Oh and a specific note: are to argue was a result of this new keyboard and the shitty new browser whcih doesn't always keep up with my typing, is impossible to keep at a specific zoom level when typing, never seems to show the cursor in text boxes, incorrectly scrolls so that what I'm typing isn't even on the screen, and doesn't respond well to finger touch to change the focus of the cursor (whci you often can't see anyhow).

*which, not whcih

I hate froyo!

What amazes me is that you all seem to remember who you played & in what game.
I have played in hundreds & hundreds of games & I could not recall any of them, even the games I am currently in.
I just look at the board & read what I have written & the replies I receive back & start a fresh each & every turn.
I spend far to much time playing diplomacy as it is, so keeping records is far to much like work & my memory is ziltch.
I admire you all for your high levels of dedication, but it is only a game to me.
A game I take very seriously, but still, just a game.

One thing no one hsa noted yet is that Diplomacy started as a boardgame where people talked. And conversatinal grammar is *very* different from formal grammar. The elitists like bas should come to grips with this and be more accepting of simple typos and colloquialisms because you can't exactly review what you are about to say and avoid the bad grammar before saying it in a fast paced conversation.

And I know there were spelling errors in that. Still on this shitty phone and can't review my text well on it.

AAAaargh! Duke! Seriously! Enough of the ampersands!

Really. Ampersand is not a word. Don't you know it makes you look stupid and bas will never ally with you. But they are annoying as fuck when used like you do. You string thoughts into runon sentences with them.

Poking a little fun at Obi:

As an electrical engineer I always find this comical, not that I'm not as guilty of it myself, but somehow it seems like all is right in the world when I see this:

"I always try and use proper English in ANY correspondence--I'm an English major..."

I always thought the appropriate pair of words was "try to" rather than "try and"...

No offense intended obi, just enjoying the comedy.

@bas "What it all boils down to is "how much thought was put into this message?""

I find my messages ignored or rejected more often if they are not well thought out. I have to have impeccable logic presented in a very clear manner to get France to ally with me after I move to the English channel when playing as England. A simple "Sorry, I'm ensuring I get Belgium," sort of drivel doesn't cut it. Ever. France always retaliates.

And a message that is trying to get me to do something that is not in my best interest AND is poorly crafted is even more annoying than most.

A couple of quotes come to mind here:

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." -Winston Churchill.

"A philosopher once said, 'Half of good philosophy is good grammar.' " -A. P. Martinich

"I don't know the rules of grammar... If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which they think. We try to write in the vernacular." -David Ogilvy

@Draug:

I try to eliminate spelling and grammar errors from my posts. Clearly I fail to do so occasionally. But I try to the best of my ability.

About my elitist attitude:

My *first* impression of someone is based partly on his use of proper spelling. But that can change. In your case, the content of your posts/messages clearly shows you are not incompetent.

You use colloquialisms and slang as a deliberate strategy to create friendship. Contrary to my first impression, you have thought about it.

@ Leif: "I always thought the appropriate pair of words was "try to" rather than "try and"..."

"Try to" is better, but "try and" is acceptable usage.

Spelling and intelligence are not correlated, so it's not really fair to pick on bad spellers--or to penalize people who can't type. I can type 80 wpm, so I have an advantage.

@pastoralan

But when you get nice squiggly lines under misspelled words, it is an indication of lack of attention to detail/carrying

@Leif:

"Try and" is acceptable, but you're probably correct in saying "try to" is more generally used and likely more formal.

Then agin, I was typing an essay on Keats' poetry and how it serves as a mirror to the social conscience of his time and exemplifies the tension between the desire for eternity and for the passion of the moment...

So I had other things on my mind than dotting my "i's" and crossing my "t's" ehre, so to speak. :p

^
However, mis-typing "ehre" is all on ME (grammar be damned!) ;)

*here

DAMMIT

pedanticism fail

@abgemacht - not all systems give you those nice squggly lines. I just intentionally left squggly instead of correcting it to squiggly and there is no squiggly line underneath. And I'm running Qindows 7 and IE 8.

Oh, and it caring, not carrying, abgemacht. Clearly you don't "carry" either.

FUCK - it's, not it. Damnit!

@obiwan - How about typing "agin"? Second word of the second paragraph. :-)

This is all very amusing, but besides the point. We're humans, we make mistakes. Even helped by a computer program like a spell checker, mistakes slip through. These mistake are compeltely acceptable and one should not be judged for that.

What I do judge people for, is not trying to write a comprehensible message. You know, the ones that are so obscured by spelling errors and grammatic mistakes that it's meaning evades you.

and the second I hit "send", I notice I misspelled "completely"....

You also said "these mistake" (singular) instead of the plural.