Finally 20 posts. Been reading ATS for over a year now and I have to say this before I say anything

Originally posted by pikestaff
I have noticed that the spell checker uses American spelling, such as 'color' but the UK citizens use 'colour' yep, underlined in red! so who is write? (sorry, right).

Sorry Charlie... and yours was right FIRST because we got it from you, then changed it, right?

For what it's worth, I love the way you spell it over there. More so than that, I love the way you people SAY it. Love English accents, and Scottish, and Irish, etc. Charming! I'm from the southeast U.S. so may I say y'all sound so cool!

Originally posted by new_here

Originally posted by pikestaff
I have noticed that the spell checker uses American spelling, such as 'color' but the UK citizens use 'colour' yep, underlined in red! so who is write? (sorry, right).

Sorry Charlie... and yours was right FIRST because we got it from you, then changed it, right?

For what it's worth, I love the way you spell it over there. More so than that, I love the way you people SAY it. Love English accents, and Scottish, and Irish, etc. Charming! I'm from the southeast U.S. so may I say y'all sound so cool!

Should be Cu lore or Ku lore again with the C and K sounds

Just a few calm observations on this perennially popular topic. I would feel deprived if we did not see this topic pop up every week or so. Even if you've lurked, surely you would have seen these in the past. But anyway...

1. WHAT spell checker? ATS does not have one. My browser doesn't have one. The only way I can use a spell checker is if I write it first in a word processor, correct it, then copy & paste over. I know, some of you DO have spell checkers. The point is that not all of us do.

2. color vs. colour, judgment vs. judgement. Snore. Wake me when you're through pointing these out. I can change my spell checker to use 18 different types of English, from Australian to Zimbabwean. If yours cannot, it's not my problem.

3. OF COURSE! OF COURSE! OF COURSE not all people here are Native English speakers!!!! Jesus Friggin' Christmas, I GET THAT! Every single time this comes up someone has to superciliously point this out as if no one has ever thought of it before. So I hereby give a 15% discount to every non-native English speaker on this board, plus, if it's obvious, I will never point out any mistakes to these folks at all. But usually, frankly, they write better English than native English speakers, so it's hard to tell.

4. Now, to all those folks who claim "it doesn't matter" and that all that matters is what you say, not how you say it, I call BS. It does matter. The better you present yourself, the more seriously you will be taken. The more egregious your grammar and spelling, the smaller the audience you will have. Few people, for example, will tolerate the "Wall of Text." You know the ones. Someone posts a long tirade about something in one long paragraph which appears as a huge block of text, start to finish. I say "tirade about something" because I have no idea what they are talking about. I bail before I find out. Judging by what others have said here, they feel the same way.

How much you can get away with varies. Most of us will tolerate an "it's" for an "its" It's an easy thing to screw up. And we'll pass over a "teh" for a "the" because now "teh" is in the dictionary, too. It's sort of a joke, but you can find it. But if you make a ton of mistakes all the time, it shows you are either woefully ignorant, or you don't care. Either way, it lessens your impact. It doesn't matter whether you like it or don't. Your audience is not universally forgiving. If your haughty about it, it's worse. If there were an "ignore" button, you'd be on it.

5. I suppose this is the place for a plea for tolerance. I'm old. I type with two fingers, and I often cannot see well enough to see what I've typed, even with bifocals. After the Eyedrops from Hell, it's well nigh impossible.

So please excuse my mistakes.