I usually try to correct my posts. Firefox puts a red dotted line under all words it feels is spelled wrong.

I think Text messaging is ruining today's youth with grammar. Its OK when not actually talking to someone face to face, to not bother with proper grammar and spelling.

I think of it as practice for the real world. You do it right here, then you are less likely to do it wrong in the "real" world.

uh-oh. I am very guilty of having bad grammar. But it isnt because I am lazy, it's because I am doing too many things at once. I should slow down, huh?
I had no idea some people would take it so personally. Made me really think. But on a good note, since you've added the spell check where it is, I have been using it more and more.
I had no idea people that my bad spelling/grammar would make someone not want to answer my question.
Idiots that post questions like this drive me not to reply.
"I have a ig in a ten gallon tank and it eats pizza, is that ok?" LOL
So Rich you devil you, I will try to do better now that you brough it up. lol
But in chat I cannot promise this, my typos are becoming lengendary! haha

Gab, your typos don't bother me nearly as much as the text talk.

"hey, i got a lizrd n I wnt to keep it in a 5 galn tank is this ok"

It makes me not want to answer the question, but I do anyways. (At least 95% of the time.) There are days though when I see one post after another, by different users, that all follow that same format. I think it really hit me when I saw the 2 posts, both spelling "have" wrong, after I made the spellcheck so obvious you couldn't miss it.

In the past it was easy to overlook and that could be the reasoning for the numerous misspellings. It definitely isn't easy to overlook now. If someone isn't using it, they are avoiding it intentionally. It's ironic too, "most" of those that seem to avoid it are the ones who should be using it.

Private messages, the chatroom, etc. are not of concern to me. Profile comments don't even bother me. My only gripe is within threads and posts.

I intentionally avoid sites that appear to be primarily teens. Typically those sites offer bad advice, allow bashing, and are not something I am interested in. A vast majority of ones perception is in how the threads are constructed. If every thread and post is poorly written, uses slang, lacks punctuation, and contains horribly misspelled words, the viewer immediately assumes that a "kid" wrote the post and thus moves on. I do not want this sites perception to fall victim to such mediocre issues.

i dnt c wht ur prob iz withtxt chat....it iz so kool...i meen I l00k supa trendy wit stuff liek thiz.....!>?!>!?!

Ow. It pains me to type like that, but I will admit that
I am occasionally guilty of, "i", "liek" and "ahve".

Thank god Flock has the neat red line under my typos.

Thank you, Rich. I feel EXACTLY the same. I don't mind little things every once in awhile, but I'm a total grammar and punctuation nazi. (Spelling as much as I can, but I'm not the best speller ever, either.)

I can understand abbreviations and word substitutions for chats or games, because you don't have a lot of time to get your message out there. However forums are much different. There's no reason at all why someone can't use capital letters and make an attempt to spell things right. All it takes is five seconds to look over your post and correct it before actually posting it. And, just in case you miss something, there's a handy little "edit" button.

What bothers me most is punctuation abuse, though. Either, there, are, too,,, many, commas or too few especially when you really need them. Drives me nuts.

You should really seek out a book called "Eats, Shoots and Leaves." It's excellent, er, therapy for people like us.

Unless I am extremely short on time, I always proof read my posts both before and after they have been posted. In addition to the spellcheck button, it allows me to make certain that my post is coming across to the user as I have intended it to come across.

If it were just a few users here and there, it wouldn't bother me nearly as much. It isn't though. It's an army of users and I can't edit every post when I see it. (I edit A LOT of posts for grammar on HC.)

I specifically target the first post in the thread. Typically this is the focal point and contains a question. I guess people don't seem to realize how far proper grammar can go. I will spend 15 minutes researching an answer for someone if they stated what they were looking for clearly. Not having to correct the post itself seems to go a long way with me.

When a user has destroyed their first post, I initially open the post and edit it. Once done editing it, I end up closing the thread and going to the next one. Their grammatical mistakes just cost them my input because I was more focused on correcting the post than I was answering the question.

It isn't something I aim to do by the way. I just happened to catch myself doing it 3-4 times today. lol

I agree. At school we encourage students to use invented spellings when they are writing. However, when they publish an item it should be proofread and edited. It doesn't take long to go back over what you've written.