A modest proposal from Uncle Fly.

[FlyRod]

I've been mulling this one over for some time and I admit I've been waffling re whether or not to post that which follows this paragraph. Still, though there may be those that react negatively, the time has come. I hope those who read it will realize that it if offered in a kindly spirit.

All too often someone's post, be it a request for information or a response to same, a "report", a jest, an offer to buy or sell, or a general observation, is so poorly written as to be virtually or, at best, painful, to read. Sadly, this is not exclusive to our younger members.
I realize that this is intended to be a "fun" place, and in that mission it generally succeeds, but it could be far more rewarding if posters would make an effort to apply the basic rules of grammar and expression. Spelling could use some work as well.
I've lost count of the times I've read, re-read, and re-reread posts in an attempt to ascertain just what it was that the poster meant. I'm certain that I'm not alone in that experience.
To those who post I offer this; Read your post before you hit "Submit". Then read it aloud to yourself...I'm serious. Then, edit it to take off most of the rough edges. Then, perhaps we won't have to waste time asking for clarification so that we CAN answer a question, laugh at a jest, purchase an item you're selling, or offer congratulations, sympathy, or condolences as the case may be.
Learn to use capital letters (they're free, you know.) as well as those cute little commas, periods, and yes, even the mysterious and misunderstood semicolon (always scary for me, I admit.)
I'm not speaking as one who considers himself to be better than someone else. I'm doing so in order that we might better communicate. I fully realize I'm not an expert grammatician, but I do try to respect our language. I ask all to do the same.
One last little item (I'm on a roll here!) Read other folks' posts thoroughly before tapping the keys. All too often someone responds in a manner that seems unrelated to the post that triggers said reply. Also, when someone offers and answer to your query, don't ask the same question again. (See: Recent thread regarding a certain exotic "goldfish", as in "Koi".

(Let's see...helmet, flak jacket, tank parked at the ready. Hit "Submit" and mount up.) OK, let the flaming begin.

FlyRod
Who means well.

PS: Ease up on the (over)use of "!", OK?

[scrap]

Your point was right on target. Perhaps we all should police up our grammar before we post. I am guilty of not reading my post before I hit the send button. I intend to do better. Thank you for commenting on something I, we, should be doing all along.

[FlyRod]

Whew! Thanks, Scrap.

FR

[bassintom]

FR you are ever the optimist.Talk to the wall instead.

fLaM'D

[FlyRod]

Actually, BT, I AM an optimist in certain respects. If my message reaches only a few members, especially the youngsters, then any flaming directed at me is suffered gladly.
Now go catch a bass. Make it a big one.

FR

[Wishing2BFishing]

i am will waching grammer and speling and wil not yuse run on sentences and try to be better at posting and reading posts from other members but dont no if i can always spell right

"books are kryptonite . . ."

[JB]

I simply cannot stand it another minute. I have to rant a tiny bit. I have to be snotty and pedantic and let out all my pent-up frustration. I have to say it.
The word "bassfishin" is supposed to have a "g" in it! Not! Not! Not! bassfishin
If I am surfing the Web one more time and I come across one more instance of someone writing "bassfishin" instead of "bassfishing", I think I will lose my mind, and I will repeatedly scream "THERE is supposed to be a bloody G!!!" until I am carted off to the not-so-funny farm, where I will peacefully read dictionaries page by page for the rest of my life.
I know I’m overreacting. I know that not everyone is good at spelling (buy a dictionary). I know that sometimes people make typos (ever heard of a spell check?). And I know that some people just don’t really care about words or spelling or grammar or the rest of it (you are going to Hell).
I just don’t think I’ve ever seen a word so consistently misspelled, and it has become my number one linguistic pet peeve. It’s far worse than the "it’s/its" thing, which is also annoying, but which does not grate on me nearly as much as "bassfishin". The "their/they’re/there" problem is right up there with "bassfishin", but it’s still not quite the same caliber.
In fact, I can think of no other mistake that gets my goat as much as "bassfishin" - except maybe "infinately". Definately. Ugh. It’s appalling to look at. It’s horrible to type. It’s actually difficult to type because, as I realized when I started writing this, the AutoCorrect on my computer automatically changes "definately" to "definitely". Does no one else use this nifty little word processing feature?
I know a lot of you are thinking, "Good God, he needs to get a life." And some of you will maybe scan my website now for any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors or typos that I may have made myself - in which case, you need to get a life even more than I do. So don’t bother.
I’m not claiming to be the English language king. I do enjoy reading dictionaries for the fun of it, and I did win a spelling bee once, but I still have to stop and think about how to spell "restaurant" and "bureaucracy" and "embarrassment". When I’m typing too fast, I write "its" instead of "it’s" and "to" when I mean "too". I’m sure that there are numerous nuances of grammar that I am completely missing.
And I don’t expect anyone to be a walking dictionary or to have memorized The Elements of Style. When someone writes me an e-mail or a letter, the last thing I think about is whether a word has been misspelled or a typo has gone unnoticed. I love words, but I’m not that pathetic.
But I do think that people writing for the general public need to show a little respect for the written word - and for their readers. They need to be aware that linguistic sloppiness reflects badly on the writer and is an insult to the reader. They need to take the time to make sure that they are not butchering their language through sheer carelessness.
And by all means, if nothing else, they need to make sure that they never, ever, ever, ever, ever spell the word "bassfishin" without a "g"
I think it matters because I think it’s important to have some sort of standard that people can use to make themselves unambiguously understood. Have you ever tried reading documents from, say, the 17th century? Sheesh - they spell the same word three different ways on the same page. The standard is there for ease of communication. You don’t have to make use of the standard in your private communication with friends who don’t care about language any more than you do, but in a professional or public forum, then it’s a matter of respect towards those you’re addressing to avail of the standard and make it easier for everyone to comprehend what the heck you’re trying to say.

Hope that helps fly...

[brushhog]

Dear Uncle Fly,

As one of our most erudite a loquacious members you are definitely the one to carry the banner for grammar and punctuation.... I teach sixth graders and the erosion of these basic skills is alarming. My hypothesis is that the use of the keyboard is seen as a casual undertaking; akin to a backyard conversation loaded with aint's, gonnas, and other colloquialism that wouldn't "fly" in a formal setting. (pun intended)

Now I hope JB doesn't take offense to your coronation as erudite and loquacious for he too exhibits these qualities. He may be slightly more bellicose, but certainly no less facetious!

In my humble opinion, I 'll take clarity of thought first. I can live with poor punctuation and grammar as long as I can decipher the meaning of the post! As I tell my young charges, "Write what you mean and mean what you write..."

Now, I tremble with anticipation and fear as I know Fly is poised with his poison, symbolic red pen to dissect and correct my post.

Nervously, I make my last point.

Fly, regarding the advice thing... between the Koi discussion and this post you are walking a fine line. Since I fear the litigation and "WEDGIE" I dare not question you. However, I hear that some gambling degenerates on here started a pool to predict when you would crack! IF you want to give me the inside line I would share the wealth... Wait, would that be giving me advice? Like I said, fine line...

"Look Ma, No thesaurus!"

[betursweetbass]

It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds.

Too much ado about nuttin........

[bassbooger]

icanreallyseeyourpointFRican'tstanditwhenSONEONELE AVESTHECAPSLOCKONANDYOUHAVETOFIGUREOUTWHATTHATPERS ONISTYPINGLOL


Man, that was really hard to do. I had to backspace about 30 times to keep form putting the spaces between the words.

[zooker]

whew for a moment i thought it was goin to be ugly..

here ya go uncle fly just resize this and use it as and advatar


zooker

[crankybait]

Well, I opened this topic only because it reminded me of Johnathan Swift. And now I am glad that I did read through this. I admit, bad spelling has the tendency to get on my nerves at some point, although I am sometimes guilty of it. It really isn't too hard to go over a post before submitting, and does save people some thinking.

[lizardsrule]

WOW, I have missed quite a bit rotfl. Is rotfl, rotflmao, or LOL a bad thing to use here also? Oh well, just ask Reb for what he does, that cured my ills a long time ago.

Lizards

[Rebbasser]

I can help with one of the problems:

Get the Google Toolbar-it has a spell check feature on it.

JB, I use bassfishin' quite a bit, HOWEVER:

If you notice I always use a ' to show it is intentional.

[3dkicker]

Bully! Uncle (Professor) Fly, Bully!

I hate it when announcers or broadcasters use the letter o instead of the number zero.

"The Fayetteville Flyrodders beat the Zookerton Zippy's twelve to o last night in the highest televised match in world history."

The reason for this? Zero has an extra syllable and is too difficult to pronounce.

[CarpMan]

Now hold on just a minute. Us hollow folks speek and rite our own unique language, and all of a sudden youall wunt to change the ways of grammur and diction on this here "bassfishen" forum. Youall all using wurds that we have nevur heard of, some of dem wurds dat youall wrote down are so big they sound like dirty wurds to us hollow folks, and your doin it rite here on tha "bassfishen" forum...Yea i'm mad, cause me and Polly done did all this traveling fur the past six months, cause she has been trying to get knocked up for along time and it just wouldn't take. We went to her Dr to find out if we had been spayed and or neutered when we were little kids. He assureed us that we were ok and that I for sure was primed and ready, but wont fur sure about Polly, but advised us to take a long vacation away from the hollow and go to a foreign country and rest and relax in the sack and try it that way. We did just that, and we been back three weeks now... Polly comes to me crying, Saying "I think it took, I think it took". get me to the Dr. I got excited, put her in the jeep and off we go to the Dr. and what do you know? All that traveling and money spent just so the Dr can tell her she is not knocked up. We get back to the hollow and she wanted to take a walk, so we strolled down by the pond and around the hill side and to our suprise, our D-8 cat tractor and a lowboy trailer was gone, it was Pollys favorite toy, she excuavated the place for the cabin and dug out three miles of hillside that leads up to it, sunk a three acre carp pond. So youal think you got problems with the engleesh langueage, punkuwation and grammur, "bullchit." Were out six months of traveling and living high and relaxing in the sack and a D-8 Cat tractor and lowboy trailer plus an 8ft chainlink fence and metal gate. Whats this world comming to? I called Sheriff Buba LeeRoy, He said for me not to wory too much about the D-8 caterpellar that he would locate it soon, said ever who stole it would probably paint it anothrer color to discuise it, thats when him and his blood hound would move in, Polly is feeling better now that Buba is on the case. Now she wants to adopt a kid I am going to take her down to rent-a-kid or adopt a kid which ever and get that Lil Red a youngun! So the problem that youal are haven with engleeshe language, punkuation and gramur on this here "bassfishen" forum is elementary and something that will not go away as long as there are people like the CarpMan and Polly that post. Good luck to youal. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY P& J" .. Excelent post Fly rod and JB. The CarpMan from Snow hollopw

[JB]

Long time no see Carpy, welcome back!

[CarpMan]

Good to be back Jb. Hope you're well and catching lots of bass.

[leroy]

I agree wit wuchur say der Fly. ;-)

[zooker]

go carpy go!!!

zooker

[Rebbasser]

Where you been, Carpy?

How's things with you and the little woman?

[CarpMan]

Originally Posted by Rebbasser

Where you been, Carpy?

How's things with you and the little woman?

Ha Reb, Good to see you. How’s the fishing out in the Lone Star? Are you keeping Fly R in the boat? Be careful with him…. Lil Red is not doing well, She read Zookers post about “Horny Toads” and ask me if I had any, I found a couple bags in the boat, she loaded her Zebco with a 5.0 ewg and off she went to the pond. Wasn’t long until she ran out of toads. She ordered 10 bgs from Bps and now she is biting her nails waiting for them to arrive. I tell you, she has put all of her other problems on the back side of the barn until the toads come. I’m telling you, that Lil 5ft red head is causing me to drink two gallons of tang every day, sure will be glad when Sheriff Buba Leroy finds her tractor,. Thanks Reb, for asking.... P/S Been doing some traveling.. Carpy from Snow hollow

[pig n jig]

Hell, The reason I can't spell correctly is I anit never paid attention while in school.I was too busy smoking dope, drinking beer, and chasing girls, or skipping school to work at the garage, because the old man I worked for needed me there.Now I weld in a F/N factory day in and day out and fish when I can, therefore I don't see much sense trying to learn now.The fish don't care if you can spell, or use correct grammar. By the way Carpy, how is your grammar ? I anit got a grammar anymore,she done passed away sometime back a spell.
Sincerely, gone fishin'

[CarpMan]

Originally Posted by pig n jig

Hell, The reason I can't spell correctly is I anit never paid attention while in school.I was too busy smoking dope, drinking beer, and chasing girls, or skipping school to work at the garage, because the old man I worked for needed me there.Now I weld in a F/N factory day in and day out and fish when I can, therefore I don't see much sense trying to learn now.The fish don't care if you can spell, or use correct grammar. By the way Carpy, how is your grammar ? I anit got a grammar anymore,she done passed away sometime back a spell.
Sincerely, gone fishin'

Whutz up pig & jig? And whutz gramur? Carpy

[Jackl]

JB
Blame it on the original TV hero Harold Ensley's theme song for his outdoors show back in the 50's, "Gone fishin, there's a sign upon the door. Been wishin, for a couple days or more." Or Jimmy Houston's "Caught me a big-un, but I let him go." Kids growing up in the TV era think that you have to talk "Bass Lingo" to be accepted by thier older peers. Also blame it on the modern "text messaging" that uses single letters to abbreviate words instead of spelling out the whole word. But most of all, blame the school system that will not allow the students to be "slapped up side the haid" so they will understand the proper grammar and spelling that they are being taught! That is the way I learned, and it didn't effect, didn't effect, didn't effect me one bit!

JackL