Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 18:56:15 -0700 From: Chad Perrin <perrin@apotheon.com> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: top posting (off-topic) Message-ID: <20071126015615.GE29622@demeter.hydra> In-Reply-To: <20071123184838.GA18711@parts-unknown.org> References: <31AE442CCBC1094ABC40CE85B0149F06468CE8@MAIL1.registry.otago.ac.nz> <47470077.7030706@chrononomicon.com> <20071123184838.GA18711@parts-unknown.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Fri, Nov 23, 2007 at 10:48:38AM -0800, David Benfell wrote: > On Fri, 23 Nov 2007 11:31:51 -0500, Bart Silverstrim wrote: > > > > We have adults who can't be bothered to tell the difference > > between lose and loose in writing. Wonderful things encouraged by people > > justifying their lazy writing styles. > > > This might be slightly unfair. > > A large proportion of the population has *never* been able to spell correctly > or to use proper grammar. A difference between now, and a few years ago, is > that we are more often encountering their expressions in a written form, as > they, too, gain access to the Internet. I think it's kind of a chicken-and-egg problem: we don't really know for sure whether TOFU[1] posting spurred much of the rise of illiteracy or the increase of relative illiteracy on the Internet led to an increase in TOFU posting. Which came first? Ultimately, I think greater frequency of TOFU posting and a reduced average ability to order one's thoughts to compose meaningful discourse each contribute to the other. > > And an insistence on grammatical and spelling correctness is its own form of > elitism. Is it? In my case, it tends to be a couple of things, neither of which is particularly elitist as far as I can tell: 1. an attempt to help others learn how to think more clearly and express themselves more precisely 2. an easy way to filter those who do not think very clearly so I can spend more of my time on those who do, since better grammar and spelling (along with certain other communication skills) tends to be indicative of clearer thought I won't ignore someone who displays appalling lack of writing capabilities just because of poor spelling or grammar. I sometimes need to cut down on how much stuff gets read in a given day, so I have time to do something with the information I get from my reading, and when the need is great enough it's usually the people who don't communicate worth a damn that get cut first. -- CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ] Kent Beck: "I always knew that one day Smalltalk would replace Java. I just didn't know it would be called Ruby."
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20071126015615.GE29622>