Capitals, Commas, and Apostrophes

[Pam]

Hi everyone!

One of my responsibilities here on the Forum is to make sure it has a professional and consistent appearance.  And to make sure that everything is written in correct English so that our international visitors who use page translators will be able to decipher the writing.  The Forum is growing at a brisk pace and it's becoming more time consuming for me to make edits and corrections on posts.  If I could ask everyone to please try to use correct capitalization, apostrophes, and commas, it would help me so much!

One example:  I've seen the word "I'll" written as "ill" and it completely changes the meaning.  "I'll", when written correctly, is a contraction for "I will."  However, when it's written without the capitalization and apostrophe, it becomes "ill" which means "sick."  Anyone using a page translator will have that word translated as "sick" and it will make the sentence confusing.

I realize that it may sound like I'm being picky, but I hope everyone will understand that it's being done to make the site better overall, to make it more welcoming to anyone in the world, and to help the search engines find us.  Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Metropolis Man]

Just to add to Pam's request — use the Preview button before hitting Post. That's a biggie. I consider myself a decent writer, but I constantly catch mistakes when I look at Previews of my posts. I'm typing away and my fingers and brain aren't always moving at the same speed. It's usually not that I don't know how to spell a word, it's that my big fingers hit the wrong button or two buttons at once. I think we could all reduce Pam's job by using Preview more often.

Keep up the good work, Pam.  

[romagia]

What's the point with capitalisation?

[Swede1992]

It gives your post a nice and clean look!

[Pam]

What's the point with capitalisation?

It's proper correct English and gives our Forum a professional consistent look.  It's good for the search engines to find us.  And it may help with page translators.  Basically all the stuff I said in my original post.

[romagia]

What's the point with capitalisation?

It's proper correct English and gives our Forum a professional consistent look.  It's good for the search engines to find us.  And it may help with page translators.  Basically all the stuff I said in my original post.

Capitalisation? With search engines and page translators? Seach engines and translators aren't case-sensitive.

[PJSim]

Dude, just do it. You clearly know how.

[Arafel]

If this is such a big deal that you'd like many of the posters here to adhere to then wouldn't it make sense to make it as easy as possible for them? Is it not possible to get a spellcheck on the board.

I realize this wouldn't correct a missing apostrophe or comma but it would correct spelling and perhaps some capitalization which I'm assuming is more vital in translating. Plus, I know when a correction comes up I'm more likely to double check other stuff and reread what I wrote -thus catching some grammer issues.

Honestly, this doesn't seem to be a big issue on this forum, at least that I have noticed. It's not like we have a following of leet speak buts. I'd just hate to see people get ragged on because they overlooked a mistake -myself included since there are words I use shorthand for.

Just thinking out loud here

[Metropolis Man]

If this is such a big deal that you'd like many of the posters here to adhere to then wouldn't it make sense to make it as easy as possible for them? Is it not possible to get a spellcheck on the board.

I think spellcheckers are mostly a browser thing, aren't they? If I misspell a word, like, well — mispel. My browser, Safari for OS X, puts a nice attention-grabbing red line under that word. 

[Pam]

If this is such a big deal that you'd like many of the posters here to adhere to then wouldn't it make sense to make it as easy as possible for them? Is it not possible to get a spellcheck on the board.

I realize this wouldn't correct a missing apostrophe or comma but it would correct spelling and perhaps some capitalization which I'm assuming is more vital in translating. Plus, I know when a correction comes up I'm more likely to double check other stuff and reread what I wrote -thus catching some grammer issues.

Honestly, this doesn't seem to be a big issue on this forum, at least that I have noticed. It's not like we have a following of leet speak buts. I'd just hate to see people get ragged on because they overlooked a mistake -myself included since there are words I use shorthand for.

Just thinking out loud here

Do you consider a polite request in a thread located under the Technical section of the forum to be "ragging" on our members? And do you think I should correct all the posts for all the members here instead? We're not talking about overlooking a mistake here. It's deliberate misuse of the the English language that I'm talking about. If you know a word should be capitalized or needs an apostrophe, I'm just asking everyone to please do so instead of being lazy about it. I'm not asking everyone to study and learn precise English, nor am I asking everyone to become perfect spellers.  However, we really are trying to create a professional looking forum here that is appealing to everyone and easy to follow.  As time goes on and the forum continues to grow, I won't have time to correct poorly written posts and they could end up subject to deletion if they don't make sense because of deliberate bad punctuation and spelling.  I don't want that to happen, so I'm asking everyone to help out by being responsible for the correctness of their own posts. I'll always make edits and corrections to posts, as needed and as much as I am able.

As for a spellchecker, I believe Carl has already looked into it and there's not one available with this program.  As Metro suggests, many browsers come with spellcheckers, however.  And, as you said, a spellchecker wouldn't correct the majority of the issues I'm talking about, anyway.

What's the point with capitalisation?

It's proper correct English and gives our Forum a professional consistent look.  It's good for the search engines to find us.  And it may help with page translators.  Basically all the stuff I said in my original post.

Capitalisation? With search engines and page translators? Seach engines and translators aren't case-sensitive.

Why do you have a problem with capitalization?

[wildredchild]

Pam, I completely agree with you!!!  Keep up the great work and I will be certain to look over my own posts before I hit submit to the forum.

[Pam]

Pam, I completely agree with you!!!  Keep up the great work and I will be certain to look over my own posts before I hit submit to the forum.

Thanks for the support, wildred!  I really appreciate it.  And your posts are the least of my worries!  Lol.

[romagia]

What's the point with capitalisation?

It's proper correct English and gives our Forum a professional consistent look.  It's good for the search engines to find us.  And it may help with page translators.  Basically all the stuff I said in my original post.

Capitalisation? With search engines and page translators? Seach engines and translators aren't case-sensitive.

Why do you have a problem with capitalization?

I hate pressing the shift key every time i start the sentence. It slows down my writing.

[Metropolis Man]

I hate pressing the shift key every time i start the sentence. It slows down my writing.

And I hate having to put on my brakes when I see a traffic jam ahead. But, I'm pretty sure everyone is appreciative I do it. I'm not as much of a stickler when it comes to other people's grammar and punctuation. She knows that. But, Pam laid out the guidelines for a reason. She's not just flapping her gums to hear herself talk. We all need to be respectful of that.  Just please try and be more aware of the situation. Thanks.

Nothing more needs to be said on this issue. Thread locked.