Incoherant sentances

[SirPoonga]

This  is a tad straight forward post, but...

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=2630

I was wondering how many people here where english is not their first language.  Then I can understand that.  BUT I do see a growing trend in non-understandable posts.  Is there something we can do to help out if it is a language barrier issue?

[rampy]

FWIW, I've notice an increase in unintelligible posts.

I'm sympathetic to someone who's second language is English (hey that's better than me, I only know one, but can probably order a beer in 2 others ones "necessito uno cervesa, por favore")

But with that said, there is a trend for just lazy or quasi '371t3" style postings... It grates on me a little each time I see it (and I'm starting to see it in abundance).  It's a pet peeve of mine.

Sometimes people with ESL are apologetic upfront and state their queries as best they can, and if the intent of the text can be ascertained people respond and help....

but on the other hand I think some posters are lazy/sloppy and can form intelligible statements but choose not too (maybe they are too excited about having something to comment on it, they don't take care to think about what they are typing or how to best present it... they just stream of conciousness spout text with maybe a smilie or two thrown in for good measure)

*shrug*  I think we should be tolerant and accepting of people participating in the board regardless of english language skills/native language other than english... but I also feel there are some English as First language folks that are just, how shall I say, ill mannered textually/grammatically =P

YMMV,

rampy

[Dave_K.]

I think it all started when SNAAAKE came to byoac ...its infectious I tell you.  It first starts with no regard to proper spelling, then rapidly progesses to the point where turning off your caps lock (that accidentally turned on during the numerous typos) is just to much work to turn off while typing.  Next thing you know, there are dirty socks on the coffee table, toilet seat stays up, cereal for dinner, extra deoderant instead of a shower, farting in public .... I think I'll stop now.

-Dave

<mod> heh...I'm always fixing my typos after I post...I'm a gonner </mod>

[SNAAAKE]

I think it all started when SNAAAKE came to byoac

Dude,
You wanna explain that  
I dont write as bad as the other guy wrote.
He wrote the longest sentence in history.Whatever i write is very unterstandable.I agree with the fact that english is not my native language but dont blame it on me when you see someone writing a long long long sentence.

[rampy]

I can't speak for dave_k, but you even poke fun of your own unintelligibility in your sig

"Damn it what did i just say?
Go back and try to figure it out ! "

I think he's just saying it's contagious  

rampy

[SNAAAKE]

sure man...whatever makes ya happy  

[Dave_K.]

[Dude,
You wanna explain that  

Its all in fun snaaake.  I think I've asked before if you were from Russia because thats how I always read your posts.  

-Dave

[SNAAAKE]

I think I've asked before if you were from Russia because thats how I always read your posts.  

-Dave

AGAIN,whatever makes ya happy  

If it makes you feel any better thinking i was from russia then think all you want.

[Dink]

I like the forum software that has the "ignore user" option.  This forum doesn't have it so when I read certain names I just scroll past.  Simple, easy, painless.

Nullb0y interpretation:
i lik teh forim ssofftware that has tehh "IgNoREz Luzer" opshun this ffurunm dosnt hav It sew wen i read sertin namez i justt scrollll passt pimpl, eazy E, yo word mtv raps pain leser and um liek i gounna git sum wood and cut it up now ops wron siz wud i GIT MOR WUDz FOR YOUZ GUYS WOW!!!!!!!!1

[SNAAAKE]

Nullb0y interpretation:
i lik teh forim ssofftware that has tehh "IgNoREz Luzer" opshun this ffurunm dosnt hav It sew wen i read sertin namez i justt scrollll passt pimpl, eazy E, yo word mtv raps pain leser and um liek i gounna git sum wood and cut it up now ops wron siz wud i GIT MOR WUDz FOR YOUZ GUYS WOW!!!!!!!!1

DUUUUDE ! ! !

Have you been drinkin a lot these days?lol

seriouslly

Give the kid a break..he is only 17.

I used to be 17 couple of days ago ....

you know how it is when you are 17.

we should stop makin fun of nullb0y already.

[Howard_Casto]

Rampy I think you and Dave need to lay off.  Constructive criticism is good and can help out people with language issues but it's not very proper  to name names and make fun just for the sake of making fun.  SirP was honestly concerned... I don't think his point was to make fun of nullboy.  

I know this sounds extremely bizarre coming from Mr. Politically Incorrect but try to remember that there are people behind those posts.  You don't walk up to a guy with a lisp and make fun of his problem... unless your a total a$$hole that is.  

Anyway... I seriously think we need some translators.  Maybe not true translators but consultants for our foreign friends.  They could pre-post to a place where volunteers could check over the post for content and see if it's understandable to average joe.  Ok maybe that's a bit overboard but something could be done.    

[SirPoonga]

Rampy I think you and Dave need to lay off.  Constructive criticism is good and can help out people with language issues but it's not very proper  to name names and make fun just for the sake of making fun.  SirP was honestly concerned... I don't think his point was to make fun of nullboy.  

I know this sounds extremely bizarre coming from Mr. Politically Incorrect but try to remember that there are people behind those posts.  You don't walk up to a guy with a lisp and make fun of his problem... unless your a total a$$hole that is.  

Anyway... I seriously think we need some translators.  Maybe not true translators but consultants for our foreign friends.  They could pre-post to a place where volunteers could check over the post for content and see if it's understandable to average joe.  Ok maybe that's a bit overboard but something could be done.    

Right on.
Actaully, you bring up a good point, are their people who know other languages fluently?  We could have used that in the chatroom once when a spanish speaking dude came in.  About half of what he said translated in in babelfish.

[SNAAAKE]

Ho wooo oh..talk about language  

I speak 5 different language.

English,French(damn right),Spanish(still having problem mixing things up),my native language and another language similer to my native.

now people who are makin fun of people here(*COUGH *COUGH Dave_k,should stop already.

Seriouslly,

quotes like "hey dude,are you from Russia?Because Russian people are very stupid.They can't speak or write English as well as by born Americans" are not very polite.

I dont see many americans speakin any other language then their own.But look at people from different countries,atleast they can understand the language and then write back assuming they understood whatever they red.

[rampy]

Rampy I think you and Dave need to lay off.  Constructive criticism is good and can help out people with language issues but it's not very proper  to name names and make fun just for the sake of making fun.  SirP was honestly concerned... I don't think his point was to make fun of nullboy.  

I know this sounds extremely bizarre coming from Mr. Politically Incorrect but try to remember that there are people behind those posts.  You don't walk up to a guy with a lisp and make fun of his problem... unless your a total a$$hole that is.  

FYI, I never named any names...  also, you must not have understood my post... I was very sensitive to ESL, I was very unsensitive to warez-esque-elitespeek and just plain lazy/inconsiderate posters.

re:  I know this sounds extremely bizarre coming from Mr. Politically Incorrect but try to remember that there are people behind those posts.  


That's part of the problem... People on message board(s) (in general) don't speak with the same reverance/respect/etc as if they were in person.  Not that I'm never guilty of that, but if these convo's were happening in real life (tm) people wouldn't be streaming one long sentence afte another without whitespace or pauses or SHOUTING or excessively using smileys...  it's more a nettiquitate (sp) issue for me than one of plain english competency.

Maybe check your comprehension and reread my post, eh?

Else maybe I'm not using the language effectively enough to communicate my interpretation of the issue.

with best regards,

Rampy

[Dave_K.]

Nice response Rampy.  I hammered out a long reply to Howard on this as well, but then realized his post was just flame bait.

BTW: I only named snaaake (with a wink icon) as I've already had this disucssion with him before (hence the russian reference).   We all know he has a sense of humor (why else would the guy send kissy icons!)

Sarcarsm and Jokes might as well be outlawed on this board if we are to be sensative to our Foriegn friends interpretations.

-Dave

[Dave_K.]

now people who are makin fun of people here(*COUGH *COUGH Dave_k,should stop already.

Seriouslly,

quotes like "hey dude,are you from Russia?Because Russian people are very stupid.They can't speak or write English as well as by born Americans" are not very polite.

I stand corrected, I guess our foriegn friends don't understand sarcasm and jokes  .   Snaake, if you look back at my post to you, you will see I did not say such harsh remarks to you (also you shouldn't quote me with " " unless its something I actually typed).  I said it was funny that I always interpret your posts with a russian accent.  How you interpreted those remarks is what I should have been sensative to (had I known you were a foriegner).  I apologize.

-Dave

[SNAAAKE]

Well said.

I did get your joke with the wink but remember,sometimes jokes ain't funny at all.

[rampy]

Also,I am not all foriegner anyways.I understand English as good as everybody else.  

Now that's the funniest thing I've heard today... =P

rampy

[SNAAAKE]

Here we go again.

hahahahahahahahah....can't laughing for some reason.
I was expecting you

i knew you would have somethin to say.

[rampy]

Here we go again.

hahahahahahahahah....can't laughing for some reason.
I was expecting you

i knew you would have somethin to say.

I'm having trouble understanding the context of what you are saying there...but that's ok...

I assume you meant to make the old joke earlier, "I speak English good"  which will give an english teacher/grammer nazi fits  (FYI should  be: I speak English well)

Of course jokes are less funny if you explain them, or so I'm told.

*shrug*

rampy

[Howard_Casto]

Nice response Rampy.  I hammered out a long reply to Howard on this as well, but then realized his post was just flame bait.

Umm guys I was serious.  And I never flame, I speak a true, un-biased opinon....  It's completely uncensored, unforgiving and to the point.  Most people can't handle that, including the two of you.    

You guys can be terribly cruel, Dave in particular has attacked me several times for no apparent reason other than he didn't like what I said.  I believe you just now actually went back and read how snaake has been intrepreting your messages so hopefully you understand how awful you can sound at times.  

I don't judge, I simply speak how I'm being spoken to.  So if you feel that I'm being a little too harsh then you need to look at your own posts impartially and figure out where you were putting out the flame-bait yourselves.  Also I don't take any rudeness crap being thrown around (like you guys started on this post)  so if I see it I'll catch you on it.  It's nothing personal, I just refuse to not get involved when someone is being mean or rude simply to be mean or rude.  Sometimes, however, it does have it's place.  

Oh and for the record and just for the record.  If you look at an grammar handbook there isn't a  set limit to how long a sentence can be.  Although proper punctuation must be present, a single sentence can go on for several lines and still be correct.  "White space," as you put it, is simply a term that magazine and newspaper editors invented to explain that a page should be "pretty" so that readers can follow it better.  I'll agree that improperly done, long sentences can be a problem, but they are also necessary.  I, for example, like to use very descriptive sentences (mainly because everyone attacks me for being "inaccurate" if i don't over explain)  as they aid in explaining my perspective.  I greatly prefer an intelligent, long sentence, over several small, silly, comments that seem to lack any relevance.    

This isn't flame this is just the truth and how I feel.  The only way I could see anyone being offended by this post is if they see some truth in it and it pisses them off or they really don't understand the concept that I am one of the good guys here and or they are intimidated by how highly regarded my opinion might be to others reading this.  

I'm just a guy here.  I help out tons of people every day. I don't pick fights with people on this board, but for some reason whenever someone doesn't agree with what I say they feel it is their god-given duty to attack me in a very rude manner.  Perhaps they see the high number of posts next to my name and figure I need taken down a notch.  Or perhaps they see it, knowing that they seldom agree with my opinions and see any screw up or contraversal opinion from me as an excuse to get a piece of the guy they resent so much for spreading the "wrong" opinions.  I honestly don't understand how anyone could take offense to anything I've ever written.  Now disagree, you bet, but this is ridiculous.  

If you guys have a problem with me then I suggest you report me or leave, because I'm not going anywhere, I have questions to answer and input that is valuable to some that I need to give out.

[SirPoonga]

There's nothing wrong with speaking your mind, speaking your opinion, speaking the truth, even if it is a harsh reality.  But when you think something is true due to misinformation then it isn't the truth.

Actually, since I started this thread, I think I can delete it.  I might delete it and try and rephrase my original question to hopefully come across what I wanted the discussion to be about.

When you make a reply/post think about two things
1.  Think before you type.

2. Try and understand where the other person is coming from and why he replied like he did.  Don't just take it as a personal attack, try and think why the person might have said that.

Many people here post opinions.  If someone else has a different opinion of course there is going to be confict.  The best thing to do is state your opinion along with fact and why it is fact.  Important part, reply with WHY it is fact so that it is believable as fact otherwise it's just another opinion to support an opinion.

Maybe, if you extremely disagree with someone, PM that person instead of on the board.

[rampy]

FWIW, Howard I have no beef with you...

I'm not sure I agree with everything you said, but it's largely a matter of semantics/opinion...

My major issue is that there are people on this board that don't care enough about what they  are "saying/typing" to put enough effort into making it readable.  

If they don't care enough to either use a comma/period or hit the carriage return key, why should we bother to answer their queries, validate their comments with responses.

I'm of the opinion that it is NOT an ESL thing... I bet the people that compose horribly illegible messages would NEVER hand in an homework assignment that looked even remotely like their posts here.  That's what's rude and inconsiderate...  no amount of smilies or LOL's can cover that up.

*shrug*   so there's my opinion, of which I think I'm being truthful, or stating the truth to the best of my knowledge.  I do not believe there were any ad homynem attacks (sp) in my post...

PS it's not a person that I'm upset with, it's a behavior that I don't think is appropriate.  Behaviors can be modified, hopefully whomever could stumble upon this thread and give pause, and maybe take an extra minute when posting next time.

[1UP]

Bottom line -- we all have our own quirks.  Some people stream continuous sentences without punctuation to set different ideas apart.

Others *shrug* constantly.  

Some end every other sentence with trailing periods...    (Guilty...)

In the end, it's the posters who lose out when they are careless with their typing.  I can deal with typos, spelling probs, and overused smilies.  But punctuation, or at least a blank line once in awhile, helps me keep my sanity when reading a long post!  For the love of God, please insert at least a comma at the end of each thought!  When I see a sentence that's close to 100 words long, I'm likely to skip it, even if it's something I could help with or have an opinion on.

It's also a sign of being uneducated.  I understand we have some younger people here, but by the time you're in high school, (hell, jr. high) you should have some kind of idea how to communicate well in writing.

Again, I believe it comes back to laziness.  I know that all Latin-based forms of communication use somewhat similar rules for punctuation, and even most non-latin languages use some kind of special character to break up sentences.  So I doubt it's a purely cultural thing...

Just my 2c.

[rampy]

Bottom line -- we all have our own quirks.  Some people stream continuous sentences without punctuation to set different ideas apart.

Others *shrug* constantly.  

Some end every other sentence with trailing periods...    (Guilty...)

Heh, guilty as charged  (on both counts...)

*represses urge to type *shrug**

rampy

[Howard_Casto]

FWIW, Howard I have no beef with you...

That post wasn't directed towards this particular post or you in particular, it was merely in general what has been happening all over the message board over the past month or so.  I'm sorry if you read it that way.  But see what you did there... you didn't go crazy to start a flame, you just typed what you were thinking.  You'll also notice that I'm doing the same.  Unfortunately everyone hasn't been as considerate as you have lately, that's what I was pissed about.  

Btw on further regard of the grammatical errors....
personally I type gramatically incorrect on purpose, because it makes for an easier read for you guys and a lot less typing for me.  Unfortunately you can do the same thing and make it look worse.  So I don't think it's a matter of laziness but poor communication skills and/or a language barrier.  Remember to other romance languages english has it's verbs and adverbs all --I'm attempting to get by the auto-censor and should be beaten after I re-read the rules-- backwards so it can be hard sometimes. ;-)  

Of course all of my foreign friends are freakin brilliant and they speak like 4+ languages.  

[Dink]

[SNAAAKE]

WHAT THE HECK ?   ?

[Dave_K.]

You guys can be terribly cruel, Dave in particular has attacked me several times for no apparent reason other than he didn't like what I said.

Howard, how old are you again?  I'm sorry but I don't ever remember attacking you on any personal level.  Sure we may have had some differing opinions on consoles/arcade games, and I pointed out some facts to you regarding commercial emulators and licensing, but I don't ever remember "attacking" you.  Maybe you have me confused with another "Dave" (there are several on this board)

I believe you just now actually went back and read how snaake has been intrepreting your messages so hopefully you understand how awful you can sound at times.  

Umm, yes as I stated in my later reponses I did go back and re-read my post to Snaake, and I apologised for the misunderstanding.  Now if you have a problem with interpreting my humor, then I humbaly apologise to you to.  I am sometimes unware that even native americans lack a funny bone.  

-Dave

[Malenko]

I just dont like it when people use numbers in words and single letters as words.
For example:

2day I got my thing --BINGO! Either that, or I was attempting to say "before" but it was too many letters to type-- U


Alas, even that is more coherant then many posts I have read (not written).

Malenko
PS:Now I know someone will dig up a post I made ages ago using the technique I hate so much.

[planetjay]

Everyone needs to lighten up before I have to come in here and moderate.