# Spelling and Grammar



## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

Ladies and Gentlemen.

The Heresy High Council has recently become concerned over the quality of spelling and grammar in many forum posts. We pride ourselves in being a forum of exceptional quality, and we would like it to remain that way. This is not just a matter of content, but also of style.

Think of the forum like a woman, she could be beautiful and intelligent, funny and interesting, but if she talks like a 'special person', you'll still want to gag her.

We are aware that some of our members suffer from learning difficulties and we sympathise with that. If you are one of those then please take the time to go over your posts before you post them. If necessary use a program like MS Word to check your post before you upload it.

This announcement is addressed to everyone on the forums. Think about your post. Take time to check you don't sound like an inbred, gap-toothed moron.

This is an edict of the Heresy High Council.


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## Hespithe (Dec 26, 2006)

It is also a very unique way of getting slammed for poor metaphors, lol.

Not only is spelling and grammar nice to see, but polite discussion as well. Gagging 'special women' is an interesting concept that I'd worry about posting. Silly cape-less Supermods...


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## Elchimpster (Jan 31, 2007)

Who IS this High Council anyhow?



On a more serious note, Heresy online has been very fortunate to date to have members who post legibly (for the most part). Typo's aside. We have very little leet speak which rocks! Heresy Online is a fun forum, but it's important for people to be able to communicate effectively, and that does mean making at least an effort at writing legibly: spelling and grammar.

No need for a high council per se to proscribe anyone...well...maybe a few...but if everyone does their part, and makes an attempt at writing so people can understand without making reading painful...all is well in the universe.


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## Darthlace (Aug 31, 2007)

I agree with you but what I feel we aren't doing is picking people up in the correct manner. If someone makes a mistake then the identifying post should be 'watch your spelling/grammar' not talking down to people about their english, I am not going to name any names but it does pee me off with some peoples' attitude towards enforcing this problem....that's all I have to say


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## Elchimpster (Jan 31, 2007)

Darthlace said:


> I agree with you but what I feel we aren't doing is picking people up in the correct manner. If someone makes a mistake then the identifying post should be 'watch your spelling/grammar' not talking down to people about their english, I am not going to name any names but it does pee me off with some peoples' attitude towards enforcing this problem....that's all I have to say


I can't disagree. 

I certainly don't want to drive people away for being a spelling or grammar Nazi. While we may drive off one directly, a dozen more will see it and think "these dudes are pricks" and go elsewhere.

P.S. BTW that was well put Darthlace. To the point without being a prick about it. Well done.


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## Mad King George (Jan 15, 2008)

torealis said:


> Ladies and Gentlemen.
> 
> We are aware that some of our members suffer from learning difficulties and we sympathise with that.
> 
> This is an edict of the Heresy High Council.


you spelled sympathize wrong, sigh.. what am i to do, i always use grammar properly. :laugh:


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## Hespithe (Dec 26, 2006)

That may just be a difference between British English and Western English grammar oddities. The two just can't decide on the use of Z's and S's... Kinda funny, that.


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## Mad King George (Jan 15, 2008)

Hespithe said:


> That may just be a difference between British English and Western English grammar oddities. The two just can't decide on the use of Z's and S's... Kinda funny, that.


yeah i guess i write/ type how i speak. 

for instance i say spelt, or spelled

spelt is no existent to Mozilla dictionary


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

And us Canucks spell words like armor and favor with a u added in, so armour, favour, etc.

I have no real issues with spelling mistakes at large unless there are riduculous amounts of them. My biggest beef is lack of punctuation in order to make a sentence legible. I like to see capitals as well but that really doesn't draw a 'must mod' reaction from me. When a sentence is just a run on one with no commmas periods quotes etc that just goes into another sentence without any separation then i can really piss me off trying to figure out just what the hell someone is saying (see what i mean).


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## Siege (Jan 18, 2008)

Yeah Aussies spell like Canadians do, and since people from across the globe seem to frequent this site, that kinda thing is going to happen. 

I agree with Wraithlord, punctuation is universal, and it really does makes your post easier to read if you use it.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

The important thing to stress is that nobody expects perfection.

Typos happen, not everyone has a spellcheck on their browser (Can we add a spellcheck feature?), and everyone is human.

The important thing is that people put genuine time and effort into making their posts readable. I don't care if you don't capitalize 'I' or if you use a comma where a semicolon goes. Just use whole words and genuine English syntax.

If you catch someone being unkind to the English language, just do what I do and sent them a politely worded PM. Inform them that hard to read posts rarely inspire positive replies and that if you can't make yourself understood you won't get constructive replies. Be polite and helpful and they;ll start trying harder.

I've done it several times. It works most of the time.

Just don't drag them out in public and derail the thread with your armchair English teacher act. Take it to PMs or report them.


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## Deceiver (Sep 19, 2007)

I feel that the foul language (in posts and signatures) should be of a higher importance to the "high council." 
Seeing the "f" word used in ones signature in over 1,000 posts without a word spoken
is ok but mispelling some words in a post is high treason. 

What exactly is the thought process here?


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

I had assumed the thought process was that we want to come off as a site where grown-up people talk like grown-ups instead of some kiddy-friendly backwater full of unintelligible chatspeak and pointless messages.

Seriously, I don't think we particularly want to attract a bunch of children to the site, so posting rules that require people to converse like adults (no crappy chatroom lingo) are certainly called for. Meanwhile, since we're trying to encourage the adults to share their opinions, why enforce kid-friendly language filters oir punish people from talking like real people?

As I understand it, the accepted standard is 'mild and moderate use of profanity'

You're not allowed to cuss someone out ("You're such a fucking idiot!") because that's a personal attack. And I would be happy to argue that posts like this... "I fucking hate fucking nids! what a bunch of fucking bullshit. The fucking fucked my shit up in the first fucking turn!" would fall under the rules for making useful, intelligible posts.

I'm all for a guideline in the rules that officially codifies the profanity policy as something like "Though not strictly against the rules, we like to enforce a policy of mild and moderate use of adult language. We're grown-ups here, but nobody wants to read a post that's nothing but gratuitous cursing. If you habitually abuse our language policy, you will be subject to disciplinary action." Perhaps add in a rider banning profanity from sig lines if it;s that big of a deal.

That's a perfectly reasonable policy right there. It allows us to converse like adults without finding our words filtered or our accounts banned, but it also encourages us to talk like adults and not like 12 year olds who just discovered the 'F-Bomb'

In fact, I'm going to C&P part of this post over at the rules thread and suggest it be added.

Maybe there can be some sort of user-activatef filter (like in WoW) that won't stop people form using language but will simply stop you from seeing it. I'm not sure if that's possible, but it's something to look into.


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## Darthlace (Aug 31, 2007)

Elchimpster said:


> I can't disagree.
> 
> I certainly don't want to drive people away for being a spelling or grammar Nazi. While we may drive off one directly, a dozen more will see it and think "these dudes are pricks" and go elsewhere.
> 
> P.S. BTW that was well put Darthlace. To the point without being a prick about it. Well done.


Thanks mate glad you agree


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## cccp (Dec 15, 2006)

for me, i don't mind too much about misspelling, im guilty of that enough myself. its just when a whole post runs on and on, and you don't know where one part ands and the other begins.

and, it is very true that people just ignore posts they can't be bothered to read.


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## torealis (Dec 27, 2006)

I'd like to thank Galahad for his contribution, as i think that he has put what i meant across in a very clear way. I think I'll add his bits to the original post later today.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

Indeed. Like I said, spelling errors and typos happen, but people should at least *try* to make themselves understood rather than forcing everyone else to make sense of it. 

We should be forgiving of mistakes, but having a codified set of standards is good so we can point to it when people continue to coast along without being considerate enough to put a little effort into posting

Edit:


torealis said:


> I'd like to thank Galahad for his contribution, as i think that he has put what i meant across in a very clear way. I think I'll add his bits to the original post later today.


Sweet! Glad I could help. <cough>+rep</cough> :biggrin:


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## Mad King George (Jan 15, 2008)

The Wraithlord said:


> And us Canucks spell words like armor and favor with a u added in, so armour, favour, etc.
> 
> I have no real issues with spelling mistakes at large unless there are riduculous amounts of them. My biggest beef is lack of punctuation in order to make a sentence legible. I like to see capitals as well but that really doesn't draw a 'must mod' reaction from me. When a sentence is just a run on one with no commmas periods quotes etc that just goes into another sentence without any separation then i can really piss me off trying to figure out just what the hell someone is saying (see what i mean).


i think thats how i spell it but Mozilla changes it to armor not armour


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

You can download non-US English dictionary plugins from Firefox so the Canadians and Aussies and Brits and South Africans can all enjoy their own unique dialects without those annoying squiggly red lines


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## dander (Jan 13, 2008)

wow. i misspell because i type really poorly. still learning this computer thing. i do use punctuation. don't know if i use it correctly.i do like seeing things that are easy to read. norunonsallday. just found out i could curse. tried not too.(not easy i'm from new jersey)knowing that. galahad most the time i read your posts i thought you were i dick. now i realize your just well spoken and really know what your talking about. that doesn't go over the same way when your reading what you say as much as it would actually talking to you as you explain something. oh yeah abbreviations kill me cause i don't know what they usually mean.


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

dander said:


> wow. i misspell because i type really poorly. still learning this computer thing. i do use punctuation. don't know if i use it correctly.i do like seeing things that are easy to read. norunonsallday. just found out i could curse. tried not too.(not easy i'm from new jersey)knowing that. galahad most the time i read your posts i thought you were i dick. now i realize your just well spoken and really know what your talking about. that doesn't go over the same way when your reading what you say as much as it would actually talking to you as you explain something. oh yeah abbreviations kill me cause i don't know what they usually mean.


Well, thank you.
But I could just be a really well spoken dick ;-)

Exact use of punctuation can sometimes be tricky, but there's some good rules of thumb: 
1) Use a period when you finish a sentence, but use a comma for when you would pause while talking without having finished the thought. 
2) Capitalize at the start of a sentence, people's names, the word 'I', etc. GW also likes to capitalize specific rules, game terms and the like.
3) Adding some line breaks tends to make posts easier to digest, breaking things down into easy to read chunks whenever you come to a new idea.

These aren't really exact grammatical rules, just some guidelines to help make your posts easier to read. When in doubt, read other people's posts and take your cue from the posts you find easiest to read and understand. Nobody expects perfection, just so long as it's easy to read. 

And if you want, there's plenty of grammar tutorials and advice to be had on the internet.

Taking the time to make your posts easier to read may take a little effort, but it usually pays off in the end. Which saves the most time and energy? Using internet shorthand and bad English, but having to repeat yourself and wait for someone to bother deciphering your posts...or taking the time to write it clearly so you get the information, answers or feedback you wanted quicker and without having to go over what you just said?

As for abbreviations, there's a lovely List of Warhammer Abbreviations at the top of the 40k General page. It has most of the common 40k abbreviations and jargon right there so you can keep up.

As with all skills, it takes time and a lot of effort at first, but you'll improve. My typing has never been great (I tend to miss the keys or switch letters), and my spelling has always been a problem, but time spent on messageboards and reading has helped my grammar, spelling and typing considerably over the years.


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## dander (Jan 13, 2008)

Well, thank you.


> But I could just be a really well spoken dick ;-)


sorry i didn't learn how to quote correctly.
galahad your right.
well spoken dick.
you do know what your talkin about. DICK


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## Galahad (Dec 21, 2006)

dander said:


> Well, thank you.
> But I could just be a really well spoken dick ;-)
> sorry i didn't learn how to quote correctly.
> galahad your right.
> ...


There's a quote button near the bottom of the person's post. You can also use [ quote ] at the start of the text you want to quote and [ /quote ] at the end. (Without the spaces between the brackets)


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## Lord Sinkoran (Dec 23, 2006)

I agree, type properly and use good English.


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## Mad King George (Jan 15, 2008)

Lord Sinkoran said:


> I agree, type propaly and use good English.



i hope that was sarcasm


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## swntzu (Dec 25, 2007)

Another argument for the implementation of this rule is the fact that heresy gets visitors from all over the world and not all of them speak English as their first language.

It's bad enough trying to deal with typos but when you have people deliberately slaughtering their own language it's just not on.


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## -xecutioner- (Dec 23, 2007)

Mad King George said:


> i hope that was sarcasm


so what if it wasnt? is it really that much of a chore to type properly?


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## Jezlad (Oct 14, 2006)

I think the point of this thread has been made. Tone down the leet speak, abbreviations and try to run a spell checker where possible.

We understand that English isn't every users main language - I sometimes speak out of my arse - even then I try to formulate legible sentences.

We aren't the spelling police, just doing our best to keep them off the boards.

Can we stop arguing now please?


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## Darthlace (Aug 31, 2007)

here here, )


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## Hespithe (Dec 26, 2006)

'Licker!


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