This is not English

I really hate it when people post without using good english. Its just a waste of our time and a waste of MyLots money. This is an english forum and everyone should be competent in english before particpating, its a reasonable expectation.

Have you ever seen any homestarrunner.com episodes? Theres this character named Strong Bad and he is the "Spelling" Nazi and it's absolutley hilarious in the ways he rips people apart. But yes, I agree with you on this subject. I think that this site was originally intended for Americans but it seems to have a majority of people from other countries. Not sure whats up with that. But yahoo! answers does the exact same thing and has fluently english people on it... but alot of teenagers and thats just annoying... no $$ though... thats why I LOVE MYLOT!

I'm pretty sure a few users who aren't native english speakers would like to express themselves better, but they simply don't know how. I've seen that happen.

Yes, this is my obsevation too and someone made a comment that it is a new dialect of english language or corruption whatever and it is fast developing in the use of cell phones and in the internet communication. I don't know if it can be stopped. Maybe the best way is for us to remind people just like what your posting did. Cheers.

Yes, and we do get people asking for help with their English. We seem to have two basic formats for usage. Most of us stick to plain English, but people from other forums are obviously using their usual forms. Netbabble is heartily loathed by some of us, but in context with usage, it's also the text version of the language. People do need to understand slang in any language, however insufferable. You'll find posts written in good English are always welcome.

I think that it's important to make sure that our writings are intelligible, but then again, some people who write the less understandable messages may not be as familiar with the language as you might think. Lots of people use MyLot to practice their English skills and are native speakers of another language. I know some people who are so fluent in their second... third... fourth languages that you would never know they weren't native, but I also know some other people who struggle with the placement and pronunciation of their words. I'm sure we have many of both kinds of people on mylot, and I like to take that into consideration before I judge someone for misusing grammar or spelling a word wrong. However, I agree that many people here are careless with their grammar and typos.

I do my best to type and spell correctly and think that the bi-linguals here on mylot do wonderfully. I can only speak English and findit amazing how well they all do. the only abbreviation I tend to use is lol (lots of laughs) or ADHD which is one of my sons special needs.

some of the users of mylot did not read the guidelines of mylot that is why they are abusing the use of this forum.

Well the only thing i do agree on with you is part about reading your post before you post it, because sometimes people just dont post accurate things or too much typos.

there are different kinds of people here in mylot with different personalities and nationalities. let us understand and be extra considerate to those who cannot really express themselves in english. but it would be rather nice and better if people respond in english.

I tend to skip topics made up of text talk or those I really struggle to understand. I think those people who are genuinely tryign to learn english and are using this site to help them should preview their post before they send it and see if it makes sense to them and if they think it is right, spend some time over it. Or even better, perhaps there could be a mentoring system where those conscientious people who want to learn can make some friends who are native english speakers and send what they want to send to them to check before they actually post it. I wouldn't mind doing that, it would mean a better standard of posts and they would learn better if they actually typed out what they wanted to say and then had it checked and edited - they could see where they went wrong and learn from it! I also think one of the problems is that people will reply to these posts, thus increasing the author's earnings and they will then write more and more. Perhaps if we all ignored these text talk topics they would get the idea and start to use proper english.

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I join in Mylot community through friend invited because I want to improve my English. But when I read some posts, I find it difficult to understand due to a lot of shortchuts or slang. Sometimes I bewildered, does Mylot really help me to learn English?

You're absolutely right. It does say in the "guidelines" that we should post only in English since the staff is not bilingual. Apart from that reason, I think it's really good that we are required to write only in one language. It's a good opportunity to practice writing "good English". And I do get the point that it can be annoying that some members write incoherent posts just for the sake of increasing their earnings. The nationality of the culprit(s) does not really matter. Fact is, it's simply unfair for those who put in a lot of effort in what they post.

if you are talking about the internet speak, then I am guilty. I will be the first to say "lol and rofl"...I see no problem with those since most people who are on these chat sites usually are pretty net savvy. However, I do agree with you that I have seen the bad posts of sentences not making sense...words missing, etc. I have even gotten so aggravated, that I just quit reading that post and went to another one. I agree that people need to re-read their posts before pressing the POST RESPONSE button.

I understand that, but remember almost active people in here comes from outside America or in simple ways I can say no more than 40 percent user in mylot really understand how to spell and say something in English language. as long you can understand what they write I think it's fair enough to get respect.

I can understand some spelling errors and typos. I make them too. I don't personally mind someone trying to wrote the best english that they can and me making the extra effort to understand them and sometimes they are very hard to understand. What I do mind is some people who make no effort to communicate in english on here and than call Americans dumb.

i agree with you ,every member should post and respond the topics seriously avoiding typing the wrong words or short cuts just for more posts and responce, and mylot should also give no pennys to such members.

Hi, I am Italian. Unfortunately I have not studied English, but I try to translate my thoughts with a good translator. Unfortunately must apologize me for any mistakes, but hope that who he reads mine post, am able to understand.

You're right, I've found so many posts that have all these shortened words in them and even after reading them and then re-reading them (sometimes out loud) they still do not make any sense to me. These are the posts I just skip over.

yes i truly agree with u that excessive use of shortcuts has degraded english...one must use such shourtcuts in official langaguge as it givs negative response to the reader....