Online discussions - where did punctuation, grammar and capitalization go?

Hi Tina...I wholeheartedly agree that that more people appear to be lazy with grammatics and spelling when participating in online discussions. It is distracting to try and focus when trying to read through these. BUT... I also try to recognize that because we are globalized there are people here as well as other forums where English is not their first language. Being mindful of this I try to be understanding and disregard the grammatical and spelling errors and do the best I can to understand the question/comment in order to reply.

Hi Tinamarie - I know exactly what you mean but, since there are obviously quite a lot of people on here for whom English is not their first language, I can forgive spelling and grammatical mistakes to some extent. However, what really gets me going is this latest thing for 'txt' talk. I understand the original need to keep words and sentences short - after all, people pay their mobile providers for texting and many get charged per letter. This doesn't apply online - we don't get charged per letter and I find postings like 'do u lyk brtny i thk she is gr8' drive me absolutely potty. It's lazy and ignorant and there's really absolutely no excuse whatsoever for it. This whole 'txting' revolution is causing widespread damage to our language and our children's grasp of it - I think it's a hugely worrying phenomenon.

" But you comment read if this is the grate work and it is knot....just annoys me." HUH? I hate this also but the rules state that we are not to comment on other's grammar or spelling so I do not. We all make mistakes and I even have spell check with firefox and still make boo-boos as it will not catch words that are spelled wrong but are actually other words.

Hi Tina...we share the same name (shhhhh, don't tell anyone this is ME..lol) That also irritates me, and when I read a discussion and say "huh?" I don't even bother replying to it. If the person couldn't take the time to make it at least right, I don't see why I should take the time to respond. :)

I get where you're coming from, I've read some really dire posts (punctuatio and grammar wise) on this and several other sites. It mostly bugs me on review writing sites where people get paid per read regardless of the ratings they receive when they don't bother to use correct grammar when have the ability to use spell check. Bit difficult on this site to type your text in Word, spell check it and then paste it here as you can't paste text till you've written over 500 posts. BUT there's always the preview response button so you can check how your post looks before you submit it permanently! I'm not expecting people who don't have English as their first language to write perfect English but I hate text speak on these sites and "i cant bare it wen peeps rite lik dis"! This aint the ghetto and it is not a text message where character limits prevent you from using full words! Even if English isn't your first language, people should try to get someone to check if their question makes sense. I have read some discussion topics which I really couldn't fathom what the member was trying to ask so I avoided responding. If others can't understand the discussion question, how are they to respond either? I work in Human Resources and have to read through 100s of CVs each month. You would not believe how many people make silly spelling or grammatical errors on such an important document, if they can do that, what hope have we for online discussions and writing sites?! There you go, my rant over too now LOL!

This drives me crazy too! I make allowances for people whose first language is not english. But for everyone else it's just laziness and ignorance, pure and simple. Does it really take that much longer to type "to you" instead of "2 u"? Chatspeak has taken over, and people are forgetting how to string sentences together coherently. Another thing that bothers me is using the wrong form of the word. There's a difference between "your" and "you're", and a big difference between "there, their, and they're". And if I see one more person say "I seen" instead of "I saw" I might just have to slap them. Someone on the news last night said that! On camera! I would have been mortified if I'd looked that stupid on television where everyone could see me. I despair for the public education system.