Warnings for Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling in the Tech Forums

[Ludachris]

Yes, people are complaining about this. We're working on improving the quality of the Tech Forums by being a little more strict about the information that is posted. One thing we're doing is asking people to be a little more careful about typing. Your post should be easily legible to all who read it. Poor grammar makes your post look bad and brings down the quality of our tech forums. It also negatively affects keyword searching. Though it might seem like a petty issue to some, it's very important to us. People come here to learn, and some people come here to help others out. We want to make sure you show respect for others and the site by not typing like a third grader. There's no excuse for it. We take tech information seriously and we expect you to do the same when you're posting in our tech forums.

This isn't a chat room, it's not instant messenger, and it's not phone text messaging. If you don't have a few extra seconds to type out words and sentences completely, then come back when you have more time. We don't want to see web speak (abbreviated words like "#" instead of "you") in the tech areas. It might be more convenient for you to type like that, but it does our forums and its members an disservice. Most everyone here should know how to read and write English. If English is not your first language, you have an excuse, but that's not what we're talking about here. Not all of us are up to date on the newest trends in web speak, nor should we have to try and decipher instant messenger code (example: "r # doing ne thing later 2day?"). Some of us don't like trying to figure out license plate-type riddles when reading posts. We're all adults here, let's not type like impatient/careless teenagers. Again, this goes mainly for the Tech forums where the information posted is expected to be more professional, credible, and accurate. If it looks like a 9-year old posted it, why should anyone take it seriously? We won't be pushing this as much in the non-tech forums.

Bottom line, take pride in yourself and how you present information in our forums. We expect people who use our tech forums to act mature, responsible, and to be serious when it comes to tech discussions. The way you type plays into that. Put thought into your posts. We believe we have one of the better quality DSM forums on the web. By posting on our site, you're representing our community and that's something you need to keep in mind. We thank you for respecting our wishes on this. We'll be giving warnings and editing/deleting posts as needed going forward for those who don't comply. We're not going to be extremely picky, especially if it's obvious that you made an attempt. But for those who blatantly use bad grammar/spelling/punctuation, we'll be issuing warnings.

[oldman]

I would just like to add that the purpose of this policy is not to discourage members from a non-English speaking country from participating on our forums. Don't be affraid to post and ask for help or to help, just do your best, our moderators are smart enough to differentiate a post from Germany with effort and a plain "lazy" post. Just though I add that in there since many of our members are from outside of US.

[Ludachris]

Good point - I've edited my post.