you usually know what the other person meant to say
I’ll grant the “usually” on that, but it’s not always.
What I find harder to work with is missing or incorrect punctuation. Some sentences/paragraphs change meaning or are rendered entirely undecipherable by mis-punctuating.
Back in the 90’s, when mailing lists and forwarded jokes (and chain letters) made up the majority of email, we got one that demonstrated the importance of punctation. It was two copies of a brief letter to a [former] lover, with all the words identical but the punctuation changed — the two copies had overall opposite meanings.
I’ve been unable to find anything like that again, and the original I saw has rusted away on an old hard drive or something. (in other words, no one in the family can remember whatever happened to it)
I guess what I’m saying is that I try to be very generous with others’ writing when I can. Because:
typos are really easy, and autocorrect makes them harder to spot
reading and writing are not automatic for everyone, whether due to dyslexia, ESL, or any other reason
sometimes people are drunk, and as long as they’re not hurting anyone, I don’t need to be their mommy
Note that in this context, “drunk” can many any number of things, including (but not limited to)
actually drunk, or high, or otherwise affected by drugs
extremely tired
in a hurry (probably for legitimate reasons)
worried about what their toddler is doing
just heard a cat vomiting
just saw a spider
typing one-handed because of a pet/child/cast, or holding a taco/burrito/pizza/margarita/bag-of-money
In short, I try to be charitable when reading others stuff, especially in casual settings. Even I make mistakes sometimes, so I shouldn’t expect better from all you lesser mortals.
(but some people’s writing is really hard to read)
(not speaking of anyone in this forum, just out in the world in general)
@xobzoo yeah. I have insomnia, so sometimes when I’ve been laying awake for hours (example tonight) I’ll eventually admit defeat and grab my phone to kill time until my alarm goes off.
When I’m sleepy I can’t read what I’m writing easily. (Can’t zoom in on text box or half the typing is off screen). One common mistake with me is hitting the period instead of spacebar. At night when my eyesight is blurring I don’t even see the periods littering my text until the next day.
@Kyeh@xobzoo Between Google’s Autocorrupt and their Speech To Manglish misfeatures, I have often been driven to want to use my phone as a clay pigeon. So far, I have been unable to budget the project.
@xobzoo Lack of punctuation really irks me. It just feels lazy. The period and comma buttons are right there with the letters; it’s not like you have to search for them or go to another level of the keyboard.
I’ll grant the “usually” on that, but it’s not always.
What I find harder to work with is missing or incorrect punctuation. Some sentences/paragraphs change meaning or are rendered entirely undecipherable by mis-punctuating.
Back in the 90’s, when mailing lists and forwarded jokes (and chain letters) made up the majority of email, we got one that demonstrated the importance of punctation. It was two copies of a brief letter to a [former] lover, with all the words identical but the punctuation changed — the two copies had overall opposite meanings.
I’ve been unable to find anything like that again, and the original I saw has rusted away on an old hard drive or something. (in other words, no one in the family can remember whatever happened to it)
I guess what I’m saying is that I try to be very generous with others’ writing when I can. Because:
Note that in this context, “drunk” can many any number of things, including (but not limited to)
In short, I try to be charitable when reading others stuff, especially in casual settings. Even I make mistakes sometimes, so I shouldn’t expect better from all you lesser mortals.
(but some people’s writing is really hard to read)
(not speaking of anyone in this forum, just out in the world in general)
@xobzoo And text-to-speech adds another, often hilarious, complication.
@xobzoo yeah. I have insomnia, so sometimes when I’ve been laying awake for hours (example tonight) I’ll eventually admit defeat and grab my phone to kill time until my alarm goes off.
When I’m sleepy I can’t read what I’m writing easily. (Can’t zoom in on text box or half the typing is off screen). One common mistake with me is hitting the period instead of spacebar. At night when my eyesight is blurring I don’t even see the periods littering my text until the next day.
@Kyeh @xobzoo Between Google’s Autocorrupt and their Speech To Manglish misfeatures, I have often been driven to want to use my phone as a clay pigeon. So far, I have been unable to budget the project.
@xobzoo Lack of punctuation really irks me. It just feels lazy. The period and comma buttons are right there with the letters; it’s not like you have to search for them or go to another level of the keyboard.
@lisagd @xobzoo Not on my phone - but I’m compulsive about punctuating.
@Kyeh @xobzoo You missed the worst.
In a hurry because the toddler is squeezing the cat and the cat is vomiting spiders.
/showme a toddler squeezing a cat which is vomiting horrific spiders
@mediocrebot I think “horrific” got applied to each part of the prompt individually.
That’s just as well, I suppose.