English please?

I know I'm not the only one that feels this way, but after trying to decipher through some people's questions on here, my head spins. I really try to be as helpful as I can, but when some do not punctuate, spell out words, and so on, I have trouble trying to understand their question/comment. It also, sadly, affects my motivation to answer questions from those who type this way. It's just irritating to me that some bring "1337 5P34K" and "internet shorthand" into these forums, where a degree of literacy is expected. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest after trying to read some of the threads on here tonight.

please link to some examples, i need a good laugh.

I feel your pain, and though I'm often not 100% gramatically correct (spelling included), more like 90%, I can't stand these common issues, though they're mostly in game:

- Using all caps, especially when you're having a conversation and the person continues to reply in all caps
- Almost always a noob indicator, a sentence with the word "wat" in it and no question mark at the end ("WAT YOU WANT" would annoy the hell out of me)

There are many more, those just popped out in my mind and I can't be bothered to write any more, it's bed time

EDIT: Yes, examples please :-D

^^Perfect example. Thanks eom.

I can't stand the ones who never use punctuation or paragraphs. Makes me want to smack them with a week old fish.

Actually the thing that REALLY gets to me is the simple fact that about 80% of the guru population don't understand the difference between a plural and a possession.

If there's anything that get my blood boiling it's people that can't or don't use punctuation of any sort at all. I can stand spelling mistakes here and there as long as I can understand what a person is trying to say. However, wen u speel liek tis an xpect ppl 2 undastan u den dunt xpect a gud replie. The real issue of course, is that people are too concerned with trying to save some time. As a result, they type in internet shorthand (u for you, for example) and get so used to typing in that manner that they only know to type that way.

I understand using shorthand in instant messaging, etc, but in-game it's unnecessary. The problem I have is when I read this "form" of english in game, I get the notion that the person is a complete noob or an idiot. But not always, from what I've learned. Laziness FTW.
The only thing I get from those messages are a couple of laughs. On GWG, every so often I'll read a paragraph length post that has one mark of punctuation. At the end. -_-

Things that get on my nerbes ingame include:

"Dun agro that group"
What the hell is dun? and when did people start using it. I realize it is "don't" but its moronic since it has been more then one person using it.

Also were used in place of we are, without adding ' to make it we're, I read it as it is spelt, meaning it sounds kind of like where.

Ah, yes. This has been bugging me for quite some time as well. Since I typically try my best to communicate as coherently as possible, I can't figure out why some people refuse to offer me the same courtesy. What really gets me is when people will use l337speak or some other form of internet shorthand to try and give me commands while fighting in-game, then has the nerve to complain about me not following their commands later on. Since I prefer to play as Mesmer, I typically won't read anything that takes longer than a second to read if I am engaged in combat. I simply don't have the time, and I certinally am not going to try to crack somebody's special code when my attention is needed elsewhere.

In my mind's eye, these people end up appearing as some backwater, inbred, home schooled, buck-toothed hillbillies who are only moments away from creating some 'Deliverance'-like scene where I'm cornered deep within the Maguuma jungle and suddenly told that my mesmer has "a reel purdy mouth."

Another thing that I find amusing are the people who start messages or posts with something along the lines of: "Please forgive my English. It is the fifth language I have studied and am still learning." In my experience, the people who start out with something like that often speaks, or at least writes, the language better than 60%-70% of the people I come across and have no reason to apologize.

At this point, I forget where the hell I was going in the first place…

I guess that I’m essentially fed up with all the people online who might as well be saying something along the lines of: “Hey, Billie-Ray! Ya wanna go frog-stickin’ wit me in a lil bit here? Since daddy been dead drunk an I finnish all ma chores, ma mamma says I’cn ride da mule anywheres I wanna. So, you wanna come an… Hey! Where ma hog go? SSSOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE! SOUIE, SOUIE, SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUIIIIIIIIIEEE EEEEE!”

I really am sick of the ‘f u cn reed dis, y shood i lrn 2 spl?’ syndrome I see all the freaking time.

/Rant&Rave

You need to understand that many players in the us districts are from europe, korea, china, togo, fiji and so on. So you can't expect them to speak and type correctly.

For example if I spend some time in an international district in HA trying to talk to some german guys and if after that german session I listen to my guildies spanish maybe i get a bit confused and type somethin stupid. Of course, there are native americans born in some far corner of the US who speak/type some of the wierdest dialect I ever encountered during my life.

But hey, if you read the EULA you wont see anything that forces people type correctly.

One more thing, sometimes if you don't use TS/Vent in pve and you have a noob (or let's say less experienced player) in the group who is on the way to doing some real stupid thing, you really need to let him know asap that what he does is wrong. So a short line like "don do that", or in some cases "dun do dat" pops up in the chat window even if the author usually dosen't use "internet shrthand"...

P.S. Sorry for my bad english, i do speak 5 languages and i am learning the 6th thanks to guildwars (and it's not korean )

Yeah, but the players who come from non-english-speaking countries try to get their english right, and even though the sentence structure is sometimes bad, most words are spellt correctly.

btw, Fiji's national language is English, they have no excuse, unless of course, that means that we don't mind Canadians mis-spelling things cause they're from french canada and people from NZ mis-spelling things cause they are a dual-language country as well.

Oh yeah, and I claim ESL!

Do like I do. Go away from the Guru for months at a time and return for a few laughs, then leave.

In a year, nothing has changed, the complaints remain the same. But the game has remained great.

It gets to me. Half the time if someone says something that takes me more than half a second to comprehend and it's not an official language (1337 is not a language, just a retarted way of typing that really doesn't shorten anything) i just leave it. Chatbox shorthand i can stand but that's no excuse not to know the difference between now, know and no, as well as (this is my pet peeve) their, there and they're. You wouldn't believe how many people i've seen get them mixed up. HOW PEOPLE, HOW!?!! If a sentence is all shorthand like wot u wont (another inefficient way of typing)I would normally be tempted to pick up a baseball bat and show them up close.

The foreigners...well, that's to be expected. They don't know abbreviations too well, and have learnt a different way to how we have. As a 1st language, English is quite easy to change. As a 2nd or beyond, your 1st language cuts in. By the time you associate a word with an object instead of word-1st language name-object you can shorten it. Basically, i couldn't do Spanish in shorthand and it still takes me a while to recall some things.

Maybe we should have a little English tutorial or something. Give someone a 1337 or shorthand word and then show them how to use that word in proper English. As well as learning to use punctuation. I can stand missing the capitals, I can't be screwed half the time ,but missing commas and full stops makes it hard to read...

Learn a language, speak it, write it type it.

Don't be a lazy guit and try and shorten it.

In all, you will never get rid of this, until people get shot on sight for it.


Oooo...just came to me. Have an auto filter on the forums for shorthand and 1337 5P34|<

To this day I still can't understand why so many native speakers of English can't understand the difference between "your" and "you're" Heck, English was my second language and I can understand the difference. What's their excuse?

I agree
(i'm from Italy )

Ah well, if it's calming for you. The same applies to other languages. I often switch to the english districts, so that i don't have to listen to the stupid babbling of my fellow compatriots.

Not that it is any better in there. But it's easier to ignore for me.

What cracks me up is that of the people I see on the forums that suffer from this the most, they tend to appear to be from England. And the call Americans (from the US) abusers of the language?

There is some tendency to be lax on absolutely correct grammar and punctuation on message boards, but people don't even seem to try or care anymore. If they aren't doing it on purpose, I feel sorry for them when they try to go into a real job.

lol looks like some people get upset about the funniest things. As long as you communicate what your trying to say the way you want to then ‘tough sh*t’ if it upsets anyone else, that’s their problem. If I want to shorten something I say then I will...absolutely the end of story....are you really expecting me to obey your orders?....pft!

Btw nice spelling and grammar mistakes buddy lol… you Smacktard!..... Attitudes like that are the mark of the nOOb.

small minded snobs…..nothing more...get a life and stop bitching about peoples spelling ffs!

Fixed

And what does the Fiery Flame Spitter have to do with anything?


Sorry, couldn't resist