Re: Bad grammar on the list (was Append?)

[Steve Fouts <sfouts -at- ELLISON -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM>]

Karen Merrell writes:

|} I subscribed to this forum a couple of weeks ago, and have been
|} reading it with awe and wonder ever since.  I think the subjects
|} are fascinating, the information is helpful, and the writers
|} sincere.  BUT!  I am appalled at the spelling, grammar, etc., that
|} appears.  I know the notes are informal, but SO MANY errors
|} show up - for instance, "you're" for "your" - that good writers
|} never make, even when they write their grocery lists!  It really
|} makes me wonder if the forum ought to stop emphasizing *getting*
|} a job and start emphasizing *doing* much better on the job you have.

As my Dad is fond of saying, "Rule 1 is ``don't sweat the small stuff''
and rule two is ``it's all small stuff.''"

o The net is extremely informal.

o The net is an international forum, so you can't assume that everyone
  speaks English as a native language.

o Mail tools, as a general rule, don't have spell checkers.

o Everyone is in a hurry.

o Not every ``writer'' on the list is a touch typist.

o The brain is very often quicker than the fingers (as I write this, my
  brain is on page three, my fingers are still hacking out the first
  paragraph). (aha! it started as a paragraph, became a bulleted list,
  and I didn't go back and edit out the reference to the paragraph!)

o You have never seen one of my grocery lists.

and lastly,

o Spelling and grammar flames such as yours are bad "netiquette," even on
  a writer's list.

Of course, you were also guilty of two other minor "net sins;" the
unrelated subject header (Append), and the abrupt change of topic within
your post without so much as a paragraph break or decent segue. <sigh>

But we will forgive you your sins and hope that you will forgive us too,
if we have apalled you.

******************** Steve Fouts
*     _    ___     * sfouts -at- ellison -dot- sc -dot- ti -dot- com
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