[67ragtopStang]

Am I the only one that gets annoyed by posts that have little or no punctuation and use no capital letters to start a sentence? This "Chat Room" style often has "run on" sentences with no breaks. I find it hard to follow.

[Veronica]

Hello. The English language has really taken a beating over the last couple of decades.

[Aquacop]

Texting & the like have made people even lazier as well with how they write & talk. Computers are turning most people into a bunch of machine dependents that will be totally lost if/when the whole system crashes.

[smokeshow]

I'll second that motion.

I know exactly the posts you mean. They're the ones you have to read through two or three times to get an idea of what they're saying.

At first I thought you meant the AOL-speak ('u', '2', '4', 'r') garbage, which is only slightly less annoying.

I can't say that it absolutely correlates with age, since I've seen 18 year old folks write very literate posts, and 40 year olds write like a 16 year old on their MySpace page!

A possible technical reason is that this editor depends on JavaScript to be enabled in the browser, and if it isn't, it expects raw HTML code. So, if a non-JavaScript user puts their post in paragraphs, it shows up in a big blob of text. However, this theory seems to be disproved by the lack of capitalization and punctuation in the posts.

My personal theory is that people that read for enjoyment tend to be better writers. I won't claim that I'm a great writer, but I really enjoy reading, and I try to make my posts clear and easy to follow.

[Aquacop]

The more time I spend on forums reading posts, the more I realize that illiteracy is probably more of a problem than most people realize. I don't say this as a joke or in a derogatory manner, I just find it pretty sad.

[billthecougnut]

Now, I don't see a problem with the abreviated language used in a "chat" forum. People have developed it as a time saver, to keep the conversation fluid like a face to face. If I can use 4 instead of for, for example, or for an even bigger example. b4, instead of typing before. I have saved myself 4 keystrokes. It seems trivial, but in the end, they add up, and by having an abreviated language, it becomes easier to keep the speed up.

I do however often laugh when someone has posted in a regular forum, and clearly does not have a grasp of the english language. It is one thing if you are a foreigner, and learning our language, but for the most part, the people who are the worst offenders, are home grown.

my pet peeve: duel instead of dual.

I have yet to see a set of mufflers, battle it out to the death in a duel. I do however have dual mufflers on my pony.

[white angel]

Most of the time I try to have the structure of my posts conform to the English language however, there are times when in a crunch I forget or I don't catch it. I agree it is easier to follow a thread when you can understand the intent behind the posting.
LOL I don't think I've made any mistakes above

[smokeshow]

Originally Posted by billthecougnut

People have developed it as a time saver, to keep the conversation fluid like a face to face.

True, and I can see how that helps in a "live" chat conversation, if typing speed is an issue. But in forums that are more asynchronous, where many more people are reading a thread, I'd rather folks spent the extra time to write clearly.

Originally Posted by billthecougnut

I have yet to see a set of mufflers, battle it out to the death in a duel. I do however have dual mufflers on my pony.

That's when you connect the left exhaust to the right exhaust to form a loop, and rev until the engine blows up! ;-)

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by white angel

Most of the time I try to have the structure of my posts conform to the English language however, there are times when in a crunch I forget or I don't catch it. I agree it is easier to follow a thread when you can understand the intent behind the posting.
LOL I don't think I've made any mistakes above

Hi again.
You forgot three commas. Jk I thought that I would throw the 'jk' in to demonstrate that I am capable of typing like a moron, I simply choose not to. Although, I do have a brother that still refers to me as Moronica occasionally.

[ITLRUN]

I don't know, why everyone is so upset over punctuation in a forum. So, they call it a chat room what's the big deal? And your right, everything is not happening at the same time. Calm down everyone, it's just a place to exchange B.S.. Like the word says forum, somebody has somethhing say then someone comes up with an answer or remark. Listen to yourself, your blood is boiling over what? Simple punctuation in a forum, well don't let it get to you. The way your going right now, you sound like your ready to vapor-lock. If it bothers you that much, stay out and it won't get to you. Half the threads, in this forum are all that way. We're not being graded on our threads, or on our posts if that was the case then we would all FAIL, Mike. SCT Tuner. P.S. That's why, I stay out of chat rooms.

[67ragtopStang]

I'm not worked up, but people using this forum are generally asking for help with a particular problem with their cars. If I have to read it 2-3 times just to figure out what the guy needs help with, it gets annoying.

[66Sprint200]

I get very annoyed by it. I abbreviate texts using 4, u, ur, etc. but I still use punctuation, and capitols where necessary. But I have noticed something, and I mean absolutely no offense to anybody, but it is people from the US that are the culprits.

[67ragtopStang]

Originally Posted by 66Sprint200

.... but it is people from the US that are the culprits.

True, but I'd guess that probably 95%, or higher, of the members in this forum are Americans.

The other thing that annoys me is using the word LIKE where it's not needed. This seems to be used more in spoken conversation than typed.

"I like went to the store and like bought a coke and like it cost like $2!"

[smokeshow]

I'm not trying to single this guy out by any means, but this is exactly the style of post this thread is discussing:

http://www.allfordmustangs.com/forum...ml#post1587629

[66Sprint200]

That's appauling. What is even sadder is that half the replies to the initial post are in the same style.