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[Frumple]

... that'un's best dealt with via "shoulda'" and leaving the details be.

[Flying Dice]

I think we can all agree that the worst thing to happen to language was the publication of dictionaries, because suddenly people started arguing about objectively correct language as though it weren't completely arbitrary, by any reasonable definition of the word "objective". Look it up in your dictionary today!

Agreed on that count. There's value in having linguistic standards, but only if they exist because they make sense and enhance the utility of the language in question. That second part is why a lot of people are opposed to chatspeak (or whatever you want to call it) transitioning into everyday usage (as opposed to continuing to be used where it serves a real purpose: forms of communication that emphasize/reward/require extreme brevity): it dilutes and confuses meaning by simplifying things too far. The logical conclusion, of course, is English where every word is written as a single letter and the meaning is derived from... not much. 

[Sergarr]

I think we can all agree that the worst thing to happen to language was the publication of dictionaries, because suddenly people started arguing about objectively correct language as though it weren't completely arbitrary, by any reasonable definition of the word "objective". Look it up in your dictionary today!

Agreed on that count. There's value in having linguistic standards, but only if they exist because they make sense and enhance the utility of the language in question. That second part is why a lot of people are opposed to chatspeak (or whatever you want to call it) transitioning into everyday usage (as opposed to continuing to be used where it serves a real purpose: forms of communication that emphasize/reward/require extreme brevity): it dilutes and confuses meaning by simplifying things too far. The logical conclusion, of course, is English where every word is written as a single letter and the meaning is derived from... not much. 

So basically 4chan meme language.

[Cheeetar]

So basically 4chan meme language.

I don't think you can really blame any one internet community for that sort of thing, especially one which so fervently hates its part in it.

[Tarran]

If I ever misspell anything, such as "rediculous", I blame it on things lacking spell checkers. More things in life need spellcheckers. Some words just confound me no matter how many times I've seen them.

And my god do I seriously dislike Steam chat for the lack of one.

[alexandertnt]

What really annoys me is when people dont use fullstops or commas not because its improper but because it can make it very hard to work out what someone is trying to say it just becomes a smear of poorly articulated ideas that run together and I cant help but to read it in my mind in one breath it means that I have to try and seperate the sentences out myself which can be hard if you dont know what the person initially intended to say as proper punctuation can completely change the meaning of a setence damn I hate it when people do this

For some irrational reason I almost wince everytime I see an uncaptalised 'i' thats referring to ones self.

I have also never seen the word "rediculous" on the internet before.



On the topic of abbreviating words: If it were up to me, I would sort words based on their frequency of use and assign a new symbol to this word based off all combinations of the letters of the alphabet, starting from 2 letters. e.g.

aa => 1st most common english word.
ab => 2nd most common word.
...
az = > 25th most common word.
ba => 26th most common word.
(and so on).

[Tiruin]

English is weird. I learned it by going after the root words or synonymous words like ridicule.

...
I wonder if the OP saw a generality more than a single instance of this thing going about. It's normal that people make mistakes about it--just correct em.

Though personally? I've never ever seen a 'rediculous' in my whole life. Ever.

Its the lose vs loose that always drives me batty.

Or this thing. o_O
I've not seen words used wrongly in this matter (well, not misspelled but in their usage anyways) and-...
...Am I learning English differently? >_>

[Frumple]

... I've seen folks use loose when they mean lose and lose when they mean loose all the freaking time. Mind you, I also read a lot of fanfiction, so...

Do see it outside the 'net, too, often enough.

[Darvi]

How the fuck to you loose a game do you just kinda pop out the cardridge just a little bit or what I don't understand please advise.

[Frumple]

You loose a game by the same process you throw a discus, Darvi. And then someone shoots it out of the air with a shotgun. It's kinda' like skeet shooting, but more expensive.

[Toaster]

Apparently you people who don't see it often just hang out in more careful parts of the Internet.  I've seen it used tons of times, especially back in my IRC days.

[Telgin]

... I've seen folks use loose when they mean lose and lose when they mean loose all the freaking time. Mind you, I also read a lot of fanfiction, so...

Do see it outside the 'net, too, often enough.

This, so much.  I don't read very much fanfiction anymore, but what I have read recently did indeed contain uses of loose when they meant lose.  They also used the word machete's instead of machetes several times.  And forgot possessive apostrophes.

Misuse of apostrophes is the thing that really, really annoys me more than anything.  I just do not understand why this is so hard for people to get.  It's vs. its is the only one that I understand getting wrong, and even then it's easy to test: just replace it's with it is in your sentence and see if it still makes sense.

Anyway, then vs. than is another one that royally ticks me off.  Reading "more then" or "less then" is akin to walking into a brick wall for me.

There vs. their vs. they're is similar.

[WealthyRadish]

I have a couple friends who still use rediculous in chat, despite my glowing example. I dunno, it's understandable as an American. I see 'loose' and 'lose' mixed up even on professional websites sometimes. A lot more than you should.

Also, alot.

I think it comes down to speaking and writing not meshing. Who vs. whom for me usually feels easy enough in writing, but actually ever saying 'whom' makes me feel like a prick.

[Darvi]

Also, alot.

Spoiler: Mandatory (click to show/hide)

[Telgin]

I have a couple friends who still use rediculous in chat, despite my glowing example. I dunno, it's understandable as an American. I see 'loose' and 'lose' mixed up even on professional websites sometimes. A lot more than you should.

Or the apostrophes thing.  I often count multiple times per day where professional advertising gets it wrong.  "Americas X!"  No, that should be "America's X!".

Also, alot.

Lately I've seen people using aswell a lot instead of as well...

I think it comes down to speaking and writing not meshing. Who vs. whom for me usually feels easy enough in writing, but actually ever saying 'whom' makes me feel like a prick.

Same here.  It's weird, but I've recently tried to change the way I speak to better reflect grammar and I end up just sounding really strange.

While I try to speak English as well as I can, I know the difference when it comes time to write it down.  A distressing number of people don't however.  I work at an IT company that does tech support.  Currently every one of our CS representatives are native English speakers.  You would never know this by reading what they write in tickets, and it makes me really, really sad.  Punctuation and capitalization are optional, and these are messages sent to customers.