But they don't have to be mutually exclusive...I love all of the styles people have...it is what they write that I try to take into consideration...

@thinktwice No they don't, but I do know that some people never get past the first stage.

@Fernapple You are correct!

"It might not be fair, but I think a lot of people judge educational level based on proper spelling and vocabulary" It is not, because without knowing someone's background, it is making a lot of assumptions . . . . Someone could be a native French speaker for example, and be extremely well educated, but have shitty English grammar. I sometimes disregard grammar deliberately too . . . for example, Russians have no problem with a double negative, they use that form extremely frequently . . . . so whose grammar are you ruled by?

@THHA I will clarify and say that for the most part, most of the sites I visit and comment on are those where English is the primary language...I think it is quite easy to see when it is not and allowances for that should be considered just as we must botch up the learned languages we try to do...when I am talking to people from Russia in Russian, I defer to their rules...I think what we are talking about is general laziness or disregard to do the best we can using the language we are primarily educated in...

I disagree . . . . calling it laziness is generalizing . . . . . that is like the people who think that (like Dr. Laura) they can listen to a person's problems on the fucking radio for three minutes, and then immediately know the solution without understanding the person. People are motivated by different things, and there are other things that can be motives. Language is limited by grammar in some cases, anyone who has studied other languages should understand that. Additionally, just because a forum is an English forum does not mean that Mr French guy would not be hanging out there . . . .

@THHA so what do you propose the reason for poor spelling and being grammatically incorrect when we are given all the tools to do otherwise?

Of course anyone is welcome in an English forum ... you presume that every person who might spell or write poorly would be criticized publicly...judgment is individual and can easily just be kept with respectful silence...I personally don't want the full time job of looking for and correcting anybody for any reason...and, uh, the original post is also pretty generalized...

Sometimes I do it simply to piss the grammar nazis off. Sometimes I do it because I see limitations in the form, sometimes I do it because it is a more free form. There are all kinds of possible reasons.

@THHA I agree...sometimes it is petty and sometimes mean...but you say yourself that learning a language is not that difficult...you, yourself, put a lot of effort and care in learning language to the point of learning the nuances of tense, conjugation, etc. While I know it is an interest for you, at some level, I think we can all learn our language the rest of our lives...how hard can it be to know the the difference between "you're" and "your" when it has been pointed out so many times? If that is not laziness, then it is purposely touting your own ignorance...IMO...

You have an interesting bio...well written...

It's what I do . . .

@THHA I know...and you have amazing patience and tolerance given that