Literacy in this newsgroup (Electric hedge trimmer thread)

[Badger]

Those that feel the need to be pedantic should join uk radio-amateur news group, make it easier for the rest of us....

Niel.

[gparr]

Extracted from the 'Electric hedge trimmer' thread:

> The Natural Philos>> >>>If they are slower growing conifers, your method is even stupider. I >>>drasticlally pruned my mothers holly hedge that had taken about 25 years >>>to grow. It looked like shit for 6 months, now it loks better than >>>efver. Grubbing it out and replacing would not have restored it till >>>long after her death. >>> >>> >> Since when has holly been a conifer? >> > > >I nkow, but its teh ame principle. If its very slow growing it takes >years to get back to size, so pribune it not replace it. > >If its very fast growintg it wil repair itself in weeks, so prune it, >don't replace it. > >The ONLY rteaopsn to grub out a hedge is to replace it woeth soomethjing >else, removce it entirely, or because whats there is so old and rotten >that nothng else is feasible.

I don't do it often and it's regrettable now, but I've finally decided to invoke the power of the kill filter. Can anybody here understand this garbage without spending five minutes trying to decipher all these meaningless words? Do you disrespect us all so much that you can't be bothered to READ and correct what you have written before sending? I can't believe that you have a learning difficulty and a sound reason for this appalling illiteracy. The odd typo and spelling mistake here and there is common and acceptable, but this amount is just plain bone idleness and disrespectful to everybody else.

Big noises are made about top posting, crossposting and all sorts of other crap, so why hasn't anybody complained about all the extra time wasted trying to work out what point, if any, that you are trying to make? Even foreigners struggling with English in our newsgroups put up a better effort than this.

I have no complaints about any of the advice or comments that you give. It has become just too damned difficult to read.

[Grunff]

What exactly is the point of your rant? If you don't like what someone has to say, or how they say it, just killfile them - no one cares who you've killfiled. If you can't see past a few spelling mistakes, and you use them as a yardstick by which to judge someone's usefulness as a group contributor, then that's your loss.

AFA top posting is concerned, yes, it's damned annoying, but I've never killfiled anyone just for top posting.

[John Woodhall]

Personally it provokes a great deal of enjoyment from myself. I find it most amusing to have to graphically decipher this meaningless gobbledegook. Any other people on here who find it nuffy?

[Christian McArdle]

I notice it, but don't find it slows down my reading. I suspect people are just wired differently in their perception and some find it more difficult than others when confronted with disjointed letters.

Christian.

[Andy Hall]

"The only reason to grub out a hedge is to replace it with something else, remove it entirely or because what's there is so old and rotten that nothing else is feasible"

It didn't take me any longer to read this - and certainly not five minutes,.

How do you know that that is the reason?

Personally, I take a look at the quality of the ideas behind what somebody is posting, and TNP almost invariably posts good ones on a whole range of subjects.

Certainly this does not suggest to me any lack of respect. Some people think much faster than they type. There are numerous other possible reasons so why jump to conclusions?

Nobody is forcing you to read his posts, so I don't understand why you are making such a big issue out of it.

Top posting etc. is very annoying and takes far longer to work through because the ideas and who said what become disconnected.

This is labelled as a specifically UK group, and although nobody is excluded, the relevance in terms of techniques, materials etc. relate to the UK.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Nick Brooks]

Personally I don't mind people making typos but find spelling mistakes more annoying.

As others have said TNP frequently makes helpful or informed comments. His style is a bit 'unusual' but the only thing I don't 'get' is when he corrects other peoples spelling mistakes as in this post:-

Brooks

[Lurch]

On Tue, 4 May 2004 15:22:59 +0100, in uk.d-i-y "John Woodhall" strung together this:

Not as much as not trimming posts.

[Lee]

snip

Quite agree. It's also easier to read NP's posts than the "text speak" and profanity that abounds in other groups ...

Lee

[nightjar]

Experiments suggest that most people can make sense of a word provided that the first letter and last letters are correct and most of the rest are present somewhere between them.

Colin Bignell

[nightjar]

It is my understanding that spell checkers do not work with some of the programmes that the severely disabled use. Therefore, when I see something like this, I assume that the writer is probably typing the words out with a pencil held in the mouth, or something similar, cannot run a spell checker and would find it a serious exertion to correct any mistakes. Of course, it could be a combination of speed typing and dyslexia. Either way, if I find it too difficult to understand, I just ignore it.

Colin Bignell

[The Natural Philosopher]

I make typographical errors. I never make spelling mistakes.

I am a two finger typist that can achieve about 100wpm. Faster than most touch typists.

What I cannot achieve at that speed is touch typing accuracy.

If my words are misspelt, it's from laziness,or lack of time, not ignorance.

I ahppen to make a distinction, You may not.

[Peter Taylor]

Andy Hall wrote

I remember reading in another group how a university Professor has a theory that accuracy in spelling is really unnecessary as long as the first and last letter of each word are correct. If they are, then the eye tends to miss the mistakes. There was a much better example, but try reading (quickly) the same passage below:

"The olny rsn to grb out a hdge is to rplce it wth smthg esle, rmove it entrly or bcse whts thre is so old and rttn tht nthg else is fsible."

Personally, as long as I can make sense of it I have no probs with typos/spelling mistakes. I'd mch rther hve that thn the crospstd infntle crp tht we hve bn sbjctd to rcntly.

Peter

[Bob Mannix]

Clearly not ignorance but perhaps discourteous to the reader (an old-fashoined concept I know). OTOH much better than the "crospstd infntle crp" as you say. Of course such lazy/careless posters do (unintentionally) invent good words to make up for the slight irritation. "Pribune" ought to be a word, even if it isn't.

[Nick Brooks]

I wasn't suggesting that you are ignorant, just surprised that you should care how others spell when you don't bother to correct your own mistakes

Nick Brooks

[Jim]

GPARR NEEDS A SWIFT KICK IN A DELICATE PLACE. CONSIDER THE FACT THAT THE ELDERLY AND DISABLED ARE TRYING VERY HARD TO USE THE INTERNET. SOME CAN SPELL AND SOME CAN'T. SOME HAVE FINGERS TWICE THE SIZE OF THE KEYS AND ARE PROBABLE LOOKING THROUGH NHS SPECS TO EVEN FIND THE KEYBOARD. ALL-HOWEVER ARE USUALLY LOOKING FOR USEFUL ADVICE AND HAVE SOMEHOW COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE TO GET IT. I'M SURE THEY WOULD HELP GPARR EVEN IF HE SPELLED IDIOT WRONG. MAYBE WE SHOULD BE MORE TOLERANT TO OUR FELLOW MAN AND GIVE HELP RATHER THAN VERBAL ABUSE.

[Ian Stirling]

It vraeis wtih teh nbumer of sylables, and cna be incomprensible to peolpe in Lslywhirlpoolgangtyrannicidecrywryfowlgallglobgoggwynlollh.

[mike ring]

The Natural Philosopher wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@b.c:

That sounds like a challenge

mikje

[Jerry.]

Say 'ello to the other idiots in my kill file, even IMM hasn't had that privilege !

[Owain]

"Jim" wrote | GPARR NEEDS A SWIFT KICK IN A DELICATE PLACE. CONSIDER THE FACT THAT THE | ELDERLY AND DISABLED ARE TRYING VERY HARD TO USE THE INTERNET. SOME CAN | SPELL AND SOME CAN'T. SOME HAVE FINGERS TWICE THE SIZE OF THE KEYS AND ARE | PROBABLE LOOKING THROUGH NHS SPECS TO EVEN FIND THE KEYBOARD.

Fair enough, but caps lock is third from the bottom on the extreme left of the keyboard.

Owain