Concerning member suggestions

[Ben]

Recently we had a member who didn't follow our rules too well. He has been delt with, and hopefully he'll either leave our forum or start following our rules.

I just wanted to point out a few things in this post, mainly the fact that some people get extremely offended by posts consisting mainly of corrections in their posts. I would prefer if everyone would keep those suggestions to PMs. Those posts tend to just detract from the line of discussion anyway, so they would be best kept private.

In short, keep more personal suggestions to members in PMs to prevent potential problems.

Also, if you have any problems with a member or problems at all, please ask myself or another administrator or moderator about it. I'm sure we could help you out.

[MilkMan]

Yeah, I might like to add/reinforce that it definitely is offensive to simply post only corrections to a user's post. It makes them feel unwelcome.

At many of the large forums I've participated at, they have a rule against backseat moderating. This is basically when a member impersonates a moderator or takes actions (through posting) that is a moderator's job. Let the moderators do their work. That's what they're here for.

[joannaardway]

I think I have been guilty of this charge.

The odd mistake is fine to me, but I have reasons (not excuses) for my reality.

Posts need to be easily readable.

Everyone can use the Spell check button (even dyslexics) and everyone can capitalise properly, use full stops and the return key. If this were the case, I would have almost no problems with things.

As for my reasons:

I have mental "disabilities" that I share with my twin. I use the word "disabilities" carefully - in all truth I don't see it as a disability. It's more of a different perspective to me.

I experience a fairly mild form of autism (yes, it is rare in females, I'm just special), which in my case means I have obsessions over various things. (Water weapons being one of them)

Bad spelling is one of these things, so in truth I have "reverse dyslexia". I get as frustrated over bad spelling as a dyslexic does over having corrections listed (Possibly more so).

Also, if bad spelling or structure makes the post hard to read, this is doubly the case.

I like a set of rules to follow - people breaking or distorting them is really distressing to me.

I know it should be left to the mods, but I can't help but comment - if I don't it can distress me for hours.

So those are my reasons - it's not easy to admit them, but I want to show the other side of the argument.

But, to redeem myself, I apologise for any offense I have caused to users by excessive commenting on their posting - I don't want to drive away users.

To get back to topic:

To a certain extent, PMs aren't the right place to discuss this either.

If person A makes a suggestion to person B, this can result in person B responding in a less than pleasant manner if they feel offended.

At least in the middle of a forum, people are less likely to be unpleasant.

[Ben]

Don't worry about this too much. It's not that big of a problem. I just don't want the focus to be on spelling and grammar as it had been in the past. Rather, focus on what's important: water guns! Still, please do offer suggestions to people when they really need it. I do not want to promote poor writing.

Don't think you're too bad either joanna. I went literally insane last year and years before over spelling. Our rules required the spell check to be used, and the first thing I did to many new members was tell them to spell correctly.

I do believe that I am mostly incapable of reading poor spelling and grammar. It takes me much longer to read poorly written material, and that is not just from the lack of writing form, but from my inability recognize what the words actually say. Needless to say, nearly every time I or someone else gave spelling suggestions, I received a complaint, and some people claimed the forum was getting "tense," which was somewhat true. Since then, I've changed my policies a bit and tried harder to read incorrect spellings.

I do find it unusual that even with a spell check feature, some people still are incapable of using it. The feature is there for a reason.

[Monsoon]

You have to consider that most of the time, people who don't use proper spelling, grammar, or punctuation are too lazy to bother to use the spell checker. It's one extra process they have to go through when all they want to do is get there post up. You have to think like one of them to come up with this :P

[DX]

If this was the case, I would have almost no problems with things.

If this were the case.

Heh, ignore that, I'm just having fun. English grammar is one of my strong points. The last time I used spell check on a school essay was in 1999 and with a word processor which no longer exists. I don't even know where spell check is on newer programs such as WordPerfect. I do make stupid spelling errors sometimes, and typos all the time. But I'm long past caring about how others botch up the language, since I hear and see so many mistakes even by the most authoritative of people. Heck, I found a major typo in the grading rubric for New Jersey's High School Proficiency Assessment test, in the "Spelling and Grammar" section of all places!

When I see terrible S & G in a post, I may ask the poster to consider cleaning it up in the future, but rarely press further. I do understand that English is not everyone's strength and therefore don't give people a hard time.

Needless to say, nearly every time I or someone else gave spelling suggestions, I received a complaint, and some people claimed the forum was getting "tense," which was somewhat true. Since then, I've changed my policies a bit and tried harder to read incorrect spellings.

Few people can sense discontent and overall public opinion the way I can. I usually can tell how certain policies affect the membership down to the very grass roots and to what extent. Most of the time, I am right to the point when talking about such things, since I hate the way people always play down problems. Acting like nothing's wrong/playing down every problem will get someone in trouble one day, and most likely it will be a certain arrogant government of a certain arrogant nation.

[Spinner]

Originally Posted by joannaardway

To a certain extent, PMs aren't the right place to discuss this either.

If a moderator or admin were to send the offender a friendly PM, coupled with a constructive on-topic post in the offending topic, most reasonable people would not have a problem with being corrected in that way.

[MilkMan]

Basically, make your corrections to other people's posts private because everybody can see public corrections. If you don't want to PM them yourself, report their post to a moderator.

[joannaardway]

I've corrected the "was" "were" issue - that isn't a problem to me - everyone can see what that was meant to say.

When words run into each other likethis, it is to say the least, slightly more taxing to read. I can manage that though.

Fine, I can take spelling errors. Missing spaces, capitalisations, full stops and uses of the return key are what make posts hard to comphrend. A more minor point linked to capitalisation is EXCESSIVE CAPITALISATION IN POSTS. IT MAKES YOU SEEM LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING.

These four (maybe five) things aren't hard and everyone can manage them (evin poeple wiht speelinig prooblums), so perhaps this should be stressed above spelling (although the spell checker is even less effort to use) because of the larger effect on the post understandability.