LQ Spellcheck feature
 

I just noticed that the LQ spell checker doesn't recognize the distro names correctly. Would it be difficult to add the words below to the LQ spellcheck database? I'm sure I forgot a few but you get the idea.

Debian
Ubuntu
Kubuntu
Slackware
Gentoo
Fedora <--Edit: This one clears. It is a hat after all :D
SuSE
Mandrake <---Edit: This one clears too, it is a root.
Knoppix
Mepis


At least the ones we have forums for? I know that they aren't exactly dictionary words, but they are typed so frequently around here that it would make the spell checker more effective if it didn't tag them as wrong. Just a thought..:)

Excellent suggestion.

Please don't forget:
- MEPIS
- SimplyMEPIS
- SUSE
- Mandriva
- RHEL
- FC


Side note, this isn't the only inconvenient spell checker in captivity. My e-mail provider runs CommuniGate4, & I use its web interface almost exclusively. Unfortunately, it's too big a hassle for the admins to update the dictionary (the bad news). The good news -- I have started accessing my mail & LQ in Konqueror and Konqueror's spell checker works inside the text boxes in both cases. Konqueror's spell checker automatically highlights misspellings on the fly, so all I have to is look for the red words as I am typing & fix the ones that need it.

Writing the above shows that:
- Konqueror
- KPackage
- KDE
as well all the rest of the "K" names need to be added too.

"Gnome" & "GNOME" are acceptable, is this desktop prejudice? ;)

The spellchecker is something we're debating in general for future version of the code. Nice plugins exist for almost every browser and those allow you to maintain your own dictionary. I'd like to get everyones input on this. Do you prefer that we keep the spellchecker or should we be recommending spellbound/iespell/etc. instead?

--jeremy

I vote we keep it so there won't be any excuse for those who horribly misspell not to use it in their posts, since I'm sure those that misspell on purpose probably won't be keeping track of their own spellchecker.. ;)

I say get rid of it. It has never really cured the bad spellers and makes no difference to the good ones.

I always use the KDE Dictionary if I have any doubts about spelling or use the very useful dictionary.com site to check.

Actually if you connect to a remote spellchecker/dictionary server like dictionary.com or dict.org it would be better. Why not just convert the current spellcheck button to a link to an external spellchecker. There are many sites that do this for free. Why waste LQ's resources to do something that is so commonly available?

For example I do this on my site. I use the SpellingCow spell checker which connects to a remote server.

The only thing you need to worry about is privacy, but then when you're submitting messages in a public web forum, what is the privacy concern when it's available for the whole world to see anyway?

I agree: Keep it, it can't hurt. I do wish there were an easy way to address the original issue: customizing the dictionary. (BTW, "distro" ...)

Why is this an either/or? Can we not keep the current spell checker and recommend something for those who want finer control over their word lists? As long as it continues to not intrude on those, like me, who use their own, what harm does it do?

One reason to keep it: It would be great if everything inside certain tags, e.g. [QUOTE], [CODE], & [URL] at a minimum, were left unchecked. I think that is something that would be easiest done server-side, & what a breakthrough!

Above written before seeing Harishankar's post, further thoughts:

The question of resources is one that crossed my mind, but I didn't originally raise. So what resources does the spell checker use?

In addition to the possibility of having a tag context aware spell checker, another argument for keeping some form of spell check is that sometimes we log in here from a different box and don't have our normal home environments.

I'm thinking in terms of the server admin. It can hurt performance especially if there are many people using it. Full-Text Searching and Spellcheck/Dictionary features can load your server like nothing else especially with the kind of traffic that LQ gets.

Of course, LQ may be hosted on a very powerful server and all that, but I'm still not the kind of person who likes to see wasted resources, especially if there are so many sites offering the same services for free.

If the spellchecker is removed in the future, might I propose that the FAQs have links to spellchecking plugins/extensions for various common browsers, so that we might point those who are spelling deficient in that direction?

I would suggest keeping it. Sum uv us cannt spll to save are lifes. :D But if it is a resources issue, then I can understand wanting to ditch it. It would be cool to have personalized dictionaries, but the above words are typed by everyone in the forums at some point or another.

Another reason I say keep it is that I feel no one should be forced to use third party software to use LQ.org. Being a moderator, I know for a fact I'm not the only moderator who dings members that spell horribly to clean up their posts, especially after other members complain. I think having the feature available is an easier way to get these such members to use it when it does come to that point that it has to be dealt with.

A few questions

1. Is spellcheck really that important to justify having your own spellcheck server?
2. Is it considered bad netiquette to pick on members merely because of their bad spelling? (think of all those non-native English users who use this site).
3. Does the current spellcheck really have that much of an impact to cut down all those errors?

My answers are: no, yes and no respectively. Therefore I felt it was wasteful having spellcheck built right into LQ when there are so many sites that are dedicated to it and furthermore can be easily linked from here.

Spellcheck is not a required feature. It's an optional one and I don't see where LQ is forcing users to use third party software... after all people can check spelling using a local desktop software as much as they can use a third party site.

Out of curiousity, can anyone direct me to a FF extension that will do spellcheck on forms? :)

http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/

--jeremy

Doh. Somehow I missed that. Definitely didn't show up on the FF extensions page. Thanks Jeremy!

I would actually have to agree with TK on this one and say keep it. I, for one, use LQ at work quite often, and am unable to install any third-party software on the computer - I'd be lost without a spell checker simply to fix my typos. Also, I occasionally browse LQ using Lynx, and there is no spell-check extension for it - though, I feel as though I'm in the minority there :)

I agree with Harishankar. If we just link it to an external page we will not force anyone to install anything. So writing on LQ from work or something will not differ anything. I for one am on Harishankar's side.

Spellcheck server? I don't see it taking much resources or space to have a spellchecker.
It is bad netiquette to misspell but we judge those we think do speak proper English but fail to do so due to laziness. These forums are in English and we expect everyone to post in English. I don't think we've ever hassled a non-native speaking member only unless they posted in non-English.
I think the current spellcheck serves as a means of no one has an excuse to continue to misspell horribly and they have no other excuses of not having to install it if it's built into LQ.org.

The members I mainly go after are the one's who do phrases like this: "how du u spell whn ther is no spllchkr? I dont find nething wronng wit the way i spell? du u hav a prblm with the way i spll?

I won't mention names but there was an incident where a member spoke and spelled perfect english in their posts. Then one day I think they got a sudden case of laziness and started to type and post everything like what I just typed above, abbreviated everthing, etc. It was horrible and after about 100 or so posts and complaints coming in, we took action or told that member they would lose privileges to post if they continued to post in a such manners.

I just like the convenience of having a spellchecker builtin without any type of 3rd party tools. Members do use it, probably more often than having a "star" system or "close thread" feature anyday, so I feel it's more justified than the more recent feature requests.. ;)

Ok, I see both sites, although I really doubt whether the spellchecker will cure those who type like this:
Certainly LQ will not be forcing people to install spell-checkers by removing the feature. But my point was that since there are so many sites that are dedicated to spellchecking/grammar/dictionary and so on, why do we need one residing on the LQ server?

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Harishankar
Ok, I see both sites, although I really doubt whether the spellchecker will cure those who type like this:
[quote]hello how r u i m fine y is lnx so diff to use i m got err msg what do i do to solve prb thx My point in those that do this is they have no excuse if a moderator tells them to go install some third party application or plugin. For those that choose to be lazy and type like that for whatever reason, having a builtin spell checker gives no one any excuse to type in such ways.. ;)

Or maybe got drunk? :P

Anyway, I see your point. I am not sure if people actually use the spellchecker so much (does someone know about this?), but I can see how it serves a symbolic purpose, making sure there are no way to justify bad spelling.

But, if we go back to the start of this thread we can at least add some technical words like names of distros, known apps and such. Then at least we non-english speakers who actually uses the spellchecker sometimes would not have to manually sort the "unknown words" and "misspelled words".

Regards.

Just change the spell-checker to recogniz Linux related stuff (distros, window managers, etc.) to not be marked as wrong.

Also change it to recognize 'recogniz' as wrong. ;)

Sorry, couldn't resist it. I know, bad form.

From another thread:In the US this would be The contrast points out the desirability of including a usage/slang recognition feature, although I doubt that that is technically easy.

Once you've done that just "s/z/s/" to get recognise ;)

This seems to be pointing out several reasons where having client side spell checking would be a bonus. Either that or having items added to the server side dictionary after something like 15 different members have suggested a word for inclusion.

I personally use the spell checker all the time. I would prefer to keep it.
I think it's a convenience issue and agree with the others that are opposed
to users having to install some third party software.

Also, could you imagine the atrocious spelling we would start seeing if users
stopped using the spell checker.

NOTE: For example, this post I had one spelling error. I would not have
even checked if it wasn't right next to the submit button(well, actually I would
have, but most probably wouldn't).

Zack

I have a really bad keyboard (seriously) and have been to lazy to replace it.
You have to literally hit the keys.:D

Wouldn't it be nice if it were technically feasible to add grammar checking & homonym alerting. Even better if it could be automatic, say part of the "submit" process. Case in point: Now I am sure the 2nd 'o' was omitted from the 1st 'to' because of the bad keyboard he refers to, but wouldn't it be nice if someone who is conscientious about writing good English had this additional help.

I only took 1st grade and kindergarten in school, the rest all being German and Spanish, so don't take it the wrong way;) .

IIRC we in Sweden are pretty good in speaking/writing/reading English. Or maybe you guys know the truth and are laughing at our grammar? :P

I am sure I made at least 4 mistakes just in this post. Damn it, this thread made me unsure. :)

Anyway, please add some more words to the spellcheck-list, if that isn't too hard.

Please don't take it away
Please add it to other parts of the site (like bookmarks body, wiki etc)
Please add linux specific words
Please don't take away internationalisms

how much server load does the spellcheck use?
how hard is it to add words to the dictionary?

again, please keep it- third party means anything "else" - even linux gpl'd stuff. LQ centric please.

titanium_geek

If it weren't such bad form, I would come back & quote his post every 10 or 20 msgs.

To his 4 points & 2 questions, I would add only my previous 3 items:

• automation
• homonyms
• grammar

I know that it will be a while before the 3rd it technically feasible, but surely the 2nd is possible now. I am really sick & tired of reading "your" when the writer meant "you're". (Fortunately, no one has misused "yore" yet. I would start doing it tongue-in-cheek; but I don't know if anyone would realize what my intentions are. They might assume that Houston="redneck"; or, worse, that Texas="correct".)

Finally, if there were some polite way to check spelling automatically, I would really like it. Ever since I found this thread, I find myself less tolerant of the laziness / lack of consideration that leads to failure to spell check & proof read.

Does anyone have a polite way to say: "Clean up your spelling, slob." There are times when I need it.