also don't like to push people on this subject though because I've been there. I've been on the receiving end of this and it kind of sucks. (So I don't want to do to others what was done to me.)

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Perhaps shocking I know... but in 2006 I was on a non-writing based site that imposed much stricter writing requirements. Proper capitalization, good spelling, decent grammar and whatnot. I ended up getting warned for a few things. I mentioned it happened to a friend, who then mentioned it on another site. A third party then joined that site I was on and blasted the mod that warned me. I nearly got banned for having a duplicate account, though I told that mod that our IPs were different and I hadn't tried to cause problems. Thankfully the mod in question seemed blissfully unaware of what proxies were... otherwise they would have probably banned me anyway. (Even though I had no connection to that other person and had no idea what was going on until I ended up getting another message from staff.)

 

Even still though I have to admit that if someone won't put forth any effort on a writing site... they're probably not going to fit in or do well. I mean their ideas could be awesome, but if no one can tell what's going on in their posts then it won't matter. So it's a kindness really even if they might not see it that way. (There was a talk given recently by Milo Yiannopoulous on a controversial subject and he said "helping someone doesn't always look how you think it should" and I think that applies here.) I mean if someone won't put in any effort then no one will want to write with them, they're going to have a slow and agonizing exile from that site. So why not be up front with them, let them know it's going to be a problem and give them a chance to either change and adapt or leave and find a place better suited for them.

 

Though I do make some resources available on our wiki to help writers. (If you want to take a look, the link for that is here.) So this way if they want to improve then we do have resources to help them. The wiki is likely not perfect, but it's hopefully easy enough to understand and correct enough to help. 

I wish I could like this multiple times.

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