Something that Annoys the Heck Outta Me..

[Skeeter Muppet]

Whoa. I was wondering if a topic like this was ever going to crop up. Now I know.

This sort of problem has been annoying me ever since I started writing fanfic for the Digimon fandom at Fanfiction.Net. That place is a hotbed for absence of grammar, spelling and just plain common sense. And while some of that is because English is not the first language of some of the authors, a lot of it is because the authors just can't be bothered to use spell and grammar check, or get a beta-reader to help them. Some can't even put forth the effort to format their story; they just post it in one huge paragraph. And the attitude at FF.N seems to be that good grammar and spelling doesn't matter; as long as the coupling in the fic is the "right" one, you are guarunteed to get rave reviews all the time. Any constructive criticism is looked upon as flaming.

But as for the mis-use or lack of capital letters, spelling and grammar mistakes, come on guys. This ain't no English class.

No, it's not an English class. Basically what we're talking about is common courtesy, I believe. Occasional misspellings, grammar mistakes, etc. I can overlook. Frequent mistakes because English is a second language for the poster I can accept too. But it is annoying and difficult for other people to read.

So, if you can help it, please spell and grammar check your posts before posting them. Use a word processing program like Microsoft Word, since the board doesn't have a spellchecker at present.

As for the spaces thing...I think big spaces are fine in moderation, especially if one is posting something that involves spoilers.


-Kim