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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EricNoah" data-source="post: 1857664" data-attributes="member: 4">Hey, I'm not trying to say what should or shouldn't be, I'm just trying to come up with an explanation.  Feel free to be prescriptive; I'm just being descriptive.   My theory is that some people aren't particularly careful with their writing on a message board because it doesn't matter to them.  It doesn't pay off.  It's all going to come down to what people think is important.   There are different kinds of writing (for different purposes) and on the internet some of them are more ephemeral than others.  In a chat room, for example, would you stop and correct everyone who made a typo?  Or a grammatical mistake?  I hope not -- you would not be aiding the process of communicating, you would be hindering it.  There are some people who see a message board as only one miniscule step above a chat room in terms of feeling the need to use "gooder English."  Now, I will add ... if you are an 8th grader at Waunakee Middle School and you hand me a paper that contains chatisms like "u r" (for "you are"), then "u" and I "r" gonna sit down and have a talk about finding the right level of correctness for your school work!  Knowing your audience is important, and if (a big if) your goal is to communicate with and impress those who do care about correctness (for example, many fine people at EN World, or a teacher at school, or a potential employer), then it might be worth your while to use more care, learn grammar rules that you frequently have trouble with, and edit your work.   And finally, I don't think a rant where people say, "Come on, do it right!" is going to make anyone go "Gosh, that certainly clarifies their vs. they're vs. there and your vs. you're!  Thank goodness I read that rant!"  But then I think rants are an ineffective means of communicating anything.  You're preaching to the choir while simultaneously attacking those you wish would change and making them defensive.  Not effective!</blockquote>

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