Have Experience? (another rant)

[Siretsap]

I would like to point out something. Sometimes grammar shouln't be taken into consideration to grade someone with experience...

I mainly speak French at home, I went to a French school all my life and I also work in an environment that is mainly French (but i do get many calls from the Bikini Villages in Ontario, and we know they speak English). So the most common mistakes for me are which, whitch, tought and thought.... so I will make mistakes in those words. Even if I will sometimes put that wicked old lady with a broom in a sentence where it should mean the other word, it doesen't mean I am a newb and do not know anything about reptiles.

I do not see how anyone can put a tag on someone as a newb or anything by the grammar mistakes he makes or spelling.

I do not consider myself an expert.
To me an expert is someone who is able to make a whole cycle in the life of the reptile it owns (from birth, to breeding to birth again) and can keep his reptiles in very good shape and that has enough guts to be able to admit that he might still learn something about that species down the line.

I was able to fully cycle a leopard gecko and fat tail life cycle and still consider there is much to learn on them.

There is not only one way to keep a reptile, that is what many of us have trouble according with. If you are not able to accept the fact that there is more than only the way you succesfully kept your animal, then you are not an expert in my opinion.

And also, I would prob put an expert tag on some of the older people, not because of their age, but pecuase they would be the ones who have taken the reptiles that were wc and acclimated them to the captivity conditions to a certain level. They were the pionners in keeping reptiles in captivity. They allowed most of us to buy captive bred specimens that would already eat, and eat mice and rats, cause we all know not all snakes would eat those things in the wild.

How many of us today buy captive bred specimens? And why? Because we do not want to have to fight with the animal all the time to get it to eat. We do not want to have to treat it for parasites and bacterial diseases... So how can we consider ourselves experts if we aren't ready to take the challenge a wild animal would give us?

Just my thoughts

Michael

[mykee]

Michael; the type of grammar/spelling mistakes are often a sure sign of the intelligence level of the poster, but not their experience level. Very often do I see posters (like yourself to some degree) who make grammatical errors and spelling mistakes clearly due to the fact that English is not their chosen, or first language. Those mistakes are easy to point out. The other type of spelling/grammar mistakes are made by those who plain old type too fast (Trevor and myself included). These mistakes are often words that include an extra letter from "residual" touching of a second key, i.e. anmd:and, or fopr: for. The last type of spelling/grammar mistake are often made by those who are just plain old don't care or just cannot spell. Continuous spelling errors of the same word; their instead of there, we're instead of where (these are my pet peeves). For the most part, these are the people that either haven't taken the time to learn how to spell, or just plain old could care less what other people think about the thought they put into their posts. This tells a lot about a person. Intelligence is how you put a sentence together and knowledge is the information in the sentence.
Trevor & Marisa; and you two thought you talk too much. I should have a Personal Editor with me 24-7. Most of the time, my brain can't keep up with my typing fingers. And after "Submit Reply" it's just too late... Fiddlesticks!!

[CDN-Cresties]

Just as a side note Mykee, some people may have a Learning Disability/difference which may effect their grammer which has nothing to do with their intelligence level. Although im not sure if any one on this site has one.

[BoidKeeper]

I am the first one to defend people with learning disabilities considerin I'm a dyslexic school teacher. Also during my major in psyc I learned that spelling has never been used as a measure of a persons intelligence. And besides asking someone with dyslexia to spell something with some help would be like asking a blind person to look here or a wheel chair user to go for a walk.
The grammer that Greg is refering to is not caused by language barriers it's caused by people spelling words incorectly on purpose like kewl for example.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Invictus]

The one that drives me insane the most is "your". It is by far the most misused word on the Internet, and I would say that 90% of all people who use the Internet do not know the diffence between "your" and "you're". No one can tell me it's a typo either - it is just plain a lack of knowledge on proper grammar.

[BoidKeeper]

On a final note I have two university degrees, can't spell to save my life but neither of those two facts reflect upon my ability to consitently maintain a healthy collection of reptiles that I have been able to reproduce.
Cheers,
Trevor

[bighillreptiles]

Up untill ten years ago I could not read nor wright at all ,In the last ten years i have tacken every opp to learn as much as i can and still keep on trying as best i can .Don't care who will talk or reply to my post if spelling was rong or not .I try to learn for #1 my self Paul . I have been keeping all types of animals for over 20 years and thay don't care if one can read or wright as lone as every one of there needs are meat at all times .Sorry abought venting I have had people make coments abought spelling to me in the past and that is one of my pet pevs,aske befor you critise

[Mustangrde1]

OK here is one for you. I know of several very famous herpers who do not have high school diplomas yet these people would most certainly be called true experts. There are many old school field researchers who we look up to and still to this day and still site their work that did not have a diploma are they stupid? Some of these people more then likely had other people write their finding by dictation. Had they done it more then likely it would have had a great many errors but would the information been less useful or correct?

If you judge by spelling its a true shame because you may have just lost a valuable and contributing member that could very likely have made a major difference. The correcting of a persons spelling or discounting them because of it will cause them not to come back and post.

The sites forums are supposed to be for all to enjoy and contribute to! They certainly should not ever be a high school English class where people or their knowledge are graded based on spelling. Yes, to some degree its important but I think I would rather have the bad spelling and good info than no post because someone was blasted or insulted for their ability to spell.

[CamHanna]

Nevermind.

[Cruciform]

A few years ago I saw a documentary on learning disabilities, (Nature of Things maybe? Anyone else see it?) and in talking about dyslexia they brought up research that indicated it mainly occurs in people with above average intelligence.

Between dyslexic friends and co-workers for whom english is a second language, I see a lot of strange looking email. But it's often easily understood with a bit of practice. Heck, some of the people I've worked with in the past I couldn't understand at all in conversation, but their English was perfect in writing.

As long as we're all talking sense, and can understand each other, our idiosyncrasies can be overlooked

[Mustangrde1]

Heh oh ya one of my biggest pet peaves. People who think the number of post you do makes you smarter then anyone else. I wish all sites dealt away with the numbers or cute tag names with names such as { expert or guru or herpgod} they tend to mislead people in to beleiving those people know alot when in fact it could be a person that sits on a computer all day with nothing better to do.

[BoidKeeper]

Mike I'll take that as a complament.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Samba]

Ok, I avoided this post because I didn't want to have to sit here for an hour and mention everything I thought pertinent, but I WILL speak up about the spelling skills.

In another post not too long ago I told someone that if they wanted to seem like an authority on a subject they should learn how to spell. Some took this as cruel (like I was making fun). I was not making fun, and, regardless of the excuse, poor spelling and grammar will lead the reader to believe (and I am not afraid to admit this) that the writer may not be a reliable resource on the topic at hand.

I myself am disabled, and I would never put anyone down; however, I have to agree with those of you here that follow a similar train of thought. I do understand that many people on this site are learning English as a second language, and I totally encourage the development.

Now, on to the topic on the inexperienced giving advice. Whether their motives be good or bad, I admit it is irritating to have someone you consider 'less knowledgeable' than yourself tell you what they think. I once had a person tell me how to care for my burmese python when they themselves never owned one! (On top of that I wasn't even seeking advice on his care).

The worst that can happen with uncorrected information is that it will spread (as mentioned above) and people will regard it as truthful. Obviously the great danger in this is the welfare of the animals in question is at jeopardy.

If you criticize someone too harshly they are likely to become defensive and/or ignore you... the opposite of what we want to accomplish. For the persons here who are experienced, I believe it is our duty to gently correct and guide inexperienced keepers so that they will do better for their pets.

I'd have a whole lot more to say, but I'm at work (as usual) and must limit my reply.

[CamHanna]

This link comes from Matt K in another thread, it's a spellchecker that can be incorporated into your browser (IE at least) for this exact thing. Now, my little peeves; then/than, improper comma use and '.' intead of '?'. Though I suppose the '?'s complaint is a little hypocritical, '?' are far and away my biggest problem.

Anyways, hope the link helps.

Cam

http://www.iespell.com/

[Cruciform]

Looks like there's been a port of a spellchecker for Mozilla Firefox as well:

http://www.exchangecode.com/spellbound/