Mandatory pre-post spell check?

**Wyzcrak** · 03-08-2006, 03:28 PM

Note: I'm just curious about this. I've spoken to no one else about this. There are no plans to start doing this. I'd love it, but I'm just one guy.

A client of mine recently had me build a solution (again, fear not -- it was on a platform in no way compatible with our forums) for her workers, who were creating content for public consumption, by which they were forced to submit their content to a spell checker before releasing it for public consumption. It adds about 10 seconds to the time required to create content. Any additional time beyond that is due to spelling errors (fixing them).

This got me thinking about how professional it would look if the many, many spelling mistakes we see here day in and day out were corrected before we saw them.

Do you support a programmatically-enforced mechanism which forces our post authors to run their content through a spell checker before submitting that content for public consumption?

The mandatory part would be submitting the content to the spell checker. The author would decide what gets changed, if anything.

I'm curious to see the results.

**WhiskeySix** · 03-08-2006, 03:31 PM

i dunno... prolly wouldnt work for alotta the words that get used these days...

**Acid** · 03-08-2006, 03:32 PM

Well, if it brought us back to a page where we could agree or decline the changes that the checker made. Say we were trying to spell something, and it came out wrong, and the spell checker corrects it to some wierd word that doesn't make sense.

Another problem is all of the forum names, where the spell checker won't know that Wyzcrak is really the name of an awsome person

.

**beep** · 03-08-2006, 03:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wyzcrak

Note: I'm just curious about this. I've spoken to no one else about this. There are no plans to start doing this. I'd love it, but I'm just one guy.

A client of mine recently had me build a solution (again, fear not -- it was on a platform in no way compatible with our forums) for her workers, who were creating content for public consumption, by which they were forced to submit their content to a spell checker before releasing it for public consumption. It adds about 10 seconds to the time required to create content. Any additional time beyond that is due to spelling errors (fixing them).

This got me thinking about how professional it would look if the many, many spelling mistakes we see here day in and day out were corrected before we saw them.

Do you support a programmatically-enforced mechanism which forces our post authors to run their content through a spell checker before submitting that content for public consumption?

I'm curious to see the results.

Yes! I foolishly suborn these and all spill-checked items for pubic consummation!

SmokingTarpan · 03-08-2006, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiskeySix

i dunno... prolly wouldnt work for alotta the words that get used these days...

That, and sometimes you want things spelled incorrectly.

Wyz, you just hate free speech, don't you?

**Wyzcrak** · 03-08-2006, 03:49 PM

The mandatory part is submitting the content to the spell checker. The author decides what gets changed, if anything.

Xink · 03-08-2006, 03:54 PM

id say yes, though not because i find other peoples mistakes annoying, more that it would probably speed up my posting time, i usually just run words i cant spell through google and get the correct one, this would really help me with that.

MalyJay · 03-08-2006, 03:57 PM

Maybe I don't look on the forums as often as I should, but I don't really see the need for compulsory spell checking. The standerd of english typed here is well above that of any other forums I visit, and instead of enforcing some kind of forced spelling obsession, we should be congratulating ourselves for having members that are expert spellers. So what someone makes an obvious but yet unimportant mistake? Sure, its sometimes annoying, but it is far better just ignoring that little niggle and feeling smug in ourselves for being superior spellers.

AzzMan · 03-08-2006, 04:03 PM

I'm against it because I don't see a few minor spelling errors killing anyone, there's no reason to make a big deal about someone misspelling... ontimontipea which I obviously can't spell. You still know what I meant.

But that's from personal experiance, I rarely if ever see people go 'omg wel u kud im me abowt it okae???./?", but those people may very well exist in small numbers where I don't ever look at the boards they post at.

I wouldn't mind so long as it was somehow lined up with the post message button, because I'm never, ever going to bother.

**Grunt 70** · 03-08-2006, 04:06 PM

I do not support this.

**WhiskeySix** · 03-08-2006, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xink

id say yes, though not because i find other peoples mistakes annoying, more that it would probably speed up my posting time, i usually just run words i cant spell through google and get the correct one, this would really help me with that.

great point.. i too use google as spell check... hmm.. wasn't there talk of a google tool-bar that spell-checks in-place? (as opposed to putting it in the search bar and looking for "Did you mean..." to pop up in a new tab)

optional, yes.
mandatory, no.

Leonidas · 03-08-2006, 04:12 PM

I'd say yes, make it mandatory. It only takes a moment to make your post legible, but if some will not take that moment, then just make it mandatory. People will get used to it after awhile and it will simply be a part of posting. It's not making a big deal out of incorrect spelling, it is simply improving it.

Sure, I can live without it, but it would be nice.

**beep** · 03-08-2006, 04:24 PM

Right or wrong, bad spelling and bad manners are a sure way to get on my list of people whose credibility is...reduced.

I'm not making a judgement about someone's innate "quality" or value in the world, but spelling, good personal hygiene and clean clothes are all characteristics of those who pay attention to "details" and their impact on others (IMO).

FWIW, one of the best writers I have known was a horrible speller. Knowing that, he ALWAYS carried a dictionary and was scrupulous about checking anything he wasn't sure about. Very few misspelled words got past him...and those were mostly typos...

**Acid** · 03-08-2006, 04:38 PM

I say optional. It would be extremly helpful if you didn't know how to spell a word, or if you were making an offical post, to have the option of spell checking your work.

=Sarc= · 03-08-2006, 05:22 PM

It still wouldn't be mandatory if the user can reject any suggestions the checker made. A user could simply click post, and post again to get past the spell checker. It would be a nice tool to have around like a smiley inserter or a link formatter.

And why does it have to be professional? Yes, most of us want to be viewed as intelligent. However, this is a gaming site where friendships are made. It would be nice if people can be who they are without somebody watching and picking out every little mistake.

View Poll Results: Do you support mandatory spell checks on forum posts?
Yes. I could live without them, but I welcome them.	118	59.90%
No.	79	40.10%
Voters: 197. You may not vote on this poll

03-08-2006, 03:28 PM	#1 (permalink)
Wyzcrak Join Date: May 2003 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 14,138	Mandatory pre-post spell check? Note: I'm just curious about this. I've spoken to no one else about this. There are no plans to start doing this. I'd love it, but I'm just one guy. A client of mine recently had me build a solution (again, fear not -- it was on a platform in no way compatible with our forums) for her workers, who were creating content for public consumption, by which they were forced to submit their content to a spell checker before releasing it for public consumption. It adds about 10 seconds to the time required to create content. Any additional time beyond that is due to spelling errors (fixing them). This got me thinking about how professional it would look if the many, many spelling mistakes we see here day in and day out were corrected before we saw them. Do you support a programmatically-enforced mechanism which forces our post authors to run their content through a spell checker before submitting that content for public consumption? The mandatory part would be submitting the content to the spell checker. The author would decide what gets changed, if anything. I'm curious to see the results. __________________ Steam Community? Add me. \| Join #tacticalgamer \| Search Results Legend \| New Posts Forum Filter \| Postbox Toggle \| Live Thread Review \| One Line Results \| Free Remote, Encrypted Backup Darkilla: In short, NS is pretty much really fast chess. With guns. Apophis: I haven't seen anyone say that SM's are better than non-SMs. Nordbomber: This is THE first server I've seen where either side can comeback from out of seemingly nowhere with the right teamwork. en4rcment: I have NEVER experienced the type of gameplay that I have found here. Nightly I am amazed at the personalities and gaming talent. Root: Welcome to TG. Feel free to punctuate your sentences correctly. Monkerz: Its gonna take all my skills to beat those boys off in the future. Last edited by Wyzcrak; 03-08-2006 at 03:51 PM.

03-08-2006, 03:31 PM	#2 (permalink)
WhiskeySix Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Gillette Stadium, Section 309, Row 12, Seat 24 Age: 33 Posts: 8,008	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? i dunno... prolly wouldnt work for alotta the words that get used these days... __________________

03-08-2006, 03:32 PM	#3 (permalink)
Acid Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: MA Posts: 3,581	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? Well, if it brought us back to a page where we could agree or decline the changes that the checker made. Say we were trying to spell something, and it came out wrong, and the spell checker corrects it to some wierd word that doesn't make sense. Another problem is all of the forum names, where the spell checker won't know that Wyzcrak is really the name of an awsome person . __________________

03-08-2006, 03:49 PM	#6 (permalink)
Wyzcrak Join Date: May 2003 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 14,138	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? The mandatory part is submitting the content to the spell checker. The author decides what gets changed, if anything. __________________ Steam Community? Add me. \| Join #tacticalgamer \| Search Results Legend \| New Posts Forum Filter \| Postbox Toggle \| Live Thread Review \| One Line Results \| Free Remote, Encrypted Backup Darkilla: In short, NS is pretty much really fast chess. With guns. Apophis: I haven't seen anyone say that SM's are better than non-SMs. Nordbomber: This is THE first server I've seen where either side can comeback from out of seemingly nowhere with the right teamwork. en4rcment: I have NEVER experienced the type of gameplay that I have found here. Nightly I am amazed at the personalities and gaming talent. Root: Welcome to TG. Feel free to punctuate your sentences correctly. Monkerz: Its gonna take all my skills to beat those boys off in the future.

03-08-2006, 03:54 PM	#7 (permalink)
Xink Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: England Age: 21 Posts: 793	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? id say yes, though not because i find other peoples mistakes annoying, more that it would probably speed up my posting time, i usually just run words i cant spell through google and get the correct one, this would really help me with that. __________________

03-08-2006, 03:57 PM	#8 (permalink)
MalyJay Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Isle of Wight, England Age: 17 Posts: 45	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? Maybe I don't look on the forums as often as I should, but I don't really see the need for compulsory spell checking. The standerd of english typed here is well above that of any other forums I visit, and instead of enforcing some kind of forced spelling obsession, we should be congratulating ourselves for having members that are expert spellers. So what someone makes an obvious but yet unimportant mistake? Sure, its sometimes annoying, but it is far better just ignoring that little niggle and feeling smug in ourselves for being superior spellers. __________________ \|TG-4th\|MalyJay [GMT] [EST+5]

03-08-2006, 04:03 PM	#9 (permalink)
AzzMan Banned Join Date: May 2005 Location: Daytona Beach, FL Age: 17 Posts: 1,774	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? I'm against it because I don't see a few minor spelling errors killing anyone, there's no reason to make a big deal about someone misspelling... ontimontipea which I obviously can't spell. You still know what I meant. But that's from personal experiance, I rarely if ever see people go 'omg wel u kud im me abowt it okae???./?", but those people may very well exist in small numbers where I don't ever look at the boards they post at. I wouldn't mind so long as it was somehow lined up with the post message button, because I'm never, ever going to bother.

03-08-2006, 04:06 PM	#10 (permalink)
Grunt 70 Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Massachusetts Age: 43 Posts: 2,416	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? I do not support this. __________________ \|TG-22nd\|Grunt "When force is necessary, it must be applied boldly, decisively, and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with maneuver" - Leon Trotsky

03-08-2006, 04:12 PM	#12 (permalink)
Leonidas Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: District of Columbia, U.S.A Age: 17 Posts: 493	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? I'd say yes, make it mandatory. It only takes a moment to make your post legible, but if some will not take that moment, then just make it mandatory. People will get used to it after awhile and it will simply be a part of posting. It's not making a big deal out of incorrect spelling, it is simply improving it. Sure, I can live without it, but it would be nice. __________________ War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling that thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety is a miserable creature, who has no chance at being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. -- John Stuart Mill-- "O xein angellein lakedaimoniois hoti tede keimetha tois keinon rhemasi peithomenoi"- Monument, Thermopylae Last edited by Leonidas; 03-08-2006 at 04:53 PM.

03-08-2006, 04:24 PM	#13 (permalink)
beep Join Date: May 2003 Location: Minneapolis, MN Posts: 3,410	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? Right or wrong, bad spelling and bad manners are a sure way to get on my list of people whose credibility is...reduced. I'm not making a judgement about someone's innate "quality" or value in the world, but spelling, good personal hygiene and clean clothes are all characteristics of those who pay attention to "details" and their impact on others (IMO). FWIW, one of the best writers I have known was a horrible speller. Knowing that, he ALWAYS carried a dictionary and was scrupulous about checking anything he wasn't sure about. Very few misspelled words got past him...and those were mostly typos... __________________ Beep Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. - (Isaac Asimov)

03-08-2006, 04:38 PM	#14 (permalink)
Acid Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: MA Posts: 3,581	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? I say optional. It would be extremly helpful if you didn't know how to spell a word, or if you were making an offical post, to have the option of spell checking your work. __________________

03-08-2006, 05:22 PM	#15 (permalink)
=Sarc= Join Date: May 2003 Location: Ottawa, Canada Posts: 4,460	Re: Mandatory pre-post spell check? It still wouldn't be mandatory if the user can reject any suggestions the checker made. A user could simply click post, and post again to get past the spell checker. It would be a nice tool to have around like a smiley inserter or a link formatter. And why does it have to be professional? Yes, most of us want to be viewed as intelligent. However, this is a gaming site where friendships are made. It would be nice if people can be who they are without somebody watching and picking out every little mistake. __________________ JO Guides & Tutorials Team Element - It's who you game with.

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