Why Everquest doesn't make any sense

[Doeboy]

hah!

this is the shit that goes through my head every single fucking time i read this shit on the internet, which is sadly nearly every other day.

fuck English.

i don't really give a shit if what i speak or type is correct according to your standards. my language is living and comes from my environment. not wtf some asshole with a masters degree says. and fuck yes i'm from southern LA/TX.

we can look at the history of language and see that at least one thing is for certain: it will fucking change, drastically. when i hear different american dialects, phrasings etc it sounds like cadence to me. then you have some nazi asshole across the interweb holding his holy book up saying, "see right here! this is the PROPER way to do it". it's fucking futile.

here's both middle fingers to the queens english.

i'm happy that i got that out of my system guys.

[karsten]

So, mild illiteracy can be defended by saying that language is fluid. Check.

[Doeboy]

Originally Posted by karsten [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So, mild illiteracy can be defended by saying that language is fluid. Check.

it's just the internet. i cant pull enough energy out of me to actually give a shit when someone is typing a message i can perfectly understand but did not put the apostrophe where it belongs. this isn't a job interview.

it's your problem, not mine.

[Odeseus]

Originally Posted by Doeboy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

it's just the internet. i cant pull enough energy out of me to actually give a shit when someone is typing a message i can perfectly understand but did not put the apostrophe where it belongs. this isn't a job interview.

it's your problem, not mine.

It's actually both of our problems. Communication is a two way street. You have to make an attempt to send the message you want to the other person. And the other person has to make an attempt to understand you.

I could be lazy like you as well. Instead of pausing the minute or two to understand typos and misspellings (which can't really be excused in the internet, since I would hope you use firefox or something similar with a spell checker), I will instead simply skip over them. And I will not understand what you meant. So we have a communication failure.

Bottom line, if you want me to put forth the energy to read whatever drivel you type, at least attempt to put forth the energy to make it readable.

Some typos and mistakes happen. This is unavoidable since not everyone is fully competent. Some people just plain suck at English, and that is not always their fault. Some people just don't have the time to write well, and that is forgivable too. In-game, you might not have the time to type perfect English as you're running for your toon's life. No one is going to complain that you yelled, "TRIAN!" instead of "TRAIN!".

But let's be honest here. This is a forum on the internet about a game that is very heavily reliant upon English text. The vast majority of people here have at least a high school degree. You know enough of the language, have enough time to read video game forums (if you have enough time to read this shit, you have enough time to at least try to write well), AND you have the ability to have your browser automatically spell check as you write, let alone the ability to look up anything, at any time.

So it is just you being lazy. And if you're too lazy to write clearly, then why should I put forth the extra energy to decipher whatever the hell you're trying to say?

[Malrubius]

And right or wrong, if you can't write, many people will assume that you might be a little bit dumb around the edges. Yes, in many (most?) cases this is an inaccurate perception (writing != intelligence), but the perception is still there.

[Doeboy]

[QUOTE=Odeseus;199175]Bottom line, if you want me to put forth the energy to read whatever drivel you type, at least attempt to put forth the energy to make it readable.{/quote]

sorry for the derail, btw.

i understand your position and i understand the importance of literacy. what i dont understand is why so many people have a fucking OCD tick about what others write as if they were the editor of the washington post. i mean, its pretty obvious you know EXACTLY what i'm saying.

i guess what i wrote earlier was about spoken language and we are talking about written.

[Doeboy]

no edit FML

[Odeseus]

You are quite correct that spoken language and the written word are different. For speech, you will naturally say the words in the easiest possible fashion, or however you think is cool or just what you are used to hearing. Those are just dialects and no one *should* complain about it. Some do, but it is probably because they think it sounds "weird" or "dumb". But they would sound equally dumb or odd if they were to speak somewhere else.

For instance, I am from Illinois originally and we do have a dialect (the extreme version is the Superfans from SNL). I married a girl who grew up in Atlanta, GA. She speaks with a southern accent, although it has more or less disappeared since we moved to California. When I go see her family, some people I can understand. Her brother-in-law, I can't understand for the life of me. And it isn't his fault completely that I can't understand him. He's no dumber or lazier than I am, his dialect is just so different than what I'm used to that I have to really listen to him.

Other people have invented dialects. Think valley girl that dominated the 80's and 90s. Or strange ones pop up from time to time, like Cajun for instance. And new words are invented mostly by speech. Best examples are from ebonics or redneck slang.

However, very few people write in dialects (with the exception of "ya'll" and things like that). I really can't tell in game or in forums if someone is from the south or northeast, is British or Australian. Nor can I tell if they talk like a hill billy or a kid from the inner city, unless they purposefully type that way.

This is an old trick used often in writing. Most of the time to "color" a character in a novel. Like back in the 18th and 19th centuries, when black people "spoke" they were shitty at English. This was intentional. Roleplayers in video games do the same thing, most often speaking in very high-brow English if they are playing an elf, or dumbed down English if they are playing a troll. Or for an Erudite, they might throw some Ebonics around. But what they type is intentional.

So because most people have time to sit and type, I assume that mistakes are one of 3 things: intentional mistakes for whatever reason (always typing in ebonics for instance), simple ignorance or simple laziness. The first two are forgivable. If you simply don't know how to spell, it is okay, you're just dumb.

As for new words in text, they do occur. Normally when something new has been invented. "Computer" was a new word once, because the thing was invented and it needed a name. Same with Tyrannosaurus Rex. But that was too cumbersome to say, so it was shortened to "T-Rex".

I'm rambling my ass off, so I'll stop here. I think I made a point.......somewhere in that mass of text.......maybe.

[Extunarian]

Originally Posted by karsten [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

So, mild illiteracy can be defended by saying that language is fluid. Check.

Reminds me of...


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