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a1studmuffin | 8 years ago

I'd love to see an automated karma system that scored posts on correct grammar, spelling and readability. I guess that would discourage non-native speakers of a language from participating though.

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slau|8 years ago

I don't think we should be overly PC. If someone doesn't understand the English language well enough to not write all of their thoughts in a single, unpunctuated wall of text, and doesn't rely on the red squiggly lines to indicate that something was misspelt... How exactly will they contribute to the discussion in a way that will be constructive and positive?

I'm not saying that their ideas aren't worthwhile, but simply that the medium won't allow for those ideas to be presented in an engaging manner.

There's a huge difference between the wall-of-text full of typos and misspellings (which seem to become the weapon of choice of native speakers as well), and the misuse of pronouns, or forgetting which word is an irregular preterit. I, for one, would be in favour of seeing the former ranked lower.

jononor|8 years ago

Better to have feedback to the writer in the editor, so they are given a chance to learn and improve!

lacampbell|8 years ago

My personal threshold for "how good should I be at a language before I start arguing online in it" is very, very low.