Unauthorized Threadsitters

Often on ATS I have been confronted by grammar and spelling police who have no care whether people follow the general rules of discussion and debate. I would not make a big deal about this except the fact that the majority of those who do so are not moderators or admins. Sometimes writers, other times regular members are guilty of the offense. However, ATS is slowly becoming anarchy rather than a structured Discussion board.

The main problem facing the board besides people overstepping their authority is the fact that people do not add to the discussion. Rather than discuss or debate, they attack the poster or make one line responses their choice of post. I am a regular author of news articles for ATSNN news and are plagued by U2U's stating that people have found grammatical errors in my opinion but then go on to make BS posts. I am not stating any names, however I do feel that the grammar police are over reacting as much as they state that the government over reacts to simple offences. While typing long posts errors will be made. GET OVER IT! POST SOMETHING RELEVANT! Heck I might even go E.E. Cummings on all of you on purpose to mess with your heads! aDd tO thE DiS CUssion O r DONt posT!

I'll admit, most of these "threadsitters" just wanna tell people what to do. But you have to remember, some of us want to help out in keeping ATS tidy and clean. Some just want to help out, and this is one of their ways of contributing to the discussion forums.


Take care,

-J

Originally posted by CAConrad0825
found grammatical errors in my opinion but then go on to make BS posts.

I've put up some atsnn submissions. WHen you get a grammar notice its frmo mods, unelss you are talking about ones specifcally from members. Maybe you should just try to not make so many mistakes?

however I do feel that the grammar police are over reacting as much as they state that the government over reacts to simple offences. While typing long posts errors will be made. GET OVER IT! POST SOMETHING RELEVANT!

Allowing terrible grammar and, more importantly, absurd spelling on the site makes it unintelligible. I make mistakes, I correct others when its to an inane degree.

Heck I might even go E.E. Cummings on all of you on purpose to mess with your heads!

non capitalization is a capital offense.

um...........................................i think EE cummings sucks

Originally posted by Nygdan

Originally posted by CAConrad0825
found grammatical errors in my opinion but then go on to make BS posts.

I've put up some atsnn submissions. WHen you get a grammar notice its frmo mods,

Former reporters can give you a grammar notice too.

Didn't read your thread, just a comment here, there are 2 people in entertainment I love, Elvis and Bruce Lee, so love your avatar!!

Originally posted by Nygdan
I've put up some atsnn submissions. WHen you get a grammar notice its frmo mods, unelss you are talking about ones specifcally from members. Maybe you should just try to not make so many mistakes?

Its actually anybody who has the 25 upgraded posts can do the same. ATSNN represents a different case then regular threads and we try to keep it at a higher standard. Plus a voted in submission is worth a nice chunk of points so going back and fixing a few things should be no big deal.

In regular threads, one thing people do need to remember is that ATS attracts a global audience so English may be a second, third, or even fourth language, so some slack really needs to be cut. And if your whole argument revolves around your opponents spelling and choice of words, and not his or her ideas then your really do not have much of a position now do you?

[edit on 3/11/05 by FredT]

It's generally considered bad form to nitpick somebody's mastery of a language, which as has been said may very well not be their mother tongue. That being said, ATSNN strives to command respect as a legitimate independent news source. To be taken seriously ATSNN must impose certain standards for clarity and even what you might call aesthetics. Freedom from errors indicates that a piece has been quality checked, and that sends a good message about ATSNN.

There are online spelling checkers which cooperate nicely with Internet Explorer, and I believe you can find one that will check your grammar as well. This can be a great help to those who are prone to typos or who do not speak english as a first language.

Last but not least- not everyone who "polices" a thread here and there is necessarily on any sort of power trip. Most of us are here because we really like what ATS is, and we have an interest in keeping the content to a reasonably high standard. Not everyone who asks for a link, points out what they see as flawed reasoning, tries to correct something that's hard to understand, etc is doing it to slag you; some of them are just trying to be helpful. Of course there is a right way and a wrong way, and not everybody is as tactful as they could be, but take it all with a grain of salt anyway.
Personally I almost never see anybody nitpick spelling just for the sake of nitpicking spelling. It seems to be a strictly ATSNN phenomenon and it's somewhat warranted.

There is a simple solution here; either use spellcheck or some other word-processing program to help you out, or get used to the criticism. You can always post a whiney thread, too. Personally, I like getting called on my errors...Deny Ignorance, Beeotch!

P.S. this post was neither spellchecked nor worried about in any other way.

P.P.S. quit being such a kitty cat(pussie/y) and appreciate the feedback, if you are being called on it, perhaps you need to reavaluate your wrITinG SkiLls. i HopE ThiS Is ReLavenT FoR yOu!!! iF NoT, Don'T aDd tO thE DiS CUssion O r DONt posT!

P.P.P.S. can you guess what I'm trying to say with these smileys?

P.P.P.S. can you guess what I'm trying to say with these smileys?

George Bush is scared of clowns? No I actually have not a clue.
Also I'd tell you how beeotch is really spelled, but we have these dang censors, so no can do.

Originally posted by The Vagabond
George Bush is scared of clowns?

No I actually have not a clue.
Also I'd tell you how beeotch is really spelled, but we have these dang censors, so no can do.

What's this? a sense of humor? great!!

P.S. I can't believe I posted twice on this whiney thread

P.P.S. dubya scared of clowns...HA!!!

P.P.P.S are you criticizing my spelling on a thread whining about grammar police? HA!

I'm an ex-lit major, and studied grammar and english for years, but I still don't worry too awful much about grammatical errors. Unless it is just prolific, why worry about some one else's grammar, as long as they are able to convey a point to the community. I think you if go around looking for grammatical errors, then, simply put, you are a control freak. It's not how they say it that counts on this site, it is what they are saying which makes this a discussion. Most folks don't give a rat's arse if their appositives are seperated by commas, or they capitalized their I's. I have seen some people on here be complete jerks over such rubbish. Respect others, it really is a basic principle that we seem to overlook alot on ATS. They don't come to this site to be tutored in English composition.

What I do not understand is the blatant disregard for backing up your opinions and everyone on here acting like an expert. If you have experience in an area that's great, but if you do not please document your sources so that your post is credible. That is what irks me the most.

P.S. Some great quotes, and thanks for keeping the tension humorous...though the beeotch brought me back to my South Park days....."I'm gonna kick you in the neeeuts!" -Eric Cartman

i can deal with english as a second language and most spelling and grammar errors but sometimes you simply HAVE to post something when the post is so unreadable due to too many words in one sentence to paragaphs that go on and on and on or ppl use too many abbrev or use words the gen pop cannot understand the board is meant to be understand by all and dont forget lack of punctuation and using all caps so you may not like to be corrrected but sometimes its necessary also sometimes trolls like to disrupt i know this post doesnt make the most sense and thus proves my pt

Originally posted by Nygdan
I've put up some atsnn submissions. WHen you get a grammar notice its frmo mods, unelss you are talking about ones specifcally from members. Maybe you should just try to not make so many mistakes?

I'm assuming that you are being incredibly sarcastic.

There is or there should be a clear distinction between the acceptable quality of grammar, spelling, etc on ATSNN vs. ATS. On ATS, spelling errors, grammar, etc. are not a big deal in my opinion. But on ATSNN we would like to be taken seriously and usually bad grammar and spelling doesn't sit well as "news".

You shouldn't be upset about it when it is in reference to ATSNN submissions, we're only trying to help you or anyone else in your place get their story upgraded, it's called constructive criticism and ATSNN writers only want to help, I don't believe any of us with ATSNN under our names would try to cockblock anyone here from submitting a good story.

Originally posted by The Vagabond
It's generally considered bad form to nitpick somebody's mastery of a language,

I can undestand that, especially for ESL type people. But the worst offenders are often native speakers of english, who simply don't care or don't even realize. When that is the case it usually that the speeeeeling is so damned distracting that a person can't be expected to not say something. But nitpicking on anything, let alone spelling, is hardly worthwhile, agreed.

Originally posted by Simulacra

Originally posted by Nygdan
I've put up some atsnn submissions. WHen[sic]you get a grammar notice its frmo[sic] mods, unelss[sic] you are talking about ones specifcally from members. Maybe you should just try to not make so many mistakes?

I'm assuming that you are being incredibly sarcastic.

Nope, I was being quick and careless, and look how stupid it makes me lork!

I don't see the point in complaining about it. Yeah it's annoying, but deep down it makes me feel somewhat better about myself. When the person answering you is using a ton of internet shorthand, you don't feel as inclined to take them seriously, which can be nice.

Ppl u hav 2 lrn 2 right n hole wordz or u r 2 b ignrd.
But I don't feel the need to enforce linguistic discipline, even though the language can be distracting.

Also I noticed that Conrad has moved on to the "self proclaimed expert" thing. You're going to have that and there are things which have to be remembered.
1. People tend to state opinions in factual form. It doesn't necessarily mean that they hold those things to be facts, but even in school people are taught that in persuasive writing you ought to present opinions in a positive manner. By all means, ask them for links and judge their arguement accordingly, but you can't really say that an opinion is completely invalidated just because it is only an opinion.
2. I am an expert. On everything.
3. Not everything discussed on ATS can be perfectly substantiated even if it was true. If we're talking about a huge secret conspiracy of some kind- do you think that there will be a website out there somewhere with absolute proof so that we can just put up a link and there we have it? Like I've said before- people who think they're going to find Truth by typing a couple lines into a search engine and selecting one of the top ten results are dillusional. When something is unknown or covered up, discovering it will usually involve making connections, inferences, assumptions, guesses, etc, and the conclusion won't initially be fool proof, but it may still deserve consideration.

Originally posted by The Vagabond

P.P.P.S. can you guess what I'm trying to say with these smileys?

George Bush is scared of clowns?

No I actually have not a clue.
Also I'd tell you how beeotch is really spelled, but we have these dang censors, so no can do.

LOL... Thank You, this made my morning.