Towards 2009: The First Programme For The Glorious Advancement of the Machine Nation Project.

905 wrote:

You know, I hadn't even noticed lostexpectation was gone. The only thing I can I can remember about him was the atrocious spelling, which reflects badly on either him or me.

Oh, yeah. lostexpectation didn't seem to know that capital letters existed. I tried fixing up his posts to ensure grammatical consistency, but it just didn't have an effect.

Yes it did Ard-T. It made him leave.

It wasn't only you that tampered with his posts

cactus flower wrote:

It wasn't only you that tampered with his posts

I didn't tamper with his posts, I fixed up spelling and grammar. That isn't tampering, it's perfecting.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

It wasn't only you that tampered with his posts

I didn't tamper with his posts, I fixed up spelling and grammar. That isn't tampering, it's perfecting.

My sin was insertion of quotation marks where none were intended. I don't think I would like it if someone 'improved' my posts. I think lostexpectation's meaning can be understood very clearly, and that is the main thing. If we change someone else's posts I don't think we can be sure that we haven't altered the intended meaning.

Auditor #9 used to pm me telling me my spelling was atrocious - I thought I had improved it but now I'm wondering if it was you.

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

It wasn't only you that tampered with his posts

I didn't tamper with his posts, I fixed up spelling and grammar. That isn't tampering, it's perfecting.

My sin was insertion of quotation marks where none were intended. I don't think I would like it if someone 'improved' my posts. I think lostexpectation's meaning can be understood very clearly, and that is the main thing. If we change someone else's posts I don't think we can be sure that we haven't altered the intended meaning.

I see. I can understand lostexpectation's posts very well. However, the constant neglect of the capital letter and the paucity of punctuation got my pedant goat. I simply sorted out capital letters, commas, full stops and so on. The meaning wasn't changed, in fact it was clarified and made more persuasive.

Quote :

Auditor #9 used to pm me telling me my spelling was atrocious - I thought I had improved it but now I'm wondering if it was you.

My standard of spelling is evident from the body of posts to my name here in the Machine Nation and on P.ie. While I don't claim to be perfect, I certainly endeavour to achieve the highest possible standard.

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

Ard-Taoiseach wrote:

cactus flower wrote:

It wasn't only you that tampered with his posts

I didn't tamper with his posts, I fixed up spelling and grammar. That isn't tampering, it's perfecting.

My sin was insertion of quotation marks where none were intended. I don't think I would like it if someone 'improved' my posts. I think lostexpectation's meaning can be understood very clearly, and that is the main thing. If we change someone else's posts I don't think we can be sure that we haven't altered the intended meaning.

I see. I can understand lostexpectation's posts very well. However, the constant neglect of the capital letter and the paucity of punctuation got my pedant goat. I simply sorted out capital letters, commas, full stops and so on. The meaning wasn't changed, in fact it was clarified and made more persuasive.

Quote :

Auditor #9 used to pm me telling me my spelling was atrocious - I thought I had improved it but now I'm wondering if it was you.

My standard of spelling is evident from the body of posts to my name here in the Machine Nation and on P.ie. While I don't claim to be perfect, I certainly endeavour to achieve the highest possible standard.

I think the example of your spelling and grammar alone will raise the standard.

cactus flower wrote:

I think the example of your spelling and grammar alone will raise the standard.

Well, I have a personal policy of looking through my postage and ensuring that none of it bears any spelling irregularities. I feel it makes me think more deeply about what I want to say, whether I should say it and how clear does it communicate it.

The effectiveness of this policy bears an inverse relationship to how much alcohol I have consumed!

Your policy is effective. Auditor and I have noticed a tendency for some (including me) to spell in a loopy way (here instead of hear, for example) when posting, something I would not normally do.

I'm not sure of the reason for it.

cactus flower wrote:

Your policy is effective. Auditor and I have noticed a tendency for some (including me) to spell in a loopy way (here instead of hear, for example) when posting, something I would not normally do.

I'm not sure of the reason for it.

It could be something to do with the difference of the look of words here to those that are written down in RL. I, personally, despise the usage of "loose" in the place of "lose" on the web. I feel like giving these reprobate recidivists a good smack.

cactus flower wrote:

Your policy is effective. Auditor and I have noticed a tendency for some (including me) to spell in a loopy way (here instead of hear, for example) when posting, something I would not normally do.

I'm not sure of the reason for it.

I've noticed myself doing this more and more and it goes uncorrected if I don't scan my posts like Ard-Taoiseach does his. Am convinced it's related to speaking rather than writing because the words that get misspelt are almost always words that sound the same as in cactus' example. Anyone else notice this? I don't think I've ever done this while writing but then we don't write in the same way as we post messages - posting is more like what we do when we're speaking and the spoken word is a sound without any visual form.