I've been dying to read this thread since it was first started, and only had the chance to do so today. So many of the posts made me LOL.
I had a seventh and eighth grade English teacher who drilled proper grammar and syntax into my head. Then, if that was wasn't enough, when I was a sophomore in high school, I had a Jesuit English teacher who reiterated the importance of proper grammar/syntax. On top of that, I've been a lawyer for almost 14 years now and have learned from other people's mistakes just how important the correct words are (e.g., "which" and "that") as well as how important properly placed punctuation is. A misplaced comma or the use of the word "which" instead of "that" can totally change the meaning of a sentence.
With all that said, I'm just as human as the next person and definitely make my share of typos, especially so when I'm working on the tiny keyboard of my i730. Also, at the pace of today's world, I often find it difficult to take/make the time to carefully proofread my work (I'm talking about social work, not my legal work
) to ensure I've used proper grammar, have spelled words properly, etc. I suspect that applies to a lot of folks who post messages in these forums. Heck, if MRailing and SuperDave spent time proofreading every message they've posted, we probably wouldn't have gotten WM5 for another 6 months.
Consequently, if I find an error in message, I might (emphasize "might") PM the writer to let him/her know of the error so he/she can correct it. (But see my next post below.
)
I agree with a lot of the comments made in this thread, particularly twkellen in number 22. I'll add one more to his list: when people say "HIV virus." I also echo one of the other posters to this thread regarding the overuse of abbreviations in posts. I still am trying to figure out all the various abbreviations and lingo. What is particularly difficult for a newbie is when someone uses an abbreviation like "WS" throughout the entire post without somewhere in the post saying it stands for "WirelessSync." For what it is worth, I try to use the full name of the program, etc., at least once in my post before using the abbreviation. Just a suggestion to help out some of the new users....
Jay