Oh please, if I didn't screw up multiple times in my blog entries, I wouldn't have given the readers numerous opportunities to help me grow as a writer, and more importantly, tell me what a dumbass I am.

Did Eric tell you to write this post? 'Cause damn if it doesn't sound like something he would LOVE TO SCREAM AT THE WORLD.

No, I came up with this one all by myself. But it's nice to hear I'm not the only one who thinks a little spell checking would make the blogosphere a nicer place :)

Well, if people like you and Eric had your way, those of us with inferior writing and editing skills who didn't have a command of the English language and of all of its silly rules about punctuation, spelling, grammar and the like, would be flogged daily and repeatedly while being forced to write a thousand times on our blog "I do know the difference between a colon and a semi-colon."

Elitist bastards!

I have what I would consider an advanced knowledge of spelling and grammar. I am college educated in it, but I didn't major in it. Even so, the nature of blogging is that mistakes will invariably occur. It happens to me, where I will have a "the" when I meant to say "them" but I didn't catch it right away. It's the nature of posting, somewhat on the fly, every single day. I don't see a problem with a lot of this.

I do, however, think there should be a minimum level of quality that should be adhered to. I mean, I have read some people's blogs that are almost unintelligible. While Dawn claims to be some sort of grammatical misfit, she only does so when comparing herself to Eric who is a professional. There is nothing wrong with the way your Blog is written Dawn, but you must admit that there are some out there that could use a little proofreading. I vote for a minimum level of quality, not perfection.

Lengthy prison terms for misspelling, public beatings for poor puncuation, no more coddling of grammar criminals

"puncuation"?

That will be ten years in the slammer, but I will reduce the sentence to 5 because of incredible irony.

longer reviews and stuff that i write have a long 'pre-published' life. they almost always start out on paper. that's right, i drag a pencil across some nice, pristine paper.

then i drag the paper to the computer where i enter the whole thing, check the spelling, check the 'liveness' of the links, and then let it go.

...and somehow i still manage to screw things up! dang.

i link things in a blog that sound like the person is talking to you ...that's what's good about dawn's blog.

Thanks for noting the irony Craig, although it's probably closer to self-parody.

John,

You wrote 'but I think a change in mentally from accepting'

Did you mean 'mentality'?

Good post. I agree 100% with you. At the very least people should spell-check their posts before publishing.

i cannot speel. can;t punctuate. and i ain't got grammar. and what the hell is capitolizing, anyway?

I did mean 'mentality', so I guess I didn't proofread the last three lines as thoroughly as the rest of the entry. My bad!
But I'm glad you otherwise agree with me.

happens to the best of us :-)

Craig and Mark,

I would kiss you both for being so kind, but I am a wart-infested toad who can't spell "here" and "hear" and therefore do not deserve even the faintest of praise.

As for editing, well hell, that's what editors are for - we bloggers are writers.

Welcome to the EIB Network: Excellence in Blogcasting.

Yes, standards are important. If an article is not worth the author's effort to proofread, then it's not worth my time as a reader. There will inevitably be some errors not caught even on professional websites with paid staff who make their living at it, but more than a few dumb errors will begin to rapidly discredit any publication.

Basic technical competence is a prerequisite for showing that your writing should be taken seriously.

Word

Al, you ignorant slut - how about you take your competency and excellence and suffer the wrath of my blogging incompetence.

Take that you elitist bastard. That goes for you too Eric!

dang dawg... this thread is great.

and i'm closer to agreeing with Dawn on this one. I need edited. hah.

peace.

You wanna piece of me, woman? I'll come after you Kentuckian-style.

Get to bringing it hayseed.

Not that this will make that big of a difference, but I must remind you Al that in this one, I have her back.

What up? Kentuckian ain't shit compared to Ohioan. The best part of Kentucky is being a suburb of Cincinatti. That's right, I said it.

John, I think writing well can actually work against a blogger beause it makes one stand out the blogosphere. I've encountered some criticism because I write well. (Which probably has something to do with being a journalist and published writer. The skills are easily transferable to blogging.) I know there are jealous people who will attack anyone they perceive to be talented. However, I urge bloggers to take the risk of being criticised more into account before they make an effort to write and edit better. Be prepared to catch some flack for being 'too literate.'

Are you serious? I know people think it's odd that I write such long entries and that I usually spend a lot of time working on them, but I've never been criticised for it.
I honestly don't think people should dumb their writing down so as not to be criticised for being too literate.

Actually, I think it would be nice if more people worked harder to become more literate so we could get a higher standard of writing on the web. People who criticise others for doing something well should have their heads examined.

I would never criticize anyone for being too literate or too professional. All I (and I think Dawn) was saying is that you shouldn't hold the whole world up to the same standards because then blogging would be just like a professional newspaper where not everyone has a voice.

At the same time, I am a proponent of a minimum level of quality, because some things people write are completely unintelligible.

don't mess with kentucky.

any state with enough, uh....balls?... to have a park named "Big Bone Lick State Park" is not to be taken lightly.