Banned for Wanting Grammar!

[Magewout]

Originally Posted by Grandiagod

All the people I talk to from Belgium use lots of emoticons. Not that it's bad or anything, that's just an observation.

And by "all of the people" I mean one other person.

I must find more Belgians on the internet and verify this hypothesis.

Well IRL I'm a very sarcastic person, and most of what I say is meant in an ironic way. When talking to friends using MSN I'm kinda forced to indicate whether I'm being serious or not, and it has become a habit to do the same on forums. We rely heavily on non-verbal signs.

@Squeek: I'm not going to quote your whole post because the pages get stretched out for me and it's annoying to keep scrolling, but here's my reply:
I completely understand your point about writing formal letters, in a formal context, but alas, the internet is mostly informal, and therefore you can't really blame people for abbreviating their words.

If someone's grammar gets messed up because they're used to typing everything wrong - well let them learn it the hard way. Keep in mind that the internet population that uses MSN and/or browses forums is between 10 and 20 years old. Most kids that age are stubborn. Chances are that the only thing they won't do when you correct them, is to type in a correct way. Correcting kids has the opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve.

You'd think people are smart enough to know that when writing a formal letter/job application/resumé(sp?) you should present yourself as perfect, including perfect spelling etc. If they aren't, they don't deserve the job anyway.