Don't feel bad. I still have the same problem. Plurals, contractions, and different spellings are enough to make one want to use Ancient Greek as a primary means of communication....
As I've stated before: If you are a native speaker of English, that is when I have a problem. Minor spelling mistakes are fine, but it is examples of what has already been posted that irritates me. As a general rule, I have noticed that the non-native speaker try VERY hard to get things right. Mostly it's my American counterparts that are the worst offenders.

It could just be me, but the "Ugly American" stereotype is alive and well in Cyberspace. Maybe that is what is getting to me. It is the ignorance of ones own mother tongue that should not be tolerated.

At least in my opinion.

JunctaJuvantyuorspostisok.Weknowhereyousisfromfromyour'slocation.
ItsthepeoplewhoarenativeEnglishspeakersthatwehaveaproblemswith.
Man, do I have a headache from re-reading my own post. Hope it's correct, the spell checker went crazy.

Read this post (actually, try to read this post.) It is precisely what I'm ranting about here.

No respect, no grasp, and SHOULD know better. It reads like the ultimate IM.

Doesn't read like the usual leet or text message speak to me, notice (s)he never uses '2', always 'to' or some variation.

Most of the problems seem to be spelling mistakes, lack of punctuation and one big block of text. It could simply be that the poster is dyslexic. Also the poster may not be a native English speaker offering 50 USD rather than simply 50 dollars.

You've said your part, and most agree with it. Can it not be left at that and let the thread die a natural death? Rather than pick out one of the more doubtful posts to make an example of.

Owwwww. My eyes hurt now.

Realistically, I do my best to always use proper grammar and spelling when typing, be it a term paper, or an IM to one of my friends.

Most of the people I IM do type that way, and it bugs the hell out of me both for the fact that I have trouble reading it and that it starts to slip into their normal writing and speak.

I have a friend who was actually around in the time when it cost 8c a letter (1c per bit) to send e-mail, so he would actually write like that. Now that it's no longer necessary at speeds of 768Kbps, he strives to use proper grammar.

It's one thing when is a necessity, quite another when it's just being annoying.

.

The joy of this forum is that we all understand that not everyone has English as their first language. The easiest way to get flamed or told off here is to not use paragraphs or use l33t speak or something else that makes your post unreadable.

I, for one, have noticed that the vast majority of people who do that sort of thing are native English speakers. That smacks of arrogance to me. If I write something that I want non-English speakers to read, I aim to write grammatical english - that way, the reader has an easier time of it when translating to their native language.

I urge everyone to at least put their country of origin in the Location field of their profile, that way we can not have a pop at non-native-English speakers.

And only the grammar nazis would have a go people misusing "its, it's" or "there, their, they're" if it's clear that they do not speak English as a first language.

I do not, as a rule, write grammatically correct sentences. But I do believe that they are readable.

The original point of this thread was to point out the unbelievable amount of posts that I have noticed using "IM Speak" and lousy writing. I just wish that they (people who know better, but choose not to) could take a few more seconds and realize how hard it is to read what has been written. If it takes too long to figure out, I just skip the post, even if I have a firm grasp of the problem. If, on the other hand, it is posted by a non-native speaker, I take more time to try and 'translate'.

It is just a pet peeve of mine to something like this excerpt from an actual post:OK...
Here is what I think was being said...

"I am installing Slackware. I formatted with 'wdclear' and cleared the information with all 0's. I then made a 40GB Linux partition."

Now, is that not alot easier to read? And shorter? Personally, the second post I would read and try to help with.. The first...maybe. But the post goes on and on and on like that, without a hint of '.', paragraphs, question marks......

THAT is why I started this thread. To try to make a point of this exact problem...

Well, I know I cannot change everybody. Heck, I'm lucky to get my kids to listen to me for any reason. But, I just had to make my voice heard.