Deny Ignorance? An Experiment

reply to post by PurpleChiten

Nice poem.
It's funny because it's true.

reply to post by subject x

In my newest thread The Hidden Messages Within Music. I had an ignorance issue with a so-called "member"'s comment & ATS took care of it immediately.

It's funny and terrific you did this OP! I had noticed that once the terms "cognitive dissonance" and "straw man argument" were introduced into the ATS lexicon that I began to see those terms used in every fourth or fifth thread that I read. I had tried to determine by what method I might construct an experiment similar to yours in an effort to determine how "contagious" language selection might be in a controlled community such as our own. Thank you for doing this! I will be sure to check in regularly.

I must admit, now that I'm in top-secret territory, to having a somewhat shady past as a grammar nazi. But as I am reaching the infamy of middle-age, I've concluded that outcomes are far outweighed by intent. If a person would like to spend their time taking jerks down a few pegs, there are plenty out there with nefarious intentions who are probably aware they have it coming. Leave the ones who mean well alone.

ATS also makes users promptly aware of its international community. You never know when that user who can't decide which version of their/there/they're to use is actually a genius who has managed to add English to the list of foreign languages in which they're fluent. Hungarian PhD candidates have big conspiratorial minds too!

And it's totally embarassing when you use improper grammar after villifying another member for poor grammar or spelling. And it's almost a rule that once you bring a grammatical mis-step to another's attention, you will mimic that mis-step in-kind.

Just thought I'd update this, as a comparable amount of data has been gathered.
The ratio is still about 5:1 in favor of the wrong usage.

For whatever that's worth...

I'd like to thank everyone who participated in this experiment, knowingly or not.