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emailuser
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 190
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While not a bad thing - i notice you sometimes point out spelling mistakes :-)
Thought i might point out the reason why typos are so common as you dont build websites yourself .
Often a webmaster can work on the same webpage for hours , The reasons for this is changing colour schemes and trying to make the website cross compatible in ie/firefox/opera/etc .
(while working on the webpage its not uncommon to reword things on it)
This means the webmaster will only really glance at certain things by way of getting a overall view on how the webpage looks and the actual text becomes a sort of word blindness - because stuff like the css takes importance and that can sometimes take a fair bit of concentration .
The end result being that even a simple spelling mistake that is obvious to the first time viewer/reader is actually invisible to the webmaster - with the only real exception to this being if the webmaster does actually remembers to click [1] on the spell check option - or if they havent looked at the actual webpage for several weeks .
[1] despite what you might think the webmaster has no reason to remember to click on the spell check option unless they see a typo or think there is some sort of error .
Not getting at you or anything toots - just giving you a pointer as to how the average webmaster mind works :-)
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Gdavies
new user
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 9
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Well put but also not so much of a bad thing but people like myself who have slight dislexia or even strong cases that kinda makes it even harder to spot them at times. But i have used computers for so long I dont see why i should not help poeple who are new to computers.
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Baz94
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 749
Loc: Kent
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Personally, I am just crap at typing  I type fast as I have no patients to type slow, thus resulting in typos.
As long as people understand what is being said, who cares if it is spelt right? 
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Madeline
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 14628
Loc: Wales
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Thanks for the information. It all sounds very complicated, but interesting as well. The thing about typos, spelling and grammar mistakes is that they make a site look unprofessional. There are a lot of older people, like myself, who might find such errors off-putting. You say
Quote:
As long as people understand what is being said, who cares if it is spelt right?
My answer is that many people will care. It doesn't bother me on the forums here, we all make various mistakes, but glaring errors on the opening page of a site doesn't give a good initial impression, it looks sloppy despite the amount of work that will have been put in to create the site, and potential users may go elsewhere because of it.
Madeline.
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greysts
regular
Reg'd: Thu
Posts: 17974
Loc: Colchester
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I care!! Poor spelling and punctuation indicates a sloppy site. If you can't be bothered to do it right, I can't be bothered to look beyond the first page. Look at the professional sites that get thousands of hits then ask yourself why. It might just be that they care and you don't.
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Do you know that we're all in line for succession to the throne? Really?
Well, if forty-eight million, two hundred thousand, seven hundred and one people died I'd be Queen.
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Jonny555
Reg'd: Fri
Posts: 5329
Loc: Cheshire, England
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I've built hundreds of websites and I've always made sure that spelling and grammar are correct. No matter if it's a new page, or a change to an existing page, it's always proof read before publication. Now I have to be even more on top of the game as my illness means I operate, 90% of the time, in a 'brain fog'. Just talking can be difficult, let alone typing. It's not a good thing to give clients flawed sites.
I also take great pride in whatever I do.
Edited by Jonny555 (Sun Oct 08 2006 12:30 PM)
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Baz94
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 749
Loc: Kent
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Well I am glad my sites are only ever done as a bit of fun and don't need to worry if people look or not 
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Gary_Bongo
new user
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 23
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If someone has paid you to build a website I think that it's very important for the spelling to be correct. I always have mine proof read by a friend.
As for spelling in forums etc it makes no difference to me.
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emailuser
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 190
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I guess the truth of the matter is different people regard different things as being the most important - on some web authoring newsgroups its not uncommon to find users that are obsessed with making sure the page validates .
(with some of them it doesnt really matter if it works and looks fine in the browser - if the validator god they worship says it doesnt validate then they will spend hours working on it until it does)
Either way , I've seen plenty of commercial websites with spelling mistakes and the home or hobby user doesnt have the franchise on the humble typo .
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mart
regular
Reg'd: Sun
Posts: 652
Loc: South of England
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Spelling and grammar mistakes are easy to overlook when creating web pages. It happens (or happened) to me for the reasons given by emailuser. I think it is important to clear the errors up and I have a few methods of doing so.
* Go away from the page for 15 minutes or so, then come back and re-read it.
* Read the page out loud. Reading it to myself can work OK but reading it to somebody willing to listen is better.
* Get somebody else to proof-read the page.
This doesn't only apply to web pages. I do it for letters and sometimes for lengthy forum posts as well. Even then, the odd mistake can still slip through. My web site was done ages ago. I occasionally read a page or two of it and can still find ways I could have put things better regarding punctuation or grammar. I don't think there are any spelling mistakes left in the pages now.
The site was only created for the interest or fun of doing it and probably doesn't get many visitors. I still like to have everything correctly written in it though.
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mart's site ...could be worse.
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stevepetmonkey
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 123
Loc: Gold Coast, QLD
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Hey Madeline,
You would be appalled if you were to read an average days edition of the Daily Sport newspaper, and I don't mean the gratuitous sex and porn, on the average day I can spot up to 20 typo's without even looking for them. Very poor editing for a national newspaper, especially considering the intellectual reader base.
Steve.
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Madeline
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 14628
Loc: Wales
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I'm sure I would! I've hear all about the Daily Sport from my husband, there's often a copy of it in the canteen where he works. He says it's more like a soft porn comic than a newspaper, but he probably enjoys it! Does it ever have any actual news in it? Anyway, I doubt if people buy it and worry about its spelling and grammar!
Madeline.
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"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton, 1887.
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Ellen
regular
Reg'd: Tue
Posts: 1628
Loc: Bucks, England.
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Madeline, I think the reason us older forum members notice bad spelling and grammar is because we had it drummed into us at school, and once learned, you never forget. Today's school leavers have very basic skills in English as it is no longer considered 'important' or necessary to be literate or numerate as computers and calculaters will do the work for you. And while I'm on my soapbox their general knowledge is pretty poor too. I am a poor typist, but read back over my work to correct any typos....had a few here before I checked
Ellen
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 Visit my web *HERE*
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Madeline
regular
Reg'd: Wed
Posts: 14628
Loc: Wales
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I agree with everything you say, Ellen. I use a spell checker because of my typos, but I sometimes miss them if they actually spell a word other than the one I intended. I don't know how well, or otherwise, English is taught these days, but I remember being shocked several years ago when a newspaper claimed that pupils had only to achieve around 25% (it might have been less) to get an 'A' grade in the GCSE exam.
Madeline.
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"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton, 1887.
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