Judi, I'm not sure why you are apologizing. You've always been more than cordial. But its nice to see that you really do care.
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Judi, I'm not sure why you are apologizing. You've always been more than cordial. But its nice to see that you really do care.
As part of the moderating team, we decided all together that were would try to keep chatspeak off of this board except for the really common abreviations like LOL, DH, DS, etc.
Anyway, I don't want anyone here to be offended. This board should be a fun escape - not a place of stress.
I used abbreviations in the subject of a thread recently. I hope that is alright. I see it a lot and it makes sense for titles. If I'm wrong, I'll try not to do it anymore.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Tra's example "i guez it wood B hard 2 understand if u type lyke this, but no1 is doing that."Quote:
Originally posted by Tra:
i guez it wood B hard 2 understand if u type lyke this, but no1 is doing that.
(I guess it would be hard to understand if you type like this, but no one is doing that.)
(And I won't even get into that fact that a lot of people today are very comfortable with chatspeak and find it easy to understand.)
Anyway...just my [img]graemlins/money.gif[/img]
is mainly what we are trying to avoid. Also - that is exactly what some people have been doing and we have PMd them about it.
This board is not an English class and we're not trying to make it that. Just don't post on this board like you would if you were IMing people like Tra's first example. Please try to use periods at the end of sentences and capital letters at the begining of sentences. We don't expect it to be perfect. We just want to understand what you are saying and not have the sentences run into each other.
Tra - As far as people being more comfortable with chatspeak - that is probably true in some cases especially for our younger members, but a lot of people here (including me) still find it hard to understand and time consuming to try to decipher it. We also have a sizable number of English as a second language members for whom chatspeak is extremely difficult to understand.
Using abbreviations like "info" makes sense in a lot of cases and is not the same as chatspeak. Just use your best judgement. If we don't understand what you are trying to say, we will ask questions.
<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ August 15, 2006 02:14 PM: Message edited by: judiaci ]</font>
marilyn 2222, I agree that this whole issue needs some clarification, and I think that the moderators will be working on doing that clarification soon. In the meantime, you can check out the list on our FAQs page. That list is incomplete, but it will give you a start. In addition to the abbreviations on that list, we also allow AGP, AGPC, AGPNY, and AGPLA.
And I want to repeat again that occasional slip-ups are nothing to be worried about. I was trying to address whole writing patterns, but I think that we will be fine-tuning which patterns will be allowed, and defining that better for all of the members.
I do realize that you see netspeak in all its variations a lot, in many different places. We're trying to work on how much of it we want to see here.
Joy
<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ August 15, 2006 02:31 PM: Message edited by: djsnjones ]</font>
WHEW! I can't believe this topic. I normally don't even get into this type of conversation but this time I feel I need to jump in. I for one haven't really seen much true chat speak here, so I don't see what the big issue was/is. I am guilty of typos for sure, but the fact I don't have a spell check available on this board makes my mistakes much worse than normal. This board is not a job, and we want everyone here to have fun and not feel policed about how they write. The only thing moderators should be concerned about is what is written...like the troll for example. I have a daughter with Autism, I certainly would not expect her to have to explain to a moderator for any board like this why she writes the way she does, it's just insulting. In fact is, it is no ones business why someone writes they way they do, as long as it is not offensive, who cares. I would also guess these rules that were put in place by our moderators, when in comes to special needs, are in violation of hostboard in general. Have they seen these rules? I am very sure an organization who helps special needs people would have a hay day with this.
Can we just spend our time on fun doll things and not be so nit picky about things like this? I can't believe what goes on around here sometimes...
[img]graemlins/hmmm.gif[/img]
Shelly
Please check our rules. There is nothing about special needs in our rules. It was a poor choice in words, for which I am sorry.
There have been many misunderstandings about what I was asking, and I have tried to help the tension die down by being quiet as much as possible. We would not by any means hassle someone who writes a certain way by necessity, nor anyone who just makes occasional typos. We are just happy to hear from all of you.
I will try to be more careful in how I try to connect with our members and communicate about possible necessary adjustments, in the future.
As far as chatspeak goes, as Judi has said, let's just focus on the abbreviations, periods and capitals for now. As she said, those tools just help us read each other more easily. We can worry about clarifying the rules at a later date.
Joy
<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ August 15, 2006 05:36 PM: Message edited by: djsnjones ]</font>
We have received many complaints about chatspeak from our members in the past. It hasn't been much of an issue lately because the people using chatspeak have agreed to stop using it or do not often post.
Of course, we don't have any kind of policy relating to special needs. It was just a misunderstanding and a problem with communication. Unfortunately, misunderstandings on the board have happened. People have sincerely apologized and hopefully, we can move on.
I'm going to throw myself in with the mods on this one. As many have said, this is a place to be comfortable. And for me, at least, it is not comfortable to have to decipher each post. I'm aware that perfection is not required, but I appreciate it when people do their best to be comprehensible. It is not necessary to be fast on hostboard. Plus, we need to remember that some members are using translation software or do not speak English well enough to understand slang and poor grammar and spelling. It's not as if I post much anymore, but this is part of the reason that I don't post. I prefer an atmosphere with this kind of courtesy. So, thanks mods!
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I'm extremely glad to read this, because for personal and professional reasons I was absolutely shocked at what I was reading. I was beginning to wonder when the ADA lawyers would pay a visit.Quote:
Originally posted by judiaci:
Of course, we don't have any kind of policy relating to special needs. It was just a misunderstanding and a problem with communication.
It's not easy to moderate a board by any means, but I think keeping things simple is best. Chatspeak is one thing (although personally it doesn't bother me to see it), but methinks monitoring things beyond that is a slippery slope. I'm glad to read that energies are being directed elsewhere.
<font color="#33CCCC" size="1">[ August 15, 2006 11:32 PM: Message edited by: EleanorofAquitane ]</font>