Rules about Lingo?

**ShadyNight** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 9:39am

Well since we encourage no one under 16 (though have a few) we don't really have that problem. But for when we do .. we have a few resident "grammar nazi" (which is harsh on me since my spelling is atro .. atri ... really bad

) so for the most part any time anyone does post that sort of thing they will pounce and problems are cleared up.

We do have a small spot in our rules stating it is hard to read and isn't welcome, we also warn they will be pounced on.

**jw791** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 9:43am

Originally posted by Kathy

I'm a member of other forums as well as admin of my own and I ran across a rule today that I like and have never thought about since its not a problem on my own forums.

A particular forum has a "no lingo" rule in its TOS, explaining that excessive use of lingo is not acceptable and requests proper spelling and grammar usage.

Making sur that ur mmbrs type wit all letters for u to read. no wat i meen n all?

Although this is not an issue on my site, I do have a hard enjoying and wanting to participate in a thread that has replies that are in lingo shorthand. Maybe its my age. Maybe its my belief that if we speak english we should write english.

WHat do you think about the "no lingo" rule? Work on your forum? Needed on your forum?

I know that there are some forums targeting teens and young adults that this might be the norm. I'm asking about general *all age* forums.

Yup I have one. My site attracts a lot of teenagers and so many of them like to use AIM/l337 shorthand that it is a turnoff for us older folks.

I'll even take it a step further - I don't allow those mixed-case screen names like "kEwLchiK886". Those are annoying beyond belief.

My reason is that part of building a community is to create a place where your regulars feel comfortable. There are 20,000 teenage-type boards on the 'net and I simply explain that this site is not one of them.

Yikes! I suddenly realized I've turned into my dad!

**Arkham** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 10:04am

Originally posted by jw791

I'll even take it a step further - I don't allow those mixed-case screen names like "kEwLchiK886". Those are annoying beyond belief.

Ah-ha! ThankS

for mentioning that. I'm already going to disallow numbers & symbols, but I didn't even think about mixed-cases.

I'm going to see if I can adapt the COPPA registration from 13 yrs to 18 for that added nudge in the right direction.

**Joe** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 10:45am

Disruption... Posts which intend to disrupt the topic of conversation or steer the topic away from the focus of the forum and related news. Disruption can include harassment, multiple user profiles, multiple posting of the same post and posting completely off topic messages. Please do your best when it comes to grammar, punctuation and spelling. Consistent use of "AOL'ese" and "hAx0r" talk can be very disruptive.

**thefluke** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 11:57am

We don't have an outright rule, but you can be sure that if a moderator can't understand what you siad, it will be moved off the open boards until we can find an appropriate translation program (and by that I mean when I figure out how to get my genetically modified pigs with wings to fly).

Special consideration is taken for people who don't speak english as a first language, but generally I find that they have better grammer than most americans.

**noppid** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 12:35pm

We let um say what they want the way they want. We've never seen a post that couldn't be deciphered.

We get folks from around the world. If one of my mods corrected someones grammer I'd ***** them out. If someone is not well enough educated to post perfectly, Hat's off to them for trying!

How much fun can a forum of grammer nazi's be? Open your mind and try the computer age. It comes with it's own language.

**Arkham** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 12:43pm

Originally posted by noppid

How much fun can a forum of grammer nazi's be? Open your mind and try the computer age. It comes with it's own language.

"...and the dim shall inherit the earth."

**Kathy** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 12:46pm

Originally posted by noppid

We let um say what they want the way they want. We've never seen a post that couldn't be deciphered.

We get folks from around the world. If one of my mods corrected someones grammer I'd ***** them out. If someone is not well enough educated to post perfectly, Hat's off to them for trying!

How much fun can a forum of grammer nazi's be? Open your mind and try the computer age. It comes with it's own language.

Let um say what they want to say n then wat?

Hmmmmm ....For me and my forums, I dont' have kids posting with lingo spellings and poor grammar. My targeted niched doesn't include that generation of non-spellers.

But I can assure you that as I mentioned before that I am almost offended by the use of english in the murderous way many teens portray themselves in posts on the forums I visit. They *appear* to be uneducated and probably aren't. They *appear* to be flakey and unable to be articulate in the written language.

Since the message boards are a place of communication, it speaks well of the authors to communicate well....and "lingo-eese" communicates to me a specific thing: uneducated kid.

Might not be the real person at all...its the perception and on the internet the written language is most of what we have for portraying thoughts to one another.

**noppid** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 1:16pm

We don't currently have any teens, so I doubt the issue will be a problem. I see your point though, I picture the same kid you describe and he's wearing his pants around his hips with his butt showing. Yeah you're right, it is annoying.

**Stryker** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 2:45pm

Originally posted by noppid

We don't currently have any teens, so I doubt the issue will be a problem. I see your point though, I picture the same kid you describe and he's wearing his pants around his hips with his butt showing. Yeah you're right, it is annoying.

Lol, that has to be the most absurd thing I've ever seen. They can't walk more than a few steps without having to pull them up because their belts are unfastened yet they're too stupid to make the connection. As I walked past this one gang of sheep who were all wearing their pants like this I had to literally chew on my fist to stop myself from laughing out loud!

As for the hacker/lazy/gibberish speak, I don't get a lot of it on my forum so it's not an issue for me. When it rears its head in other places it bugs me too.

**ShadyNight** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 5:45pm

Originally posted by noppid

We let um say what they want the way they want. We've never seen a post that couldn't be deciphered.

We get folks from around the world. If one of my mods corrected someones grammer I'd ***** them out. If someone is not well enough educated to post perfectly, Hat's off to them for trying!

How much fun can a forum of grammer nazi's be? Open your mind and try the computer age. It comes with it's own language.

Actually anything in hack (I think that's what it's called?) I can't understand worth a darn. I can understand appr. such as LOL GMTA GTG, but those are usually used in chat.

As for Mods being grammar nazi's? Nope just one admin is, and she has yet to correct anyone. Luckily we've not run across too many lingo speak as of yet, and only a few who don't even try to spell correctly.

**dynamite** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 7:54pm

Disruptive Posting
Posts that disrupt the message boards for other users, intentional or not, are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited, to:
• Message posts or topic titles that force browsers to scroll horizontally
• Large blank or content-free posts
• "Bumping" multiple older topics (posting in them well after the last post)
• Posting multiple identical or near-identical messages or topics, including "fad" topics
• Intentionally hard-to-read topic titles (i.e. ALL CAPS, AlTeRnAtE cApS, no spaces, no or excessive punctuation, 1337 speak, et cetera)
• Posting multiple hard-to-read or nonsensical messages in a single or multiple topics
• Posting large ASCII art
• Post counting (i.e. "First", "100th Post")

I have this on my site, but since it deals with video games the average user is younger, so if I tried to enforce it I probably would have any members. But to be honest, it is very irritating.

**merk** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 8:08pm

Originally posted by Kathy

But I can assure you that as I mentioned before that I am almost offended by the use of english in the murderous way many teens portray themselves in posts on the forums I visit. They *appear* to be uneducated and probably aren't. They *appear* to be flakey and unable to be articulate in the written language.

Sometimes i might come across as someone who didnt do too well in english classes, it is true though

I dont write in any shorthand version of english, but some shortcuts are reasonable, and i cant see the reason for letting some of it pass. But then i also agree that it would depend on your audience. And the topic of your forums would be important too.

**0ptima** · Tue 14 Oct '03, 8:27pm

I cant stand l33tness and would not tolorate any of it on my forum.

Rules about Lingo?

Rules about Lingo?

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