Punctuation is not so crucial but the spelling certainly does matter because a large proportion if not a majority of people on Internet forums use English as a second or third language.

When they see a word spelled differently they have no idea if the other spelling is not in fact another word, with another meaning intended, so they are then obliged to spend their time on looking it up to see.

Consider for instance "sain person" an example which I noticed recently (no name mentioned). Did it accurately intend to mean "sain" as if to imply beatification, or would it rather imply to be connected with the Welsh record label, or was it just a routinley careless mispeling of "sane"?

Would you be sure of the intended meaning of a German word if it were not spelled exactly as it should be? I know from experience that I would not and this compliant not my original; I have seen it before elsewhere.

There was more than enough trouble already with English words spelled differently but pronounced the same, and vise versa with the considerable variations of dialect, not to mention a large variety of slang expressions which are not so easy to look up.

--- RH.

While I agree that everyone should try their best to spell and punctuate, not all of us have had the opportunity to learn how to do this. We've all come from different levels of educations and backgrounds.

Punctuation and spelling should not be a reason to not post. If someone doesn't spell correctly, that's ok, the important thing is the content of the message and that we accept people where they are and not where we expect them to be.

To assist in this for the community, I'm going to look into a spell checker for the forum. That would make it easier on all of us.

It's hard to take someone's ideas seriously when they can't string together a simple phrase without a ton of syntax errors.
I think proper speech should be used at all times when writing at the very least. There's nothing more irritating than seeing someone who may possibly have a brilliant idea say something inane, like; "Do0d!!1 th47 \/\/45 so0o s1c|<!!11 50cr4735 \/\/4s 7eh m4N lo0Lzz!!!1"

But yes, spelling should at least be practiced to a certain degree.

Well, I disagree. How can you hope to express your ideas clearly, and be understood, without aiming for precision in your written work. If youu doubt how crucial punctutation is I suggest you read 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' by Lynne Truss as this shows how easily an important message can be lost by the incorrect placement of a comma.

Historically philosophy was debated verbally so in these terms ideas would be more important. However, when you move to a written debate then precision is the key.

Hi all,

Be sure the reasoning is not motivated by wish to exclude.There are sites that run a tight ship,and if your spelling or grammer is not up to scratch they will not allow you to post.




I am the Roman emperor, and am above grammar."

• Sigismund
  (02/15/1368 - 12/09/1437)
  Germanic emperor