Sticky posts to remind people about using a capital letter where it needs. (i, I)

[knok]

Hi Erin,

I am about to leave the forum before all the posts become unreadable. I am sorry to complain that, in pharmacy forum, many people don't really care whether what they write are easy to read. I was dizzy when I came across , "i", instead of "I". When I saw any post starting without a capital letter, I stopped reading the forum immediately. Otherwise, I had to be really patient and took more time to try to understand it.

People started the sentence without using a capital letter and did not use a capital letter where it needed. Please...refer to Wasley's thread about using proper English.

I cannot stand and continue reading anymore. I asked people to change but some of us did not see it.

Please do something before it gets worse and worse.


Thanks.

Knok

[wasleys]

Knok,

Now calm down, you're beginning to sound as grumpy as me!

More seriously, though, we are in complete agreement on this one. It's not just capitals, there is also the constant use of deliberately wrong spellings and abbreviations by many people. Apart from this seeming wholly inappropriate in a forum designed to help people improve their English I continue to be concerned about people with poor command of the language who, coming here for help, are likely to be confused by sloppy posts and go away without getting the help they needed.

Erin has expressed concern about this on a number of occasions and has said he intends to do something about it. To date I have not noticed him taking any action. I would suggest such action is long overdue as the current situation cannot be good for the reputation of TM.

And it's doing my head in, too.

Michael

[Erin]

Problem is that I'm not quite sure of what to do. I suppose making an announcement would be the first step....

[wasleys]

Originally Posted by Erin

I suppose making an announcement would be the first step....

Erin,

I would suggest that first off you have to decide, as the chief checky of TM, what your own position is on this, whether or not you want to do something about it and what the downside may be for you if you do/don't act.

If you do want to do something then there may be three forum-wide stages: 1) requests, 2) warning, 3) sanctions. These stages may then need repeating with individuals.

The request stage might concentrate on inappropriateness in a language forum, risk that those involved may actually reduce their own proficiency in English by not using it properly here, risk that unreadable posts are less likely to get answers, incomprehensibility to/confusing others who have limited command of English, reputation of TM as place to improve English.

There will be other arguments, those are quickly off the top of my head having just had a look at the boards before bed. The topic has been the subject of several posts over recent years which will doubtless give other ideas.

Michael

[Erin]

LOL, Michael, I'll take that as gentle chiding. It worked. Announcement is now in place.

[wasleys]

Originally Posted by Erin

I'll take that as gentle chiding.

Erin,

Which of the two meanings of chide were you using there?

Glad to see the action (at least it might save Knok's sanity). It will be interesting to see if you get any replies to the announcement - and if it gets a result.

Michael