Killing peoples submissions for language

[Ylorea]

Hello All,

I know It has been a while since I was here, but I see one thing only got worse and again I remember part of the reason why I did not prioritze the citadel any higher.

Still people offer submissions, still there are some great conversations, but still people are virtualy shot for sometimes messing up their english.

Am I the only person here who understands that if you are not a native english speaker, punctuation and spelling may be a bit very difficult?

Why do you guys expect everybody to be perfect at english? I do not expect you to be perfect at French or Dutch either.

Hmmm, I do not feel much like being nice for a change... You know that most of you are rather under par at English as well? Most of you use american, plain old USA english and to be quite honest, that does not quite live up to the standards of official english that most of you pretend to follow.

Yours,

Ylorea

[kalabar]

Ylorea i totaly agree whith you. I don't kow why people get so picky over spelling and grammer, maybe they just can't spell words to well, but one thing i do know, Don't get on someones case as long as you can read what people say. I may not be the best speller but atleats you guys can read what i say.

[CaptainPenguin]

Hmmm, I do not feel much like being nice for a change... You know that most of you are rather under par at English as well? Most of you use american, plain old USA english and to be quite honest, that does not quite live up to the standards of official english that most of you pretend to follow.

Kalabar, did you see that part up there?
In addition, Kal- You are a native English speaker, and therefore, are not protected under the wording of Ylorea's statement.

Ylorea-
It would be much easier to be lenient in the correction of their stray English if they would tell us that they were not native English speakers.
That being said, I (since I feel that this is probably directed towards me) will try to back off a little.
As for American English, how does it not live up to British standards? How have I, an American, wronged the English language in any way? Is my typing somehow substandard? Give me proof that my American English is in any way inferior to British English.
*cuts off growing tirade*

[Ylorea]

To be honest, Kalabar is protected under my statement..... As far as I know, he never claims that people should perfect their spelling, which in turn means that my entire tirade was not directed at him at all.

To appease the captain, might I bring forward that you are, or at least where not the only one who would criticize people for punctuation, spelling and gramar?

To give you a simple point, proving the difference between English and American:
Native English speakers use about four times as many words regularly as native American speakers.

One of the funniest examples that I know is that in English, one has about six times as many words to explain the phenomena that water falls from the sky. (They beat dutch by a factor of four by the way.)

Some other nice ones:
Lorry and Truck (but truck in turn is used in English as well)
Lift and Elevator (Again elevator is used in English as well)

If you use a wordprocessor that knows different languages, just for fun, switch it to english (UK) and you will see the difference in  a fairly short amount of time.

No do not misunderstand me, I do not claim to be fluent in English, in the end, to be honest, I speak american. I'd be happy if people would consider me only fair or average at that language.

The point is: If you complain that punctuation, spelling and grammer should be perfect, then also be correct at your question. Do you want American or British English?

Yours,

Ylorea

p.s. If you feel that I have started the Tirade again, I am sorry. That was not my intention, my only intention was answering the points raised by the Captain.

[CaptainPenguin]

I meant my own tirade. You were very polite.

I don't understand how using more words makes English more "proper" than American. Could you possibly explain it?

[Ylorea]

The remark about English having more commonly used words as American does not imply that one or the other languages is better, it was made only to underline the fact that in fact these are two different languages.

The terrible thing with this discussion is that every time I hear a great example to underline the differences between American and English, they have long since slipped my mind by the time I come back to a computer that would allow me to post it here.

I will try and look up a couple of differences over night, but please be kind enough not to hold your breath over that space of time.

Oh yes, please realize I am only getting picky on the English / American difference since some people are realy picky on the spelling subject.

Yours,

Ylorea

[ephemeralstability]

I don't understand how using more words makes English more "proper" than American. Could you possibly explain it?

Captain, surely you meant properer ?

Being a native speaker of English English I can verify that there is no such thing as English English. There are many dialects of it, none of which have a valid claim to being "the true English" because there is no such thing! There are so many regional variations that (with regard to vocabulary) American English is just like another variant. As far as spelling goes, the differences are trivial.

However, I accept Ylorea's point that mods (a word from neither American nor English English, just Internet English) shouldn't post a comment criticising entirely on spelling and grammar. I think most of the mods agree with that too, so there's not much to argue about.

I also agree with Captain Penguin...when you read something that looks like this: "helo im clutz teh ninjer n i lik to rp howz u doin?" you want to take it to the nearest rubber and remove it from the face of the forum (or take an eraser to it, if you're using American). I think most of the mods agree with that too, so again there's not much to argue about.

ephe!

[CaptainPenguin]

As usual, Eph is very wise and level-headed.
Thank you, High Blue Archmage.

[Strolen]

Just wanted to chime in and say that eph hit it on the head. Spelling to the point that eph suggested (which kalabar more often then not falls directly into) just makes me grind my teeth and anything of any value held in the post/submission is lost.

In Strolen 2.0 those submissions will be immediately removed from general circulation and put into the "Submission requires edit" and mod approval to be resubmitted. The only reason they stay now is because the only way to get rid of them is to outright delete them. I don't like deleting except in certain cases. I won't say much about the spelling flames, while I may not agree with the tone sometimes, I do often agree with the thought and most of those submissions would have gone to the edit pile instead of sitting out collecting the flames.

The edit pile will also help with the non-english speaking members too. If it does get shoved to the edit pile they will be able to correspond with the mods/admins and privately work out and correct any problems whether it is grammar or just a horrible submission.

[eNiasni]

Oh dear. Funny how I see this after some other things. If having proper English spelling and other things is a prime necessity before posting any ideas, I’m pardon the language, s**t out of luck.

I know my spelling is horrible.  Half the time I run all my posts through word before posting, others I just type in the comment box depending upon the amount of working space I left on my comp.


I wonder if anyone has taken into consideration that even native born, Americans have reasons to be horrible at the English language, as do others who learn it as a second or third language.

I, in turn, was tossed from a few different schools in my early childhood during the stages of learning to read and write, and with it, my lessons in learning different things was whacked. I spell phonetically. Not to mention, some people have dyslexia which means they tend to flip things around and/or read backwards. I do pretty well on keeping my things straight (at least I try to) but arranging numbers is almost impossibility for me.  

Something tells me, if I ever post any submissions they’d go to the edit or delete piles.

^_;

[CaptainPenguin]

Bah!
You'll be fine.

[Strolen]

I think you misunderstand the level of misspelling that we speak of. Bad spelling happens.

For instance these are some of the kind of things that drive us insane. (taken directly out of threads. Name witheld to protect the guilty)

Is't posisble to me con fuse you enve more

i dnit mkae na ftare at lal

and

When trying to light a fish on fire under water always bring your futton.always remember your feet they are like papias filt with mouth wash.even though mouth wash tastes exciment.Its like the forking in the rode witha pope one the side.i will have cow with bob is a friend.no one kno..hipity hopity easters on its way.I apledege of aligence to the flag of the untited states of cats purr

And, yes, these are taken out of context and they aren't all like this, but these are examples of the spelling that drives us completely and utterly insane.

[Ylorea]

To be honest, the reason why I started this thread was not the flagarant disfunctional spelling that you mention here strolen.

The post that fired my anger had more language comment allong the line of:

He used the lift. Which according to most Americans is not English, because americans use a elevator.
However to english people, a elevator is the kind of automatic staircase you would find in large warehouses and shopping-malls.

The examples that Strolen brings to front will make my hair curl up in dispair as well.

Yours,

Ylorea

[Shadoweagle]

Escalator? At least in australia thats what the 'automatic staircases' are called. And Lift or Elevator is acceptable either way for us aussies. I dunno, maybe its one of those crazy 'american' things

[CaptainPenguin]

We call a lift an elevator, and an "automatic staircase" is an escalator.

[MoonHunter]

This is a comment I made in response to an item response from a member of the Barbarian Horde.

The posts here are held to proper English standards for three reasons.

1) This is a world wide site, so the English needs to be standard English so people who have English as a second or third language can understand the post. (So sure the natives can understand it, but someone from Austria might have a problem.) We are not asking for nor expecting perfect English, but we are asking for you to strive towards that as a goal.

2) Our non native speakers are typing in standard English, why can't you or the person who posts? Note: Even the posts in different languages here tend to be proper or standard in their diction and idioms.

3) Unlike most sites which come and go within a year or three (when their owner loses their url or free hosting), this site endures. That means every post is a legacy to future gamers. That is why every posts needs to at least be of a quality of expression equal to that responsibility.

[Strolen]

This entire discussion is still as relevant today as it was then.

[MoonHunter]

ping and thrown back to the front page