Spell Check, use it

[N2EY]

Unfortunately a spell checker won't catch the things that often make me cringe. The "there and their, your and you're" type problems and unnecessary apostrophes in a plural.

I'm sure some people think that an apostrophe means "Holy sh... get ready ... here comes an s!".

I don't think I've particularly seen these on eHam and I have to admit that in the bigger scheme of things, they're hardly worth worrying about but they still really stand out for me for some reason. I never really saw the apostrophe thing before moving to the US.

I only began to see the misuse of the apostrophe a few years ago. I don't know where it came from. The rules are very simple: Apostrophes are used to denote the possessive and contractions. Plurals are never denoted by an apostrophe. Why so many people whose native language is English don't understand that is a mystery.

Another annoyance is the person who hasn't got the message that, in the online environment, using ALL CAPITALS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING.

For me, the occasional typo or other mistake isn't worth making a big deal over. But a post loaded with mistakes sends the message that the writer simply doesn't care enough to write a clear and literate question. Yet the writer wants others to care enough to write clear and literate answers!

Years ago, in another forum, there was a ham who wrote enormous numbers of lengthy posts that were all but unreadable. Spelling, grammar, punctuation were all terrible, yet we tried to make sense of them.

Someone finally asked that this ham use a spelling and grammar checker. He replied that he had one, but didn't use it because it slowed him down too much! He claimed he had a lot of important stuff to say and couldn't be bothered to correct his mistakes. (In a way, this made sense, because he made so many!). He made it clear that *his* posts were so important that we readers should put up with all the mistakes.

I just stopped reading his stuff.

73 de Jim, N2EY

[AA4HA]

There is a nifty little program that I run on my computer called Aspell. When installed it does real-time spell checking on everything you type. When you make a mistake it underlines the error in red so you can just backspace and make a correction or hit the right mouse button and the program lists the suggested spelling.

You can get the program for free at;

http://aspell.net/win32/

Tisha Hayes, AA4HA

[KA5N]

YEAH!   And some people think syntax is what they charge you at the strip club.

its, it's    their, there   etc.   but the worst is amature instead of amateur (and usually the writer
is crying about how hard the license exam is).
No matter how hard you try to fix people we are all just part of the great unwashed.

Allen

[K6LHA]

Another annoyance is the person who hasn't got the message that, in the online environment, using ALL CAPITALS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING.

Poor baby.  Under a lot of stress on your computer?

Way way way back when USENET was the only way to go, there weren't any fancy fonts or typefaces, just what the ASCII set had.  In order to emphasize a point the use of all-capitals was a substitute.

When the Internet went public in 1991, most of the folks using it then had terminals that could only handle the ASCII set.  So...they used all capitals to emphasize a point against those who didn't discuss, just wanted to order others around.

Seems like there are still a bunch of folks who just don't want to discuss things and want to give others orders...   

73, Len K6LHA

[N2EY]

its, it's    their, there   etc.   but the worst is amature instead of amateur (and usually the writer
is crying about how hard the license exam is).
No matter how hard you try to fix people we are all just part of the great unwashed.

Their, they're, there
Too, to, two
Its, it's
Lose, loose (they don't even sound the same)

Balum

And many more.

But there are worse things.

There's the person who uses various logical fallacies as "proof" of their statements. Appeal to Authority, ad-hominem, false dichotomy and many more get used.

Then there's the person who posts provably incorrect information as fact. And of course the person who unleashes personal insults at those who dare to point out an error or even have a difference of opinion.

For example, some time back there was an article in which a poster stated that HF antenna tuners were inefficient by nature. He claimed that all they did to improve the SWR seen by the rig was to convert the reflected power to heat. He claimed that the *only* way to have an efficient system was to use a resonant antenna, matched at the antenna.

All sorts of examples and analyses were given to disprove his claim, yet he stuck to it and insulted all who opposed him. He claimed experience in non-amateur radio as his proof - classic Appeal-to-Authority fallacy.

In another case, it was stated that glass transmitting tubes such as the 3-500Z would *always* last longer if operated well below ratings, and that operation with the anode showing visible color shortened the life of such tubes.

It was pointed out by several others that *some* glass transmitting tubes such as the 833A and 3-500Z have the anode coated with gas-adsorbing materials such as zirconium. For proper gettering action in those tubes, the anode should operate at or above the temperature where it begins to show some color. 

Manufacturer's data and application notes were cited, including a paper that clearly explained the whole process. Yet some folks simply refused to accept the facts, and insulted those who posted the correct information.

Then there's the why-hams-use-LSB-on-75-but-USB-on-20 myth...

73 de Jim, N2EY