Why are we so literal?

G

greenfreak

New Member
After being away for a while, I had forgotten how literal OTC can be. Why is that? What's the desired impact of correcting people on their choice of words, facts, spelling & grammar? Do you really think that helps them? Because it's a way to show superiority, that you think you know more than they do? To poke fun at them?

I haven't been misunderstood by my words on the internet in a while. I had also forgotten that I had struggled with that here. Maybe I don't come across as a hard-assed bitch and it's the perception and need to nitpick on the receiving end that's the issue. :laugh:
 
That also happens more often in real life now :shrug:
Must be the information era.
 
Your choice of words expresses your meaning. If it is unclear, or is poorly written, the meaning changes. If the facts are incorrect, the base on which a debate is built is shaky. That is especially important in the RW. Politics..it's the new 30.

Grammar & spelling...dunno. It's easy to figure out who is bad at them compared to those who type poorly or are in a hurry.

Much of it the sense of the thread, I think. Answering a question, in print, is harder than answering one in person. Was it asked facetiously? Rhetorically? For knowledge?
 
RW and facts I can understand. I know it's not possible to have an opinion without documentation there. ;-)

But if I type "your" instead of "you're" and you know what I mean, I don't see the need to make an example out of it. I think I'm a pretty darn good speller, but I've been corrected before on few-and-far-between errors.

I suppose if the message is clear, that's all I need to know.

Who was the older member who doesn't post anymore - Renegade? I could barely read his posts sometimes because he typed with an accent. :laugh:
 
Yeah, don't know what happened to him. Sammy, you been in touch with him lately?

iff'n y' read this 'ere thread, renny, 'mon back, we miss ya! :beerbang:

I love to read all the different styles of writing on the net. Even here, it can be as diverse as a UN congregation...

I don't believe I've ever been the type to point out someone's grammatical mistakes, partly because I personally don't give half a shit and partly cause I make em myself. :lloyd:

However, if someone is trying to talk to me with "txt spk", as many on instant messenger and in my game do, I will kindly point out that I can only read attempts at full English. And by kindly, I mean I'll slap them around a bit with a large bag of vowels. :trout: In this case, they're technically not mistakes, but intentionally saving themselves half a second worth of extra keystrokes to cost me an extra 10 seconds in reading and comprehension time.
 
"literal" is something that americans have a clear cultural predisposition toward. going back centuries.
 
greenfreak said:
After being away for a while, I had forgotten how literal OTC can be. Why is that? What's the desired impact of correcting people on their choice of words, facts, spelling & grammar? Do you really think that helps them? Because it's a way to show superiority, that you think you know more than they do? To poke fun at them?

I haven't been misunderstood by my words on the internet in a while. I had also forgotten that I had struggled with that here. Maybe I don't come across as a hard-assed bitch and it's the perception and need to nitpick on the receiving end that's the issue. :laugh:
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I've been doing it all my life. :shrug:
 
I've been known to be slightly pedantic,but its usually for comic effect i.e. "drive through" vs "drive in" or pointing out the error in someones correction/complaint about another persons post.

Remember to, that we have members from around the world and sometimes whether it be a brain fart on our part or we just do not have a frame of reference to understand their wording,sometimes we just have to ask for a rephrasing of the thought.

I honestly do not think anyone here thinks their own posts are without error ,enough to "correct" everyones grammar.

I know my punctuation is atrocious ,but if my placing a comma in the wrong place makes the sentence humorous then by all means point it out,but I don't think anyone has ever corrected me maliciously???
 
Oh ,and aren't we being more "pedantic " than "literal" ? :chuckles:

:nerd: *you wouldn't hit a guy with glasses would you.
 
I'm pretty pedantic when it comes to written spanish, but only for those who is their primary language. I didn't use to be like that, but after 7 years of higher education in computer science one just can't avoid to look for errors in the wording (i.e wrong logic).
 
A.B.Normal said:
Remember to, that we have members from around the world and sometimes whether it be a brain fart on our part or we just do not have a frame of reference to understand their wording,sometimes we just have to ask for a rephrasing of the thought.
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That should be too.





*peepwall*
 
fury said:
However, if someone is trying to talk to me with "txt spk", as many on instant messenger and in my game do, I will kindly point out that I can only read attempts at full English. And by kindly, I mean I'll slap them around a bit with a large bag of vowels. :trout: In this case, they're technically not mistakes, but intentionally saving themselves half a second worth of extra keystrokes to cost me an extra 10 seconds in reading and comprehension time.
Click to expand...

It doesn't even save much time on a keyboard, really. It saves time on a text message since you don't have to press 2 666 8 444 333 444 7777 33 7777 8 2 -wait a sec- 22 555 444 7777 44 6 33 66 8 2 777 444 2 66 444 777 6 to type antidisestablishmentarianism on a keyboard like you do on a phone, and also saves space because texts are limited to 160 characters. But those limits aren't on IMs or other places on the internet, so they do nothing but make things harder to read.
 
I'm so used to it now I'm not sure how I'd be able to hide texting on a keyboard phone at work now.
 
I text so little, I mean actual text messaging, but I do email from my phone quite a bit. I would be so frustrated with pushing this many times for that letter etc. Do you ever use the predictive script?
 
Yeah... lifesaver. Problem is, to do dot dot dot, I have to type 111 and then hit the 0 (next) key 15 times. If I type 111 and hit next three times, I get ^_^ and so on... my predictive text can also learn new words.
 
It's da netz... and the main problem with da netz is that you can't see what people have in mind when they're typing.... other than the odd j/k or :) or :D :( X) etc... you're taking it all as-is. It's tough enough trying to figure out what people meant to say as it is...but add grammatical errors, and spelling debacles and it's like talking pig-latin with an aural-dyslexic. :shrug:
 
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