You barely see a guest post here, simply because I prefer to rethink everything and I barely agree with anyone enough to simply give him my blog space. There are many I agree mostly, so I link them, change their ideas to fit me perfectly and post them. This is one of those rare cases because I 100% agree with the poster. I also repost it, not just link, because it's not on a blog, but on a forum, by bartolimu, Elitist Jerks moderator who answered some moron who claimed to have dyslexia, to explain why his post was full of spelling errors.
The moron said (mistakes are his): "I have recieved a message from you today in reguards to a post I made on the mage thread. I may have spelt a word incirrectly and not used to propper punctuation but thats because i am dislexic. If your going to bitch and moan about me not spelling a word right or putting a full stop in a sentence then you need to get a fukin life and grow the fuck up. If this is the way to treat people that sign up to the site and make a spelling mistake or a punctuation mistake then stick your fucking site up you insensitive arse i dont wanna be on a site thats going to be sending infractions to people for spelling a word wrong. How about taking into concideration that not everyone that plays wow spell spell as good as you or know there punctuation as good as you. Anyways fuck u and fuck your sight you bang out of fukin order for the email!"
And the answer which I think deserves its own post:
My roommate in college was dyslexic. The only word longer than five letters I ever saw him spell correctly on the first try was "dyslexic." He was a Computer Science major and, despite his handicap, one of the best programmers I've ever met. Sometimes he had to type things seven or eight times to get everything out correctly, but he never complained and never lost patience with himself; he just had a commitment to making everything he wrote correct.
I learned a lot from that guy, including that a mental handicap like dyslexia is no excuse for poor performance. It simply necessitates greater effort. Is it fair? No, of course it isn't. But that hardly matters.
You have gone through life with the wrong attitude. "Fuck you, I'm handicapped!" is no way to make friends or influence people. You've probably come to think that people hate you for being retarded. I don't hate you because you have a mental handicap. I do however find you annoying as hell because you act retarded. You use your handicap as an excuse to perform poorly, and have an expectation of entitlement. We are supposed to accept whatever you give us because clearly you're retarded and therefore your subpar work should be good enough.
Well, it isn't. Ninety percent of your spelling errors could easily be pointed out by some form of spell checking program. If you were using Firefox, you'd be able to see all of your errors as you type them. It's really quite remarkable, and so easy as to be literally effortless - the feature is enabled by default in unmodified Firefox. There are plenty of other programs (for instance, any word processor, even those as simple as Notepad) that can help you if you prefer not to use Firefox or some other browser with such functionality.
Instead of taking steps to make your life easier and your posting better, you chose to fall back on the "But I'm A Retard" defense. What you failed to realize was that retards don't get to post here. Take your mental laziness and your sense of entitlement and go back to your No Child Left Behind classroom where people are statutorily required to wait for your retarded ass to see that it's a STOP sign, not a POTS sign.
The moron said (mistakes are his): "I have recieved a message from you today in reguards to a post I made on the mage thread. I may have spelt a word incirrectly and not used to propper punctuation but thats because i am dislexic. If your going to bitch and moan about me not spelling a word right or putting a full stop in a sentence then you need to get a fukin life and grow the fuck up. If this is the way to treat people that sign up to the site and make a spelling mistake or a punctuation mistake then stick your fucking site up you insensitive arse i dont wanna be on a site thats going to be sending infractions to people for spelling a word wrong. How about taking into concideration that not everyone that plays wow spell spell as good as you or know there punctuation as good as you. Anyways fuck u and fuck your sight you bang out of fukin order for the email!"
And the answer which I think deserves its own post:
My roommate in college was dyslexic. The only word longer than five letters I ever saw him spell correctly on the first try was "dyslexic." He was a Computer Science major and, despite his handicap, one of the best programmers I've ever met. Sometimes he had to type things seven or eight times to get everything out correctly, but he never complained and never lost patience with himself; he just had a commitment to making everything he wrote correct.
I learned a lot from that guy, including that a mental handicap like dyslexia is no excuse for poor performance. It simply necessitates greater effort. Is it fair? No, of course it isn't. But that hardly matters.
You have gone through life with the wrong attitude. "Fuck you, I'm handicapped!" is no way to make friends or influence people. You've probably come to think that people hate you for being retarded. I don't hate you because you have a mental handicap. I do however find you annoying as hell because you act retarded. You use your handicap as an excuse to perform poorly, and have an expectation of entitlement. We are supposed to accept whatever you give us because clearly you're retarded and therefore your subpar work should be good enough.
Well, it isn't. Ninety percent of your spelling errors could easily be pointed out by some form of spell checking program. If you were using Firefox, you'd be able to see all of your errors as you type them. It's really quite remarkable, and so easy as to be literally effortless - the feature is enabled by default in unmodified Firefox. There are plenty of other programs (for instance, any word processor, even those as simple as Notepad) that can help you if you prefer not to use Firefox or some other browser with such functionality.
Instead of taking steps to make your life easier and your posting better, you chose to fall back on the "But I'm A Retard" defense. What you failed to realize was that retards don't get to post here. Take your mental laziness and your sense of entitlement and go back to your No Child Left Behind classroom where people are statutorily required to wait for your retarded ass to see that it's a STOP sign, not a POTS sign.
51 comments:
I very much agree with this... the "I'm handicapped" excuse is really bad...
There are many tools available to make your life easier, even with a handicap - why would you be opposed to using them?
Do you think there are blind people who would rather run into things or possibly injure themselves because they aren't willing to use the tools available to make their disability easier to live with?
It's the same principle...
I hate when people try to use that excuse...
"I'm handicapped" "This isn't my first language"
They all translate to "I'm too lazy to use the tools available to make my life easier/better...
Excellent post
To the lysdexic poster: how are we to know you are dyslexic in the first place?
Oh wow, that's fantastic.
Although I can't help but feel somewhat bad for laughing as much as I did at it.
I went to school with two dyslexics and none of their spelling mistakes looked like that.
Their mistakes was more switching letters etc.
I call bullshit on this retard.
I'm going to assume with the recent ban-hammer posts Gevlon recently picked up an EJ BB subscription :P.
Schadenfreude is fun sometimes.
Honestly, I wouldn't have known any of that was someone else's work if you hadn't pointed it out.
Bravo, good sir.
The one issue I take with the post is the use of the term "make friends or influence people." I hope he didn't do that intentionally. It sickens me how many people wear Dale Carnegie's colors on their sleeve.
Meh, I agree with the post. And I'm sure the commentators would concur.
In fact, I'm sure the rest-of-the-world and all dyxlexic people would agree as well.
There really is no need to hype this post up all that much. It is just an INDIVIDUAL case of a moron. That is all.
Actually, I think the elitist jerk was the bigger retard. I mean, after someone tells you to fuck off, why even bother with a response?
Note to poster, being dyslexic is not "being retarded" ...
I don't believe the original poster is actually dyslexic. It sounds like the sort of lie a child would use when they're upset.
Yeah, It's amazing how many shitheads use the Dyslexic defense when they're poorly educated, the ADHD defense when their retarded ass has drunk too much red-bull and the "I'm just being myself" when they've uttered some blatantly racist/sexist opinion.
@Kevan Smith: So any other retard would have the chance to learn maybe? Think "Open Letter".
I can not take someone who writes three spelling mistakes in one sentence seriously. Most of those errors will indeed be pointed out by the firefox dictionary as you type.
English isn't my native language but if you want to be taken seriously at least try to make coherent sentences. Noone will scream at you for writing a typo, just reread your posts and pull them through a spell checker.
@Zach
"This isn't my first language" is way different from dyslexia. Try to rewrite your comment on russian without grammar error using an online spellchecker, let me have some fun :)
Btw, i tried to find a way to switch firefox auto-check from russian to english, no success.
@Kevan: "I mean, after someone tells you to fuck off, why even bother with a response?"
I assume it's partly to amuse people, and partly to reinforce their point about the site and how it is moderated. EJ's forums are very narrowly focused and very strictly moderated. It shouldn't take very long to browse them and understand what they expect from people. They are very nitpicky about things, but they also make clear what they expect. Therefore, they have very little patience for people who don't follow the rules.
Many of the spelling errors in that message from a "dyslexic" person are not typical of the mistakes caused by dyslexia. For example, "sight" for "site" is in no way excused by dyslexia.
I do not think "I'm handicapped" is a defense for anyone. I had a roommate in college that thought he was owed because he was deaf. He never went to class, but he got passing grades. Because of this experience I assumed that it was just an excuse.
As I got more wise I found that not everyone does this. Usually when I here "I'm handicapped" now its not because they are using it as a defense -- but pointing out that you are a jerk.
And in this case I do think that correcting spelling for a normal person is mean, and doubly mean for those with a learning disability.
While it isn't an excuse for them, it isn't an excuse for us to make them feel less than human for pointing out their disability.
In the example posted I think this was a response to a jerk.
When did Notepad get a spell-check function? That one must have slipped under the ol' RADAR.
And, note to Anonymous (10 November, 2009 10:26): "Retard" was a term used by the EJ moderator, not the poster. l2read, have a nice day, kthxbai.
"Ninety percent of your spelling errors could easily be pointed out by some form of spell checking program. "
This is not true.
I often use the wrong words in a sentence but it is spelled it correctly so spell check doesn't pick it up.
Most errors can be detected by proofreading you're working at least once. In my experience, people who grew up with a computers and web forums are too lazy to bother proof-reading their work before posting.
Lol even proofreading my post I missed an error. I guess you get my point.
Did gevlon get banned from their forums? I know I got banned from MMO-Champion for having my blog in my signature there. Some of these sites can be ridiculous.
@Carra: Ironically, noone is (correctly) picked up by my browser as a spelling mistake.
@Dyslexic: That's not a spelling error, though.
"I don't believe the original poster is actually dyslexic. It sounds like the sort of lie a child would use when they're upset."
I have to go with this Anon. Although it's a small sample size, by and large most of the handicapped people i have met do not type like an angry child. They've learned to cope, and short of you physically taunting or harassing them, it's really a nonissue. It's the normal people who act 'retarded' when they shouldn't that type like that, and get angry when they get called out for it. I totally agree with the EJ response. People using internet anonymity to say stuff like this with no back up disgusts me.(note; you can ussualy tell who really has a handicap, they'll explain it calmly and rationally, not whine and bitch).
I'd be willing to bet a large chunk of money that this 'dyslexic' is just an angry kid. And not to stereotype, he probably asked something stupid like "iz my spec gud?". EJ is pretty good on keeping those posts out of the way, because they don't belong there.
@Both Anons:
"my favourite joke:
dyslexic are teople poo"
"Actually, the joke goes :
Dylexics are people too, you CNUTS!"
Do you have some sort of problem? I'm dyslexic, and personally I do not find the joke all that funny but more... childish.
@Dyslexic: Are you sure you're really dyslexic or just saying for attention? Putting your own mistakes in your post, etc, etc.
I have to honestly say that Dyslexia is NOT a handicap. At ALL. It's more or less just an inconvenience that you deal with. Even with it I still performed my job at my dad's Car Shop (Looking up part numbers, handling the online warehouse, filing customer profiles) efficiently. Was it somewhat challenging? Yes. Quite often I would fuck up the order of the numbers. AA 3915 instead of AA 3951. Or I would misspell customer names. But that never stopped me from double and triple checking EVERYTHING.
I'm human, yeah I made mistakes. I've ordered wrong parts just because I mixed up the order of the numbers, but I have never blamed it on "I'm handicapped." I always told my dad "Sorry, I made a mistake. I'll send that back and get the right one ordered asap."
Case and Point: Dyslexia isn't a handicap, and it's really not even that serious of an illness(if even an illness at all). It's very easy to overcome if you just allow yourself the time to communicate properly.
Offensive jokes removed.
For clarification, the post is NOT about dyslexia but using it as defense. If the moron is really dyslexic, that's irrelevant.
@Markco: no I wasn't banned, since I've never post there. I don't have enough theorycrafting knowledge to post anything useful there.
And if he was really ill, he would know it's dysgraphia, not dyslexia.
On the other hand, I can fully understand people who cannot spell well in English. Not like you can make a sentance longer than 10 words using grammar and dictionary of my native language, anyway.
The thing about dyslexia is that it wont cause disruptions in grammar, merely 'type-like' spelling mistakes, transposing one letter over another, putting numbers in the wrong order.
Bad grammar is bad grammar.
HOWEVER, currently the north american education system leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to helping dyslexic kids, and frequently they wont get the extra attention they need when first starting to read, and will develop a bad school work ethic that will punish them (and us) throughout life. One cannot blame a 4 year old for not ignoring frustration and learning to read properly, one blames his parents/education system.
I know this seems like a hand-holding attitude, but thats what our education system is for, is to teach people to learn. And in alot of cases, dyslexic children have been failed.
I do, however, hold EVERY adult accountable for his own education. If you were ignored as a child and reading was hard, that sucks... but grow a pair and learn to spell.
Clearly the OP had the wrong attitude about the EJ forums. The forum rules are clearly stated. However, given how many times he's likely been actually called a "retard" on account of his spelling (I know a phonetic speller who has been called one at least once in WoW, probably more), I understand his knee jerk reaction (as wrong as it was).
What struck me is how unprofessional the moderator was in his response. It was the moderator who said "handicapped" and "retard".
It certainly violates the EJ forum rules. Given the expectation the moderator has of its posters to make an effort to follow the rules, I find it ironic how badly his posting violates those very rules.
My brother laughed when he read this- via screen reader cause he is blind. Than he got back to work on his graduate applications and GMAT reviews for his doctoral applications into cognitive neuroscience...
I would like to point out that the moron spelled words incorrectly and correctly in the same paragraph. Dyslexia isn't about bad grammar.
This post made my day. I think very similarly to you, G, about many things in life. But this hits the spot.
Being disabled in any way is not an entitlement one is born with, but a built in challenge. Sucks, but such is life. Forcing everyone to just accept mediocrity because "I deserve it" is complete BS, yet the way so many people and organizations think.
Keep the blog coming, eating it up!
Totally agree Gevlah, my younger cousin acts like a complete dick to everyone around him and makes no effort to have manners, etiquette or make an effort in school etc, and his excuse every single time is 'i have behavial issues!' and he uses this excuse EVERY time he gets shouted at for being abusive toward someone..
I think it is the same situation here.. people should not throw their handicaps in other's faces when they call them up on it.
I fully agree on this one.
There is a lady who goes down the middle of my busy street twice a day in her electric wheelchair. She ignores the sidewalk and rather decides that the middle of traffic is a better place for her to be.
People who think the world owes them something because they are handicapped are all going to be in for a rude shock one day. In the case with this lady she'll probably be hit by a car, sounds like the guy you wrote about already had his day.
@Bill: He who has the gold (or in this case - moderates the forums) makes the rules?
This is a truly frustrating post to read. The original poster should just not post on EJ. I don't as I have "dyslexia". And fancy myself as too good to post on a board that has grammar Nazis. There loss in my opinion. I guess they would have banned Einstein too? Carol Greider (nobel winner 2009)? Charles Schwab? Walt Disney? wow the list of possible bannable people could go on forever.
People uneducated on learning differences assuming dyslexia is a mental handicap is abusurd. There is so much more to dyslexia than that. Mental handicap sounds like an adult in diapers who drools. Its more like a learning difference. Our brains our wired differently to learn differently. We take a different road to get to the same point as you, its just a little longer but with the longer journey we also absorb so much more details.
Its sad that the original poster made him self look worse by swearing. The guy for EJ looks just as stupid. Rattling on about how software catches all the errors etc. Hogwash! If only there was a way for software to point out when I'm substituting the wrong word. (a common issue with many of us but would take too long to explain it- in short ever know a person who always calls a cat a dog- they aren't stupid they know its a cat but gosh darn it dog comes out). I wish people would not pidgeon hole dyslexia with the obvious "you transpose" letters. Its like saying the local tramp has "cooties" Are cooties: warts, fleas, scabies or teh clap etc. Is dyslexia: weak phoemic awareness, dysgraphia, non-verbal learning disorder or dyscalculia and the list goes on.
sorry gevlon, this took me so fricken long to write I don't feel like proof reading it. :)
I find it amusing to see this from Gev since I always thought that his horrible spelling/grammar was from dyslexia or English as a second language...
That being said, I really don't care if people misspell something when having an informal conversation on the internet (yes, this includes web blogs).
@Elleseven
This isn't about the grammar nazis. EJ moderators don't expect perfection. Just effort. The moderator believed the person didn't put enough effort to correct his spelling and punctuation mistakes, which is doable with modern tools. They may not catch all errors, but certainly some of the ones the OP had in his response to the moderator.
And as for Einstein? If he were still alive today, the EJ moderators would expect him to use a spell checker as well. Put in a little effort to correct obvious mistakes.
@Dahkeus
Not everyone cares about spelling on internet forums. I think that was the OP's point. But EJ does care to a certain degree. Its right in their forum rules.
"Its right in their forum rules."
I'll say again, this is the important point. Yes, they are extremely picky about both spelling and grammar. And they accept the likelihood that some people will not post there due to this, or due to their harsh attitude towards people who don't follow the rules. It is their site and that's how they run it.
And since they are very clear about this (read the rules, read the forums) I don't see a problem. It's not as if you would be caught by surprise unless you didn't pay attention. Before you ever sign up or post, you will know if it is the sort of site that you want to be a member of.
The person who got the infraction either didn't bother taking a short tour before posting, or he felt that he could BS his way past an infraction by cursing out the moderator and using a lame excuse. If he'd read a bit before posting, he would have known just how the moderator was going to respond to him.
I agree fully with the moderator response, so much that I've sent this blog url to friends to read!
@Bill: The moderator wasn't being rude, just precise. "Rude" == emotional response, and EJ is not the pity-party forum.
@Elleseven: yes, those listed people would have been banned as well. Rulez Iz Rulez. However, we are not privvy to the original post which caused the ban-hammer to strike in the first place, and I'm not going to go search for it (if it's still even there). I would guess that a post that was filled with insight and brilliance about WoW theorycrafting, one that had an angle which no one has thought of, would still be allowed on EJ complete with grammar and syntax errors. perhaps they would have asked the person to clean it up, idk, but one thing you can't say is that EJ moderators are dumb. And let's face it: allowing cr@p for any reason would lessen the value of the entire EJ contribution to the WoW community.
Finally, the response was not only to explain why the guy got banned, but was also to serve as a warning (or learning experience) for others. It's their website and they can run it the way they wish. Emotion has nothing to do with it, so get off your pity-wagons.
Ha!
I'm a light dyslexic, and I'm a functional human being, with a job and all. That guy was faking.
Fully agree with Gevlon too, handicaps should not be used as an excuse for poor perfomance.
PS: dyslexia mistakes are often misplacing/omiting words in a sentence, letters in a word or writing a word which sounds the same as the one you really intended to write. For example using knight to write night.
@Dahkeus
Most of Gevlon's English mistakes stem from the way verbs are conjugated in Hungarian, plus some common spelling mistakes.
Why he doesn't put in the effort to improve? I don't know, but at least he's very consistent in his mistakes and I've come to expect them. It's the OP's inconsistency in spelling the same word five times that makes him a retard.
Not sure if the OP is dyslexic, but he has a scorching case of tourettes!!!
For a change I 100% agree with this.
A) The "dyslexic" in this case was almost certainly lying.
B) Even if he was not, as many people have pointed out, a simple spell checker would take care of that. If he knows he has dyslexia and is not using a simple and free tools to overcome it he is either lazy or stupid.
C) As far as the Elitist Jerks moderator being "rude", well he is moderating a forum of ELITIST JERKS not the Care Bare Society of WoW or some such.
D) I hear "I am handicapped" as "I want special treatment". I hear "I am physically(mentally) challenged" as "It might inconvenience me but it is not going to stop me". The world is full of challenged people(and yes I'm actually using a PC term, people who know me would be floored) that have excelled. Off the top of my head: Stephen Hawking and Franklin Roosevelt. Want a list of famous people who didn't let some physical/mental thing stopping them: http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/article_0060.shtml
@Lupious
Heh, you just made the same mistake too in that sentence. Should be why "doesn't he". I could care less about grammar on the internet as long something is at least coherent. The OP's post clearly wasn't.
@william: Not grammar or spelling, but it's "I couldn't care less".
@ungulant
http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/g09.html
Gevlon, ive agreed with you in the past, i love laughing at M&S, but this takes it too far
you are essentially saying, Oh, you are handicapped, too bad try harder.
I really, honestly hope that you get some form of mental handicap (temporary)just so you feel the pain that those who are forced to live that life do.
@olga
The problem with your example is simple... I never claimed to know or be able to post in Russian - if you are posting something in a language, you intend it to be written in said language - therefore you should endeavor to make it as readable as possible for the people reading it...
take gevlon for example. for someone who is a native speaker of the language - you can tell he is not - but his posts are nowhere near the random word usage and placement you see from some people who then say "but it's not my first language"
If you are posting something in that language - make every attempt to make it readable in that language (or if you use some sort of online translation - mention that in your post in the first place)
I suggest that everyone here makes themselves aware of ableism and abled priviledge and how that includes language. And then, perhaps, you all stop being such asses. You never know!
Post a Comment