Why are British people so stupid on the Internet?

[The Seer of Shadows]

Things like "then" vs "than" annoy me as well.  I think their are some people who actually don't understand that their is a difference.  I guess its a lot easier to miss things that a spell checker doesn't detect then it is to miss blaytant misspelings because your so used to getting corrected in word processors that you actually learn a lesson.  But no one learns anything from there elementary school English classes because than its like, "Why does this matter?  Its all such obvious stuff anyway."

They're are 12 things wrong with this post.  Did you find them all on your first read??

[Bosola]

I saw a great mnemonic today for recalling the difference between "you're" and "your":

You're a terrible writer and I hope your face catches fire.

[The Seer of Shadows]

They're going over to the building that isn't burning, because there, their faces will not catch fire

[Opine]

That's why. Since texting used to be done exclusively on phones with only a 12 digit keypad words were shortened. There's no excuse anymore to keep typing "thx" or "ne1" when you have a fully functional qwerty alphabet layout. Again, time-savers are our opium. I guess sacrificing clarity for efficiency makes some people happy. Then again, it takes just as much time to decipher as it saved in leaving out "extraneous" (try abbreviating THAT texters! assuming you can spell it in the first place, of course) characters. It's not cool or kewl or leet or l33t or 1337 anymore. That's SOOOO 90's. It's just plain wrong.

I didn't mean the limitations of qwerty. I was referring to the fact that my phone can only send a text message containing 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation. If I go over 140, then it will split my message into two texts and send them separately. Not a huge deal, but annoying if your recipient doesn't have a text plan with their cellphone. They'd get charged twice, instead of once. Of course, most people have texting in their plans now. But I still hate it when people send me one message spanning over two texts. I'd rather read shorthand with everything in one text.

[nfitc1]

I didn't mean the limitations of qwerty. I was referring to the fact that my phone can only send a text message containing 140 characters, including spaces and punctuation. If I go over 140, then it will split my message into two texts and send them separately. Not a huge deal, but annoying if your recipient doesn't have a text plan with their cellphone. They'd get charged twice, instead of once. Of course, most people have texting in their plans now. But I still hate it when people send me one message spanning over two texts. I'd rather read shorthand with everything in one text.

I know that's what you meant. But the effect is the same. Shorthanding will turn "enough" into "enuf". It's all about saving time/money.

[yoshi314]

Why are British people so disproportionally illiterate online? Why are so many British people unable to write in standard English? Why do so many British people think that it is acceptable to write in their local dialect when addressing an international audience?

that's because they think they don't need to know any other language than their own, because everybody else will have to learn english. that's doesn't help improve your language skill, even in your native language.

[Armorvil]

Ha, it's funny, because I'm also a linguistic purist. In case someone still doesn't know this, I'm french. And it's true that I quickly noticed that I write better english than a lot of native speakers, online (I'd never do the mistakes the Seer made on purpose, for example - and yeah, I found them all  ).

And I agree about the fact that you must be paying more attention to British people, than to foreigners, KM. I also notice a lot more people from my country who butcher french or english. Writing correctly isn't a proof of intelligence by any means, but it sure is a proof of respect... ...Anyways, maybe it's important to me because I love to write (in both french and english). I'm even currently writing an erotic novel of some kind here (it's in french, but I might translate it once it's finished) ^^

[hotdog963al]

We have a lot of illiterate morons here, come visit and see for yourself!

[Armorvil]

We have a lot of illiterate morons here, come visit and see for yourself!

You can't beat the French ! rofl

[Kudistos Megistos]

In my (limited) experience, illiterate French people seem to write bad French on purpose (i.e. SMS speak); I get the impression that they'd be able to write decent French if they wanted to. British illiterates butcher English because they apparently don't know any better.

[hotdog963al]

British illiterates butcher English because they apparently don't know any better.

http://marketingjunkie.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/chavs-on-holiday.jpg

[Kudistos Megistos]

British illiterates butcher English because they apparently don't know any better.

http://marketingjunkie.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/chavs-on-holiday.jpg

Don't they fill you with national pride?