If I'm being overly critical or b*tchy when people message me and can't spell? And it's not so much their spelling, but when they don't, for example, take the time to spell out 'with' instead of just putting 'wid'... It does only take about a tenth of a second to put two letters rather than one. I understand that we're all trying to do things to save time, and that includes proper grammer and spelling, (and as far as punctuation goes, as long as the sentence isn't never ending, I could give a hoot less) but is it too much to ask for that you spell out 'you' instead of 'u'? We're not texting here, and I feel that taking the extra two seconds isn't gonna hurt anything. Thoughts?

That's one of my biggest pet peeves. A typo or 'text speak' here and there is one thing, but when it seems like the average 5 y/o has a better knowledge of the English language, (especially in a first message) %99 of the time I reply with an automatic FAIL! Here's your dictionary...

I was a National Spelling Bee contestant
years ago.
So NO ONE spells better or is more
grammatically correct.

This means the burden is on US to
overlook other's inability to put it
together, because it sure isn't going
the other way.

People's bad grammar rarely bothers
me, as it all is, to a degree, the bare
minimum requred to understand what
they are trying to communicate.

So, I see that as MY problem,
not theirs :-)

I agree with both of you.. It drives me crazy!!!! lol

I think that people think they are being cool when they do that. Like gang or street talk or something.
I hate it too!

And upon reading my own entry a second time, I realized I used a double negative.

OMG...THROW HER INTO THE PIT!!!

The first offense is a warning, but take a lesson from Roberta. You keep that up and you'll be getting new shiny bracelets also!

Hes tellen the truth.

But me...

I kinda like em.

OMG!!!!!

i m all like WTF?

bad spelin an gramer rely PMO.

Lik OMG eye toteally no watt u r sayn!

idk, sometimes i think its cute :D

Here is a spin...I kind of like bad grammar and spelling. I feel smart! haha Just kidding. I agree, improper spelling and grammar is annoying.

it annoys me as well. i just don't b|tch about it because i take short cuts too. and just like everyone else (even some in this very thread) i make mistakes that i don't even realize.

that being said, if i'm browsing profiles and there are a lot of misspellings or it reads like it was written by a 5 year old, i bypass it. i'm not the smartest man in the world, but i couldn't ever be with a woman who couldn't write/speak intelligibly.



. . .

wtf

This is a pet peeve of mine also, my son is 12 and he sent me a message on facebook...I can not remember what the message was but it had "what" and "where" in it but he spelled them "wut" and "wer" I think! This weekend I made everything into a spelling contest...lol. (I do not mind the "lol" and "WTF/WTH" since I am guilty of them) it is the laziness of trying to spell that gets me. If someone messages me with the text type talking I just figure they got the wrong person, they did not want to talk to me anyways. The same thing with messages in the forums, I usually skip over the ones who do not care enough to at least try and spell. I can understand misspelling a word or two, maybe bad grammar (especially if English is not their first language). I am no where near being perfect when it comes to writing and spelling but if I can take the time to at least try then others should also...

As a writer, I am personally offended by bad spelling, bad grammar, bad punctuation, and so on. Then again, I am offended by lots of other things as well, but we don't need to get into that because no one attaches broccoli to their e-mails (not yet, anyway).

We are in a written medium here, and, as such, effective communication is enhanced by doing it properly and clearly. If I'm writing something, hopefully there is some sort of intended recipient (if it's e-mail) or intended larger audience (if it's a book); and I want to be sure that my meaning is as clear and relevant as I can possibly make it.

Otherwise it might end up in the OGP thread and nobody wants THAT (except for the people who like the OGP thread).

I completely agree! People do not realize that first impressions are very important. Now, I am guilty of run-ons, but I at least place commas or (...) in between thoughts. I cannot stand when people message me and all it is, is text speak. At least make an attempt to show some education.

If English is not their first language, fine but at least some of them make an attempt to be understood.

I could go on forever about this, but I will stop here.

I will let others be as individual and unique as they want to be as long as I can understand them. They are not applying for a job when they write me or anything like that. So bad grammar or spelling doesn't bother me. Hell sometimes it is really funny, laughter is good for the soul.

Yay!! I'm just glad I'm not the only one... Everyone tells me that I've become unbearably picky about everything, which is, to an extent, true, but it's just something that has bothered me incessantly lately. I agree, I am not past using shortcuts, WTF/WTH, or using wanna, gotta, or outta, but it just seems to me that alot of people aren't even really trying. Even with topic posts, I've seen titles that are so badly misspelled that I don't even bother looking at them, cause really, what would be the point? I just want to be able to understand what people are saying.

Sorry... I got a little rant-y there. I'll be quiet now.