Over here I have noticed that some newbies to Linux have posted some very improper grammar and expected to receive help for their problems. How many of you are willing to help users who do not capitalize, do not punctuate, and do not post enough info?

we have to help & suggest people who don't know proper way saying their problem.

Speaking for myself, and *maybe* for some of our more experienced/frequent posters (I certainly don't speak for everyone, or even most people), we try to encourage such users to mend their ways a bit, while at the same time addressing their question.

It's not a good idea to make the first reply to a post simply to berate a member for using crappy grammar, spelling, or posting an impossibly vague question, and leave it at that. Instead, if you/we think you/we can begin to address the question itself (even if only to ask for a lot of clarification), AND give some guidance about how to correct their posting style, that would be ideal.

This usually involves the first reply to such posts, doing the following: asking for more information, and asking/suggesting that the offender please try to their ability, to type clearly and to use some punctuation.
Usually the problem gets corrected to satisfactory levels, sometimes surprisingly so; and sometimes (rarely) a poster insists on using near-incomprehensible writing and showing complete disregard for punctuation and caps. In the latter cases, many members probably decide to ignore threads by such people. ( I specifically recall a member who deliberately refused to use ANY punctuation or newlines AT ALL, because they felt they "didn't have to" )

I would suggest too, that it isn't necessarily/always 'linux newbies' who are guilty of this; rather, it can be someone (perhaps with lots of linux/computer experience) whose English skills are lacking because it is not their native language, or someone who is accustomed to using TExTiNg/AOL/cell-phone/Lee7-speak, and doesn't realize that such speak isn't conducive to getting help on a forum like LQ.

Anyhow, I for one am still willing to try to help.

For me effective communication is more important than style.

That apparently simple statement becomes more complex:

• LQ is international and many of our users are not native speakers; they can understand standard English more easily than its variants; if they use machine translation, standard English can be translated more effectively.
• Non-standard English is less precise than variant English. Some of the variations make a virtue out of imprecision/sloppiness (an interesting social phenomenon perhaps reflecting aversion from the self-discipline necessary to write standard English) and words/representations are in flux.
• LQ posts show some correlation between language choice and clarity of thought. People who routinely use less-precise English variants may be less capable of clear thinking because their language-based thinking does not have a precise toolset.

Agreed. The real problem arises when a post is so garbled that it makes little or no sense, thus eliminating effective communication entirely. In addition, things like texting shorthand are just irritating to many of us.

That's very interesting. Please post further or PM me on that topic, if you have the time and inclination.

I really get annoyed with all the l33t h4x0r, and text messaging shorthand that passes for proper English around here. These l33t-speak posts also tend to be totally devoid of anything resembling a punctuation mark as well.
This has become a growing problem for the Ubuntu forums at ubuntuforums.org also.
If English is not the poster's first language, then I can excuse it. The really embarrassing thing is, many of these these people with the nonexistent writing skills are American college students! These people actually believe that this is the normal way to write!!
Is it any wonder why America lags behind almost every European country in academic achievement??

I categorize garbled posts three ways.

• Non-native English speaker.
• Newbie who doesn't know enough yet to ask the right question.
• Native english speaker with poor writing skills/deliberate use of shorthand.

Of these, the last is the only one I will often ignore completely.

Agreed with this, but I'll try and give at least one chance... if they appeciate the help and attempt to be useful then I'll continue to help them. Others will just be ignored.

As we already have some of these threads in General, I have moved this to be with them.

I think that they still should be helped, but also be told to use better grammar if they can.

I haven't actually noticed anyone using 1337 sp33k here but txt spk seems to be quite common and I personally find it appalling.

Might do if some good examples come along.

Okay, let me start helping these people with incorrect grammar/spelling

@Kenny_Strawn, your polling choice #2 should be:
These people have a right to recieve help, but the posts are still gibberish.

I agree that the poll does not have a choice like "they still should get help, but don't just ingore the bad grammar".

And I agree that it's often a problem when the question is so poorly written that it is unintelligible.

Yes, just ingore it !

i before e except after c.
ingore this at your peril!