Spelling Nazi Part 2

I beg to differ.

To hate the fact that "rediculous" has replaced the correct spelling is not to be inadequate, but simply to try to make sure some standards remain.

Fighting against "CU L8R" speech is not a sign of inadequacy, but rather a recognition that some standards are necessary if communication is to remain possible.

Not to sound snide, but going around bragging about inventing the term "spelling Nazi" seems a bit of a sign of inadequacy, don't you think?

Well, be that as it may, welcome to the blog, and thank you for the post, even if I disagree completely with your premise.

Actually, I allowed my annoyance at being called inadequate by someone boasting of having invented a term get to me. Perhaps I can offer a more thoughtful reply now.

I use the term "spelling nazi" because that was the charge often leveled against me on slashdot and several other fora. But my objection was not to bad spelling as such, or simple grammatical errors.

I objected to posts where the spelling and grammar errors had reached such proportions that no one could understand what was being said. It was as if the writer was using a different language.

But, then again, to object to only the extremes is rather silly. Those extreme posts are only possible as the slightly more intelligible have been accepted. Once you allow rules of grammar and spelling to slip, you open the door for "HILARIOS DANCEING CAT!" and "U R TEH SUX111!!!1!".

So, yes, there are times when every rule fo formal grammar need not be applied, but I disagree with you completely. I do not worry about grammar and spelling because I have nothing else, and cannot answer the questions.

I worry because allowing the rules to slip begins us on the path to gibberish and the failure of communication.

As I said in another post, go to youtube and tell me what the comments mean if you doubt me. There are a number of comments I cannot even begin to fathom. They look (vaguely) like English, but I could not tell you what they mean even if failure would cost me my life.

So, no, it is not a fear of responding to the message, it is a desire that the message, and all future messages, remain understandable.

As the time stamp shows, I hesitated before bothering to post this, but I think it may be worth the effort.

I would hesitate before claiming to have coined any term. So many things that appear on the internet are so obvious that they arise spontaneously many places at once. (And I think the term "spelling nazi" is sufficiently obvious that I would be skeptical of anyone claiming to be its creator.)

I have had the somewhat humiliating experience of accusing someone of lifting a term form my writing, only to find that someone else had used it 2 years before I did. Admittedly, the person I accused was still stealing it, but not from me.

I have no doubt you said "spelling nazi" in the 1980's. But as "X nazi" (food nazi, health nazi, spelling nazi, fashion nazi, and so on and so on) has been a form floating about for decades, I think claiming to be the originator of the term "spelling nazi" is a bit of a shaky claim.

(And should there be documentation, showing you as the creator, don't bother. I know how ephemeral and untrustworthy internet "history" can be. I could probably create documentary evidence that I created the term if I so wished. My point is not that you did or did not create the term,m nor that some may even recognize your claim. My thought is that the term is so obvious I doubt it actually has one creator, but has probably spontaneously generated a number of places at various times.)

I am sure you doubt my thesis that the term may have spawned several times independently, but I have seen that often enough to think that a not-so-original term such as "spelling nazi" really didn't need a single driving force behind it. It is exactly the sort of term which appears over and over in unrelated places.