Would It Be Useful To Have A "Spell Check" In the Reply Function?

Best of both worlds:

www.onelook.com...

Just throwing this out there.........Google toolbar(which I first used after joining ATS ) has a built in spell check.

Sam60, are you talking about an automatic spell checker? If so then I guess that would be good, although I am not sure how much coding it would take (I am computer ignorant ).. Also keep in mind that many users who use English as a secondary language have a odd syntax, something that a spell checker or any grammar checker (I have ever used) can not fix. But yea, it is a good idea if that is what you are talking about. If not, I too am hesitant to break from IE8 and go to Firefox, so far I am happy and have a spell checker on the toolbar, as well Microsoft Word.

[edit on 8/22/2009 by jkrog08]

Originally posted by intrepid
Best of both worlds:

www.onelook.com...

Thanks Intrepid.....I'll have a good look at that.

However for the record....

Is it a difficult thing for ATS to implement technically &/or timewise?

My thoughts are still that if it isn't integrated & automated, people will not use it.

That was really the point of my thread.

I think it could neaten up many, many posts.

Originally posted by jkrog08
Just throwing this out there.........Google toolbar(which I first used after joining ATS

) has a built in spell check.

Sam60, are you talking about an automatic spell checker? If so then I guess that would be good, although I am not sure how much coding it would take (I am computer ignorant

).. Also keep in mind that many users who use English as a secondary language have a odd syntax, something that a spell checker or any grammar checker (I have ever used) can not fix. But yea, it is a good idea if that is what you are talking about. If not, I too am hesitant to break from IE8 and go to Firefox, so far I am happy and have a spell checker on the toolbar, as well Microsoft Word.

[edit on 8/22/2009 by jkrog08]

G'day

I'm talking about an integrated, automated function for replies, as per my posts above.

reply to post by Sam60



I told my son that in time, he would thank me because he would be the only one from his class to write a resume and have it legible.

He is now 17. And has finished high school early. AND been accepted to college.

Something to be said for being a "bad" dad.

reply to post by Sam60


There's a bunch of people asking for this. But it's the same every time. Everyone says use Firefox or Word, then someone eventually comes in a says it can't happen because it would put too much of a strain on the servers.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Originally posted by mikerussellus
reply to post by Sam60

 

I told my son that in time, he would thank me because he would be the only one from his class to write a resume and have it legible.

He is now 17. And has finished high school early. AND been accepted to college.

Something to be said for being a "bad" dad.

Good on you!

Like I said......

I think we would get along

Star and flag. Great post!

Spell check would be very helpful, not only for the many reasons above, but even intelligent people have trouble typing as well as they can spell. myself included. Just in this short piece, I had to go back to fix 3 missed keys.


Also, cudos to all who contributed to this thread, you are some funny people. With all the gloom and doom going around these days, I laughed harder at all your replies in this thread than I have in a while.

Peace and love

This is probably going to go over like the proverbial turd in the punchbowl, but I think we all have to look at more than one side on occasion to make sure what we're believing is right.

How about instead of focusing on spelling, or punctuation, or even sentence structure, we try to focus on the ideas being expressed? I know it gets more difficult when we can't read the thoughts of the writer smoothly, but let's be honest about it. Some of us don't even THINK smoothly, let alone write that way.

It almost never fails that I read people slamming others for simple mistakes that don't really detract from the point, rather than express how the post made them feel or whether they have anything pertinent to add.

There are spell checkers available to anyone, or ways around that if you don't have one working in your browser, but I don't think the point of this board is exerting our superiority over others through the unblemished application of the English language.

We all make mistakes. It would be unfortunate for me if I missed out on a life-changing idea simply because I was too focused on an E coming before an I, or a misplaced comma.

Swell use of spelling + punctuation = good
Hypocrisy + rigidity = not so much

People have different priorities, different styles and different languages. We have many international users, and I'm really just rather honored that they care enough to even TRY to communicate.

reply to post by KSPigpen

What an avatar!!!

But.....

If the spelling is better, often the message is clearer.

Originally posted by awakening1
Star and flag. Great post!

Spell check would be very helpful, not only for the many reasons above, but even intelligent people have trouble typing as well as they can spell. myself included. Just in this short piece, I had to go back to fix 3 missed keys.


Also, cudos to all who contributed to this thread, you are some funny people. With all the gloom and doom going around these days, I laughed harder at all your replies in this thread than I have in a while.

Peace and love

I suggest I am under IMMENSE pressure not to make any spelling mistakes in this thread!

I hate it when I spell "Billy Meier" wrong.....

Originally posted by KSPigpen


We all make mistakes. It would be unfortunate for me if I missed out on a life-changing idea simply because I was too focused on an E coming before an I, or a misplaced comma.

Huh..? Did you say something..? What? What did I miss?

Sorry, I keep getting distracted by your avatar.

Originally posted by Sam60
In view of many of the members who are:

Replying in English as their second language.....

People who are so used to e-mail & SMS they simply can't spell any more.....

People who didn't learn to spell in the first place.....

People who just don't "give a damn".....

I think it would be very useful to have this capability in the "post reply" area.

It would make many posts a lot easier to read & it would also make ATS look a lot more "educated" & "thoughtful", particularly to new members, people who are considering joining & people scrutinising ATS from "outside".

Kind regards
Sam60



[edit on 22-8-2009 by Sam60]

[edit on 22-8-2009 by Sam60]

the people who cant spell anyways would be really good for me a spellcheck would be really helpfull IMO.

There are a couple of ways this could be implemented as a site feature in my view.

Server-side: You would submit the text to ATS, most likely as you type using AJAX or in bulk (like preview, but it would show the mistakes). This would be an additional strain on the server, both in terms of CPU usage and bandwidth. I'm not convinced this feature is good enough to warrant the cost, or the additional advertising needed to support that cost.

Client-side: You could use client side Javascript to check the spelling, but this would still require the download of a large dictionary. I'm not sure you can store that much data in that manner for security reasons to be stored for use over many sessions, so this method could turn out even worse than the other in some regards, as it would require download of the dictionary at every post. Infeasible IMO due to the size of the dictionary.

Personally, because of the serious problems with both these methods, I consider the browser feature/add on method to be superior. As mentioned already, good browsers like Firefox do this already. I've not used IE for years, but surely it must have a BHO or whatever they are called these days to do it.

I don't really care too much about peoples spelling, it's almost always obvious to me what they mean by the context. I find it much harder to parse when people use long run on sentences, or don't use paragraph breaks. Even then however it's very rare I can't understand them, it just becomes a little more tricky.

It makes me quite annoyed at times when I see people attacked for their spelling/grammar, when the issues are usually very minor. It's often the case that the person attacking has no decent arguments, so all they do is attack on something that is mostly irrelevant.

In some ways, spell checkers are not even of much use. They tend to only work with people who are able to get a close spelling, close enough that a reasonable reader can tell what they mean. Spell checkers tend to fail however on people like a close friend of mine who's spelling is so bad, that the checker can't even suggest anything.

I support the status quo.

reply to post by harpsounds

Thanks for your detailed thoughts, harpsounds.

Notwithstanding that I'm not an IT "tech" guy

Perhaps as with many things "IT", the capability becomes easier to implement as technology develops & improves.

Spelling is one thing, proper grammar is another. it really depends on the reply or the first post of a thread as to how much detail you add to it.
long, thorough, detailed posts will generally look much better if they are well structured, and in my opinion this is more important than spelling due to, as was said, there being people who speak English as a second language.
for long posts, i plan it out in MS Word first and edit it like i would an essay or other paper, then submit.

for shorter posts, i just hope Firefox isn't having an off day and will give me the correct spelling alternative

iespell, google it. been using it for years and its free.

There is no need.

Firefox has a spellchecker built in. While you write if you misspell a word you will see that word underlined. If you right click the word that is underlined Firefox then gives correct spelling.

And that is not a plug-in, it's built into the browser. No need to add more java and crap to only get blocked, when the browser does it automatically.

reply to post by enjoies05


That's because it is a strain on the servers. Integrated spell check served by ATS would have to be a java app, and it would have to be served down every time a reply is made.

It's better done by using firefox, google toolbar, and all the other suggestions. It's not rocket science to get a spell check going, you just need to use the right software, and it's a user function.

As for grammar... it's optional. Punctuate to get the point across.