I recently heard an NPR editorial attacking Elements of Style. Basically, the guy stated that grammar in the day and age of Blogs, Twitter, etc., is no longer necessary. What an asinine idea! Not that my grammar is always perfect, but the whole idea of ending a sentence in a preposition, or using 'they' instead of 'he' or 'she' is driving me nuts. The rules of language are in place for succinctness and clarity! Fine, call me an Elitist!

jbalcorn, you can count me in,
At least it'll be fun if I don't win.

@thucydides....i just realized how bad that was...but you know what i meant, so it proves my point. and as for throwing out diagnoses, i was exaggerating

I really suck at counting out rhyme
But at least it would be a really good time

:-)

Anyone is free to write poorly. If someone's poor writing is annoying to you, you are also free to make that a factor in your decision to stab them.

Just my opinion:) Bad spelling and excessively bad grammar annoy me too, but I wouldn't stab someone over it. As a teacher, I see how ignorant and incompetent average high school students in the US are, and one of the ways they display their ineptitude is through pathetic writing (and overall communication) skills.

That being said, this is a game and therefore a more relaxed arena than school or the professional world. While good writing (even in diplomacy) indicates intelligence and is a lot easier to read and understand (in my opinion), I don't particularly care if my allies write well or not.

I wanted to say...

I'd like you to declare war on England, would be wicked. Time to stand up.
Yours
Maniac

But it came out as...

I like you. To declare war on England would be wicked. Time to stand. Up yours - Maniac

I'm just glad I never rose through the ranks of the communications corp.

Om den allierade har dålig grammatik så beror det antagligen på att han inte har engelska som modersmål. Personligen tycker jag att det verkar ganska drygt och arrogant att förvänta sig att alla ska kunna perfekt engelska. Ska vi använda svenska, franska, tyska, portugisiska eller något annat språk istället?

Learn a language...

What language was that, anyway?

I'm guessing it's Scandinavian...Swedish?

"I'm sorry, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. You have a right to bad grammar? Come on, now. It's not like that scene in Life of Brian where the centurion says he'll cut Brian's balls off if the Latin sentence isn't written all over the palace by sunrise. pootercannon's just ticked off by the other player's poor writing and is responding as he chooses."

Granted, but what I was saying is that I don't really care if people use correct grammar, as it doesn't hurt me if they don't. There's no benefit or reason to demand correct grammar.

Also, if that's the stupidest thing you've ever heard, you must not use the internet very much.

Well, maybe it isn't number one but it's certainly up there.

If there's no reason to demand correct grammar why demand that people know their multiplication tables? Why demand that people have good manners? Why demand literacy at all?

Society shouldn't be dragged down to the lowest common denominator for the benefit of the lazy and stupid.

This of course doesn't include people with genuine disabilities or people who don't speak English as their first language. I know my German grammar is often atrocious, but I don't expect Germans to accept my errors as acceptable. I expect them to expect me to learn.

Because there are advantages to basic literacy or knowledge of multiplication. I don't think there are significant advantages to perfect grammar, or at least constant use of it.

I think there is all reason to strive for a good grammar, but there is no reason to be disrespectful of people who don't have a perfect grammar. That goes for any environment, but especially an international one like this.

There are a lot of us who do our best to use your language as well as we possibly can, and it is widely accepted as the lingua franca of a site like this. Only with one player have I communicated in German in this game.

I know a portuguese version of this game was started and I went in to practice my language skills, but unfortunately, there were no games.

I don't want language barriers to become barriers of communication and fun between people from different countries. That's why I think it's a bit arrogant of the native English speakers to expect perfect English skills of everyone else.

My last entry tried to make the point.

It was Swedish...