@JamieT: a pretty typically British, insular, narrow-minded world-view which shows you have little or no idea about cultural values other than what you dredge out of The Sun every day.

McChazza -- if it's live, no. If it's a certain gunboat where I am indeed kicking ass (not-live), yes. ;)

Neb, I think you're missing the point of what he said.

@Octavious Yup mate, this =3 and :3 are kitty smileys. I find them cuter than ordinary =) and especially :) smileys...

@ McChazza: "a pretty typically British, insular, narrow-minded world-view which shows you have little or no idea about cultural values other than what you dredge out of The Sun every day."

Can you elaborate on this? I'm honestly not sure what you mean.

For the record, I don't read the Sun. It's too simplistic, and far too right-wing, for my tastes. I tend to read the Guardian or the Independent, although they're not ideal either.

yes? Well, if you had ever travelled south-east of the English Channel you may find that the way people express themselves, the cultural implications overlaying the semantics of what you read, can often lead to a completely different meaning than what you register as a Brit. The Situation is exactly right about how Neb apologised to you. I have travelled extensively to Turkey, know the language and culture. Have you / do you?

@Jamiet I apologise you for making you mad once again for my careless message. Though I dont really believe I deserved the words you said to me, I wont really continue this meaningless arguement anymore... =3

Honestly why trying to get involved with a personal issue like that? I said no more comments please. I say it again...

And everybody, I love you all and I appreciate your intentions to get involved with the debate. I know it might be a good or fun subject to you. But it has honestly become a personal issue and it is better to start a debate like "if there can be a supreme nation or what is the best / most powerful state" topic in the general forum instead of getting involved with this arguement here. So please lets just let the main topic go on here =3

@Situation

Sorry, I didn't mean to take my frustration with Neb out on you.

@Neb

There is a difference between "should" and "is". English is the defacto language. Should it be? I don't know. But it is. This has nothing to do with my personal opinion.

the only person here who has held a reasonable impersonal bystander look on everything is The Situation. if you take any nuggets of knowledge from this thread, please read the posts of The Situation.

@abge: It's cool. It made for good discussion material.

@hunter: Thanks! I'm honored to be noticed.

@ McChazza: Way to make unfounded assumptions. I have travelled quite a bit, including visits to Holland, France, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Nigeria and South Africa.

I am not going to comment further because Nebuchadnezzar has acknowledged that his words towards me were poorly chosen, and has made it clear that he does not want to continue the discussion. I accept Nebuchadnezzar's apology.

It remains the case that abgemacht was not attempting to promote a US supremacist agenda.

It is too tempting to respond to that. But it will probably end quite badly with a lot of tension between characters.

@ The Situation: indeed :)

My gunboat's finishing, the guys were nice enough to leave me standing to the end, so I wish you all a quiet, stress-free and (preferably) English-speaking night.

Sorry, couldn't resist...

Iyi geceler

Good night, McChazza.

Someone else should make a thread as discussion-provoking as this one. I like this.

@the situation =3 and that's why I'm quiting the debate

@jamiet Thanks for deciding my lord. Your great judgement made me really happy. I'm also glad that you have expanding my vocabulary with your insults.

And I wanna show my thankfulness to your insults and your attitude by refering to a Turkish saying.

When there is a personal issue among two people, if a third person interferes, his job can only be eating their shits.

So I kindly ask for you to STOP trolling. If you really wanna become a judge I suggest you to go to a decent law school. But having a common sense, honesty and kindness is a must so dont put all your hopes in it ^^

@abgemacht I still think what you implied was unacceptable. However I think there is no need to make the issue any bigger (if Lord Jamiet allows) . But please be honest to yourself, think whether what you said can be offending for some people or not... and try to understand why I was mad. =3

How can I sleep with all this crap going on?

STOP IT, GO TO BED/CLASS/WORK/MANDARIN LESSONS

That's it - I have to go and quash a popular uprising in my downtrodden North African state. JamieT's probably been here a few times, he's well-travelled... :D

Wow this thread got seriously side-tracked.
My impression is that it originally supposed to be about English speakers who chose to use internet short-hand or deliberately poor english, not people who speak English as a second language. The word here is choice and effective communication.
I have played plenty of games with ESL speakers, whose grammar is not perfect, but it has not been an issue. They have communicated effectively.
I have a good friend who writes everything in internet short-hand. For example mate = m8 and such like. I don't like it. I find it hard to read. (There is something else I don't like about it but I can't quite put my finger on it - it's a bit like disapproving someones fashion/music preferences. It brings out the snob in me - a little bit).

@Neb - If you are your argument in a public forum, you shouldn't be surprised or offended when others get involved. So take your sarcastic comments to Jamie and sove 'em up your ass, fuck you very much.

Eden+1

I am actually intrigued by your reasoning. I would think the dominance of the English speaking world was established by
-Allies conquering axis in WW1 and WW2,
-America "winning" the cold war.
You go back even further, to the glory days of the British empire. That's around 1800, right? Do you think this cause-and-effect relation can be carried over 2 centuries (2 rather lively centuries, one might add)?

But perhaps you're right. You're the history major, not me :).

@Draugnar: "@Bas - So I guess my use of "y'all" and "wanna" is "gonna" keep use from being allies?"

Yes, it probably does. I'm not proud of it, but it's true. First impressions are always a subconcious judgement, and in my book it's beneficial to properly spell out your words.

One reason why: When I write a message, I ponder each sentence, rewrite them sometimes, to make sure my words reflect the message I want to convey. While I'm at it, I can correct spelling mistakes and so on. So if I see spelling errors, I (correctly or incorrectly) assume you didn't reread your message.

For example, your previous statement. Did you put much thought about it? Was is exactly what you wanted to say to Neb? I see two simple spelling errors in there (are-argue, sove-shove). Therefore, I guess you wrote the text, and just clicked 'send'.

@The situation: "defining it as the main language in the world is incorrect as that would require a majority of the world to speak it"

This is where we differ, but it's a matter of definition. My definition of the "main language" would be something like this:

Take two random people on earth, and see which languages they both speak. Repeat this for many pairs of people, and see what language gets picked most often. Sort of a "correlation function", if you're familiar with those.

I think English would score highest in the test, because many people speak it as a second language.

I always try and use proper English in ANY correspondence--I'm an English major, so it just bothers me PERIOD to use text-seak, or what have you--and the only time I deviate from that is if I'm in a HUGE rush to enter orders or if I don't want people to guess it's me playing...since I use proper English all the time--except for when I inadvertendly foul up the grammar, but hey, who needs THAT? MOST the great writers would have failed grammar school one way or another, they break the rules so often, one way or another!--no one ever guesses it's me if...

i talk like dis and u know, say that i'll brb and all that shit cuz i've gotta get going, so will u help me, plz? thnx! lol! omg! fml is this stoopid, but still gr8!

The reason English is the number one language is because the English won the battle for North America which is an entire continent that was uninhabited (unless we count the people whom had been living there for thousands of years). And of course the Americans went on to secure a large portion of the habitable continent. And the Brits conquered India and so on... Just as the age of mass communication was emerging.

Lol obi

Yeah obi, the key word there is "try".

@ Nebuchadnezzar:

That's nice. In one line you call me a troll. In the next you tell me to eat shit. How is that not the words of a troll? You troll.

You suggest your disagreement with abgemacht was "a personal issue among two people" that I had no right to comment on. However, as Draugnar points out, this is a public forum. If you want to have a discussion with someone in private, send them an email. If you choose to have that discussion on the forum, in public, everyone taking part in the forum has a right to comment on your dicussion and get involved in it.

Now who's the troll?

@ basvanopheusden: "First impressions are always a subconcious judgement, and in my book it's beneficial to properly spell out your words"

Then you should learn how to spell "subconscious".

(Not trying to troll there, by the way. It's just worth noting that you picked up Draugnar for making a spelling mistake, but then you made one yourself.)

Ouch! I was trying not to make any mistakes, but it was bound to happen.

The difference is my mistake subconcious-subconscious is a result of inexperience/not enough education/not having English as mother language, whereas Draug's mistake sove-shove is a result of limited attention/not caring.

My fault indicates I'm not able to write 300 spelling-error-free words without a spell checker. Draugnar's fault indicates (at least to me) his message was just a quick response.

PS. I am not saying Draug is stupid, or his posts are meaningless. I used his post only as an example.

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

Here's the idea: Suppose you get a message, turn one, from one of your neighbours. It's 5-10 lines max, and it basically says: Let's ally, take him out, then him, and then go for a three-way draw with that guy. This could be a well developed battle plan, which he managed to present in a very concise manner. Or it's just a feeler message, with not much actual content.

Now, if the message is full of simple mistakes, the latter seems more likely. But if it's eloquently written, not ambiguous in any way, and well formulated, maybe it is a serious plan.

@bas - "Was is your were trying to say"...

So you reread everything and in the same paragraph in which you chastise me for s couple spelling errors (done form a phone just as this reply is) you make such a glaring error. First look to the beam in thine own eye.

And colloquialisms like "y'all" are a means of conveying friendliness and cheer. They can serve a purpose. But I'll remember your elitist an hypocritical attitude should we meet in a game.