Doesn’t anybody proofread their crap?

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Messages 21 - 37 of total 37 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
ontheedgeandscaredtodeath

Social climber
Wilds of New Mexico
Mar 24, 2019 - 11:12pm PT
Reilly, best wishes to you to and to whomever you are providing care.
BruceHildenbrand

Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
Mar 24, 2019 - 11:19pm PT
Reilly,

as a journalist I can tell you that some of my colleagues believe that the spell checker is an editor as well!
Delhi Dog

climber
Good Question...
Mar 26, 2019 - 03:20am PT
This from the CNN writeup about Brexit today..shit drives me nuts too. Happens all the time and you'd think a business that is in the business of writing can at least get the writing part right-rite?

"May's future depends now depends on her erstwhile enemies, however. As they faces the possibility of Parliament supporting a softer Brexit than suggested by May, the arch-Brexiteers in the European Research Group may decide this is the moment they must back May's deal as the best of a bad bunch."

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/03/26/uk/theresa-may-parliament-brexit-intl-gbr/index.html

Editing though = 1st world problems :-)

...and the braille post up there ^^ cracked me up
BruceHildenbrand

Social climber
Mountain View/Boulder
Mar 26, 2019 - 10:17am PT
In 1994 I was asked if I would help with starting a website dealing with bicycle racing and cyclingnews.com was born. It has become the most popular site in the world for bicycle racing. In recent years the number of typos, bad English and incorrect facts(such as dates and people) have skyrocketed.

Since I helped start the site I feel some responsibility for trying to maintain the quality. So, I used to send the errors I found to the editor in hopes that they would be corrected. Personally, I really appreciate it when somebody lets me know that I have made a mistake. I can fix it and my writings are better for it.

It turns out that the editor, and a bunch of other employees there, are very insecure. They interpreted my E-mails, which I intentionally tried to make as positive and blameless as possible, as personal attacks. They finally told me to quit sending them any errors that I found with the website. I think that about says it all.
Barbarian

climber
Mar 26, 2019 - 01:30pm PT
I never proofread my own writing - so may here on Supertopo are willing and anxious to do it for free.
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Mar 26, 2019 - 11:04pm PT
hey there, say, NutAgain!

say, i LOVE what your wife says about long sentences, that have long clauses, and--say all kinds of stuff... it IS good for the brain to remember all this stuff, and still 'spit it out at once' and, come-back to the conversation with your OWN reply/thoughts (after reading it all) as,
i take-it that 'THIS' (what you mentioned) is 'being seen in writing',not just 'talking', as-- we'd NEVER see the commas, long phrases OR parenthesis, if not-- we'd only HEAR them, as we reply back-and-forth, as to 'the knowledge that we took in', and, then... there'd be no WRITTEN proof, that 'they were ever in use' ;)

yep, i love it... please, let her know...

good for her! :)
it is sad, very sad.. that no one 'wants it to be correct' to USE commas, any more... :(

or, put in all kinds of neat (like this one) parenthesis... :(


good for her... :) and, her italian-share... :)
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Mar 27, 2019 - 09:21am PT
To all of you who whine about having to read news reports that were not properly proofed, I ask: How much are you prepared to pay for that proofing? If you want your news for free, or almost free, well, you will get what you pay for. It reminds me of people who buy a 24-piece socket wrench set at Walmart for $9.95 and then complain about the shitty quality.

Any publication, whether an online-only sport-focused one such as cyclingnews.com, or a longstanding traditional news source such as Reuters, can hire more proofreaders. But only if readers will accept the increased cost.

Given that most people now expect news to be free...
WBraun

climber
Mar 27, 2019 - 09:29am PT
It reminds me of people who buy a 24-piece socket wrench set at Walmart for $9.95 and then complain about the shitty quality.

Most of the tools in Walmart are Stanley Tools manufacture.

They're a lot more than $9.95.

Are you sure you are proofreading your own nonsense ..... lol
hooblie

climber
from out where the anecdotes roam
Mar 27, 2019 - 10:38am PT
look at it this way:
some publications have a dedicated puzzle section.
ours are where you find them, though there are
certain areas of high concentration.

keep on pokin' em gnomey
Toker Villain

Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
Mar 27, 2019 - 04:18pm PT
WBraun wrote;

.Are you sure you are proofreading your own nonsense

Are you the same guy posting over on the lone gunman thread?
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
Mar 27, 2019 - 04:50pm PT
I have two sisters and four brothers....this thread sounds like home bitd. :)
Gnome Ofthe Diabase

climber
Out Of Bed
Mar 27, 2019 - 05:13pm PT
Instantly, by the way, I feel blameless, when I read the query; I felt that my sweet if didactic shares here were what was being questioned. For the less erudite, those unwilling, or unable, to follow and so instead throw stones, and without even 1st yelling 'Rock, I say 'pshaw'!
Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
Mar 27, 2019 - 06:56pm PT
Wow, Timid, my owner/editor gave me an edition when I started working years ago as the only paid reporter for our local newspaper, which is still alive and living in our great rural community.

"Sucks being in a dying trade." Yes, but there is always hope. Writing is a trip, like living on the Love Boat with no one else on the boat. Writing is throwing it all out there, hoping something sticks and nothing will be thrown back or left to rot. Writing is.......
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Mar 27, 2019 - 07:41pm PT
Perfect.

My post above, and Werner's response, together constitute a perfect example of my "you get what you pay for" comment on the lack of good proofreading in modern journalism.

To illustrate the point that being unwilling to pay for good journalism and then complaining about bad journalism, I used the analogy of someone buying a 24-piece socket wrench set at Walmart for $9.95 and then complaining that good tools are a thing of the past. Werner pointed out that Walmart tools aren't that cheap, and are in fact made by Stanley.

So here's the deal: If you clowns were willing to pay for better proofreading on Supertopo, I'd have been able to hand my work off to the ST Tool Expert (WB) before posting it. He would have said to me privately what he said above, and I would then have corrected my story by changing the example to someone buying an 18-piece socket wrench set at DollarRama for $13.95.

As to what Timid Andy said, well, both yes, and no.

I also got chewed out by a grumpy junior college editor enough times to ditch the journalism.

Junior college anything is a long, long way from the real world, but having an editor who knows what s/he's doing, and will whip you until you understand, will make you a better writer. With the caveat that you also have to know when to stand your ground and tell that editor to go pound sand.

As mentioned, you get what you pay for. Hard to find errors of any kind in my weekly New Yorker and monthly National Geographic.


Damn right. And ditto for The Economist, Handelsblatt, and similar publications.

Sucks being in a dying trade.

It is not dying, but it sure as hell is changing. Most of you here are old, and expect what you read to conform to the rules you learned in Mrs. Schmucker's 7th grade English class. But that was 50 years ago, and people who are writing for money now are not writing for you. They are writing for people who communicate by text message, using emojis and phrases like "c u l8r".

But the bottom line is unchanged. If you want to make money writing, you must write something people are willing to pay to read.

Lynne Leichtfuss

Sport climber
moving thru
Mar 27, 2019 - 07:48pm PT
cu l8r, Henry Thoreau. :)
Trump

climber
Mar 30, 2019 - 08:59am PT
Here’s an interesting one:

https://psyarxiv.com/qf7e3

“Moralistic punishment can confer reputation benefits by signaling trustworthiness to observers. But why do people punish even when nobody is watching? We argue that people often rely on the heuristic that reputation is typically at stake, such that reputation concerns can shape moral outrage and punishment even in one-shot anonymous interactions.”

Spell stuff right. Use good grammar. Help other people. Good for you!

Spell stuff wrong, use bad grammar? Maybe we’ll feel a need to punish you for that, and to do so publicly, for some reason or other.

Heck, I’ll bet we all can both do that, and help some other people (of our own choosing, for our own reasons) at the same time. And maybe those same tribal reasons contribute to us punishing people even when no-one is watching, and helping other people even when we don’t broadcast it on the internet.

We humans have the BEST tribal glue processes! I don’t always see that as a good thing, but mostly I just hope for people to see them.

Our tribal allegiances, and the processes that support them, seem to be getting stronger, and nothing Trump does seems to change that. But maybe we can.

Best to you, Supertopo tribe!
Zay

climber
Monterey, Ca
Mar 30, 2019 - 12:44pm PT
I'd love to see someone eat off a wall or ceiling.

Sorry i couldnt resist
Messages 21 - 37 of total 37 in this topic << First  |  < Previous  |  Show All  |  Next >  |  Last >>
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