blonde poker forum

I have always struggled with my writing, I am still trying to learn the rules of grammar and punctuation, and although my spelling is improving, I still have to check many simple words

Until I found blonde, I had no reason to try to learn to write, then suddenly I discovered this place that was filled with interesting, friendly people

I so wanted to take part, but that meant writing, and I was, still am, to some extent, very self-concious and embarrassed about it

I took the plunge, tentative at first, some of my first posts took an age to write, and then another eon to pluck up the courage to press the 'send' button,  but I was spurred on by a little positive feedback and the knowledge that my atrocious handwriting was disguised by the keyboard

Once I started, I couldn't stop, It seemed to fill a need in me, like an animal obeying an instinct, I didn't know why It felt so good, it just did

I have often said that I owe blonde a great deal, but most people wouldn't guess the reason I feel so indebted

Blonde allowed me to start to learn to write, and to discover how much I enjoy it

If I had read some of the recent posts, the ones that criticise peoples spelling and grammar, I would have closed the page and that would have been that

Please remember, there may be many people viewing these boards who, like me, are insecure about their writing skills

 :goodpost:

hope you have recovered from man flu Tom

If you're serious don't worry about it.

Eitherway, I can't help but ask if your full stop button is broken?

Stu

Tom

Great post m8

I would have to say, that without a doubt, you are one of the most approachable people I have ever met! (And it's all thanks to Blonde)

PS GL if your in Lads The Daddy, I'm in. (Special Twist, if you win, they name the next week tourney after you, so really, this week should be called "The RedDog". Also win 2 weeks in a row and get an extra $10k)

Tom

I myself find it very hard to 'mix' with people. I have always been a 'loner' and can happily sit with my own company for hours on end.

Blonde has helped me to "get involved" with other people.

Yet another reason why Blonde is the place to be.

I agree with Red Dog, the comments on spelling can be quite hurtful towards some and deters others from posting, so let's hope it stops soon.

Deserves to be quoted.

but i can spell

below the belt slighty, when a guy is opening his heart.

I would just hate to think someone may be put off posting here becase their spelling may be criticised

Yes, I'm in the Daddy, (Got in on a $32 satallite)

If I win it this week, I'm demanding my extra 10k

what extra 10k?

Great post Red, I have always been bad at reading and writing, its not that i dont try, because i do. I have also posted before on other site, which i got slanted for! i dont write on there any more. some people are good at reading and writing and some good with maths, my maths is spot on, so i see this ways it out.

See M3boy's post

Appologies.  I meant what I said about don't worry about it.  Corrections to spelling and grammar in public forums are my pet hates.

Red-Dogs posts are great and the forum is better for them.  I hope he undertstands no malice was intended.

Stu

Excellent post Red-Dog.  I am sure there are loads of people out there who want to post. But are afraid to because they feel unsure over grammer.

After reading your post, I hope they think again and just go for it. Afterall this isn't an english class, it is suppose to be fun.

I admit, I am in the same position as you are. I don't have a clue where to use comma's, full-stops, paragraphs and puntuation.  I just guess and use my trusted 99p dictionary from bargain books. Some lecturers at Uni have picked up on my poor use of grammer and have made negative comments. This dosen't bother me as I know we are all here for different reasons.

Mine is to win the pokerstars blonde game next Sunday.... :D

Your posts are always witty and amusing.

Respect for writing this one. I am convinced it will help others to get over their nervousness about joining in with the fun on blonde.

Hope you have got over the flu

Wasn't grammar in "Rounders"?

I thought she was in the Beverly Hillbillies

That grammar is everywhere I tell ya! :tikay:

I think it says alot about a person if they feel the need to make negative comments of people's posts regarding grammer and spelling. I for one struggle with my spelling and grammar, dyslexia effects alot of the clever ones  ;tk; you know!

So a dyslexic walks into a bra...

Damnit i was making an incontinent point!

I agree, This criticizing people for their spelling and grammar is getting way out of line. The people responsible for this must have a superiority complex. You need to get over yourselves..

I left school when I was 12 to go to work, I have struggled with spelling and grammar all my life, but that doesn’t mean to say I don’t have something intelligent to say,(well some of the time) and like most people have pointed out, this must be stopping other people from joining the forum. 

I understand the rules on this forum are, No personal attacks on each other. Critiquing someone’s post for spelling seems very close if you ask me.

GIVE IT A REST

I doubt anyone was genuinely malicious in attacking the way any other poster constructed their posts. As ever, the tone and semantics of posts are far, far more important than whether someone has conjugated their verbs correctly.

I've been a right poker forum tart in my time, hooking up with anything which caught my eye and laughed at my jokes. Some of the relationships didn't last too long, with the forums ultimately proved themselves to be too immature, not intelligent enough or just downright ugly.

Then I found Blondepoker. She had everything I was looking for. She could tussle intellectually with me, often leaving me with food for thought. She was funny, having me in hysterics and spluttering Ribena over my laptop screen. Not only that, but she improved with age and helped me better myself, helping me to view the world in a different way, making me see someone else's point of view. I don't care if she mistypes occasionally, or sometimes writes 'effect' when she actually means 'affect' - the words and thoughts are still those of someone I want to be with.

However, if she started getting moody for no reason, snapping at people with no cause, becoming petty over the smallest and most trivial of issues, I would become unhappy. I'd stop looking at engagement rings and planning dirty weekends away.

 >:?

 ;applause; ;applause; ;applause; @ AndrewT

One of my "golden rules of poker" is to never criticise other player's play.

After all what is the point ?

The main thing about what people write is the content, what they are actually saying.

Criticising their spelling is just nitpicking, although I have picked

Tikay up once or twice, but hey we're all human and that was just a little sport.

I'm glad you posted something on this subject Red, as everyone knows this has been my little crusade of late but you get more respect here than i (odd but true :D).
So all i can say is even more kudos to you.
Ian

I use the Google toolbar. After you have written something you can run a spell checker over the text in any format. Pretty neat for people like me who didn't take any notice in English lessons.

too much crap comes with the google toolbar i refuse to let it near my machine

It's great! Especially in FireFox, where you can customise the toolbar to your own taste. I have 26 extension on my toolbar, but you could have a lot less.

I have, on occaison, asked people to take more care with their posts. I have never picked anyone up on insignifigant spelling errors or small grammatical errors. What I object to, is when people who are perfectly capable of using correct english present their posts in a fashion which is very difficult to read.

The only posts that I have taken issue with have been written by mystery, who was nothing more than a troll, boltpp who I think was attempting some kind of strange art and has since proven more than capable of producing very well written posts and the TV researcher who could not be bothered to correct a glaring typo in the title of his own thread.

I do not feel any kind of superiority to any posters, I am aware that I make many errors in my own writing and my typing is very poor. It takes me quite a long time to write a post such as this. I try to keep my errors to a minimum and construct my posts so that people can easily understand me.

I realise that many people have problems with correct spelling and grammar, and for many different reasons. It has never been my intention to discourage anyone from posting. As the general feeling seems to be that trying to encourage correct english is bad for the forum, I will no longer do so.

A brilliant Post by Red, and a stunning thread, showing just what blonde is all about.

I had some serious concerns last night after a Member was severely criticised for his spelling, punctiation & grammar, & it damn near kept me awake all night, worrying what peeps might think of blonde if we allow that sort of thing. I articulated this view to the Mods today, & said I was so troubled by the issue that I intended to submit a Post addressing the matter. No sooner the word than the deed, & I now find Red has done it for me - and FAR better than I ever could.

The man's on a roll. Wait till you see this week's Poker 425, he takes over the show! Quite right too.

Yea I agree, Tikay. Red-Dog's post shows that Blonde isn't like other forums.

Before I learned about Blonde from Trace-T during a game we had on VC.  I used to post on a few other forums. I won't mention which ones because it is not honourable to do so. But the main thing I hated about these other forums was the lack of community and friendliness.

On Blonde, there are some truly nice people. People who willingly give advice about poker related issues and sometimes other day to day situations. I have not seen this on any other forum. I don't want to sound like some peace loving hippy but Blonde really is a happy forum.

It is obvious that the members on here really want other members to do well with their games. This can be seen by the amount of people who read Snoopys reports and Tikay's updates. And also pay attention to Tank's quest to play 4000 STT. On other forums, every post someone submits is scrutinized(sp?), and holes are picked into every comment. Of course, it is good to argue a point of view or suggest another way to play a hand,ect. But I am talking nastiness and an attempt to embarriss someone .

I paid a visit to one of my previous forums the other day and a similar topic to this one was being disscussed. However it was not in an attempt to support the other members. It was plain and simple bullying towards one particular member who obviously had difficulties where reading was concerned. I sent the guy concerned an email and told him to find himself another forum to post on where his comments would be valued. I hate any kind of bullying and particularly that type of bullying.

Blonde really is a great forum. If I had not discovered it, I would still be posting on one of the others and panicking over whether or not I had made a silly comment or mis-spelled a word. Keep up the great posts everyone.

Good Luck to all.  :D

Interesting point by Wardonkey, most especially the last sentence of his first paragraph.......

"What I object to, is when people who are perfectly capable of using correct english present their posts in a fashion which is very difficult to read"....

Thats a VERY different matter to peeps who have, maybe, some difficulty with communicating the written word. We do see, now & then, huge, long, rambling Posts, with no paragraphs or punctuation, written, on occasions, by people who know better. The fact is, those Posts don't get properly read by the Membership, so it pays to try and present your Post properly - if you can. If you cant. it ain't a problem, it just aint.

Have to be honest writing has never been one of my favourite past times... but being on blonde has definately improved i think, never enjoyed writing reports at college or uni!

I was much more of a cut n paste man!

I agree with what red and tikay have said, people should'nt be shouted down because of the odd spelling mistake!

I mean i'm northern i can't even speak, but i persist and people have to listen...

Interesting thread

I have got to admit when I seen the slating mystery got about his grammer i was a bit angry. I was going to post something but thought... no... as my grammer isnt that good and I might have got dragged down too.

I dont know the full story obviously but from what I can gather he verbally abused a host which obviously can NEVER be allowed.

Just seems to me he was attacked from his first post or am i getting this wrong?

I think RED-DOG's point is a real eye-opener.

However well meaning some people's intentions were, in suggesting that posters break up their text to make it easier to read, to observers it looks like nit picking. I can definately see now that it might discourage newbies from posting and discourage existing members putting their thoughts into words to post their opinions more often too.


My initial thoughts were that in the future, diplomatically phrased pm's might be the way to go. Soon after thinking this, I dismissed the idea as a bad one. Such a thing could easily be percieved as being elitist and it's not worth the risk of putting someone off posting.

I echo this sentiment.....


...and will hand back my paragraph policeman's badge and baton in due course.

The overall standard of posts on this forum, with regard to the ease at which they read, has never been a huge problem anyway. What has happened in the last couple of weeks, with regard to pleading for large chunks of text to be broken down, is an example of how when ten people raise the same point on an issue it makes it look like it's upsetting people more than it actually is.

Just because someone takes the time to go over there posts once they're written. Making adjustments, here and there, with the reader in mind. It doesn't make them better than anyone else.

I would do well to remember that others have ten times more commitments than myself and consequently a tenth of the time to spend on Blonde. That members take the time to write something should be celebrated and I should never criticize anyone who doesn't proof read their posts.



Viva la Blonde. As we continue to grow, may we always refrain from being clique and elitist. (I'm off to Kilmnarnock to join Sark79 in a hippy-fest)

You cant stop exponents of meticulous grammer taking a natural offence to ineptly constructed pieces of writing.
To try and constrain someone from asuaging frustration at a pooly constructed post is as equally fatuous.
It seems that the preponderance of time i've spent reading and posting on Blonde has been apportioned to addressing matters of grammer.
I elude primarily to my own post, entitled:Bare with me guys, to which i would've been happy to recieve
the receptive concencus featured in this one.
Horses for courses.

Translaton :

You can't stop a fud thinking like a fud and acting like a fud.

It's a shame all you fuds didn't realise you were behaving like fuds till now.

Equines for consecutions.

I like you Tank, which is strange as i believe you were/are a student.
A smilie face would have been an equally felicitous riposte.

see................................... :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

I might be a fud, which is a big problem for me.

You are quite right.

All I learned when I was a student was how to fork out less for pizza and avoid paying the Council tax.

More definitions....



felicitous - adjective

Used to descibe someone who looks very shaggable in dungarees.
It's origins are thought to be a 70's situation comedy 'The Good Life'.



riposte - noun

 :D

This has just turned into a conversation of Profound sociological importance.
I too, have learned how to accomplish the aforementioned benefits, but in a slightly different fashion.
The housing estate on which i live allows for easy highjacking of pizza delivery bikes.
The housing benefit department are usually deterred from pursuing any recompense for unpaid council tax if you inform them that you are deppressed.(This can usually be substantiated by an eroneously aqquired note from your GP)
Different ends of the class spectrum interacting thus, For me an honour and a privalige.
Thankyou Blonde.

Got the smilie face ready, it may yet be needed.

  rotflmfao  You two should be on the telly!

As long as i get paid.
I'm on crimewatch nearly every month and they have'nt paid me a penny!!!!!!!!

 :goodpost: Red,

I have to say that your worries certainly don't come across in your posts.  Some of the posts you have made on the forum have been the most enjoyable/funny/sensitive/genuine posts I have ever seen and it's always good to read them :)

Good post Bolt pp and a good translation by Tank.  You should both be the guest experts on countdown examining the words people make(dictionary corner I think).

 Or you could help Victoria Coren out with her Boulderdash show which analyses language.  :D . Even if you get bored talking about language, you could discuss poker strategy with her instead ( I think she played on L.N.P and dated Ram Vaswani(sp?). ) 

I'm only eloquent when drunk, : and i dont think Lynam would stand for it!!!! :D

Red- as usual your on the money, we all have strengths and weaknesses (mine being playing kk :D). This forum is unique and always a pleasure but i would like to just say...

 ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabiner; ;karabin


As sooon as yar sarfern mankeys start speakin the queens english lik us narferners, weeel have no more problemss,

good post

i agree wholeheartedly on accepting people for what they say not how they type it.
I understand wardonkeys thinking on his post about difficulty in reading posts that are one long sentence but its all part of the eclectic mix of nutters on here.
I have to say that joy can be found in the subject matter and taking the time to read it.
I often find i am a lazy reader and scan as opposed to reading and thus miss some genuine moments of genius.
Cannae see the woods for the trees type stuff.

as for tank and bolt i see them more as stadler and waldorf.. :D

"What do you think of this thread so far?"

"Rubbish."

(http://www.spk-mittleres-erzgebirge.de/ihre_sparkasse/waldorf_und_stadler/pixel/waldorf_statler.jpg)

thats the boys...ah i can smell a thread here

I tend not to write an awful lot , though i used to love writing .
I thoroughly enjoy reading what you write Red , you really do have away with words and hope you carry on keeping us all entertained.
 :)up

I am all for an easy life and if someone wants to write their post in a manner which makes it difficult to read then I will pass it by. If they wanted it to be read then they would have made an effort to make it as easy to read as possible.  This does not apply to grammer and spelling which is up to the individual to do their best in,  I can easily see past spelling mistakes and enjoy the posts.  

Making something difficult to read is an indication of something else (imho) where the writer wants acknowledgement. Making a post difficult to read means people have to make a real effort and if they do make an effort it gives the writer a feeling of worth. Even though they have made it difficult people have persevered and it gives the writer a sense of value.  

This is borne out by many studies on individuals who communicate differently from the norm. For example; writing their signature backwards almost always causes comment and generates discussion by others which pleases the writer and makes him feel part of the 'real world'. Another often used example is the small man driving a big car...........something is often lacking.......

Consider this example: When travelling to another country eg France the majority of people will try, to whatever standard they are comfortable with, to speak the lingo. Even if it's only 'merci' they will do something to speak in the country's language to show their good intentions and a general respect for the host country. (Obviously France was not a good example of wanting to show respect for another county! :blonde: )

The choice not to make this effort is based on a feeling of low self esteem hidden under a facade of self importance in many cases, after all, how good will they feel when they have made the french shop keeper work hard for his sale, having to decipher an englishmans pointing and shouting?

The same can be said for posters who go out of their way to make their posts difficult to read - they are looking for the effort of the reader to make them feel good and boost their ego, and as happens on this forum, for it to generate discussion abut the person themselves.  If they really wanted others to read and comment on their views they would go out of their way to make them readable (like saying 'merci' in France).

Using complicated sentences is, lets face it, a way of inflating a persons ego and attempting to put them above the rest. Complicated sentences might be better used on a forum championing the use of the Queens english and not on a poker forum.  

I choose to ignore a difficult to read post as I have only a limited time to spend on blonde and I want to read as much as I can while I'm here. Good luck to any poster who wants to write in very long words with complicated sentence structures, but I for one won't be reading them.

Reds posts are exceptional and I don't know one blondite who doesn't look forward to reading them. Humility and humour in the right combinations. If ever an ego needed occasional boosting it would be his, and that makes him even more lovely.

Dingdell

I don't normally do this, but  :goodpost:

Dingdell has managed to express similar thoughts to those which I sort of had bouncing round my head, but couldn't put into words properly. She's done it better than I ever could.

You dont quote any of these "many studies" by which you are characterising people, so let me put forth a common phrase from where i live and allow you to derive some profound insight into my personality that transcends the vague nature of what your ammusing post intimates:

No one likes us, WE DONT CARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wonder if you retain the ability to see the paradox in writing a thirty five line post on being the centre of attention.

                         :D                                        DINGDELL= DINGDONG                             :D

Gorgeous, fluent, intelligent, articulate.... almost the perfect woman. (Almost because sadly your not from lancashire)

Great post girl, from your no1 fan x x x  ::) ::) :)up

HEY EVERYONE LOOK AT ME......




I just became a full member...... cool...

The sad thing is i'm really chuffed :dd: :dd: ;letsparty; ;letsparty;

No offense Dingdell but what a load of pish!
You seem to be over analysing a tad here, basically saying Bolt uses odd wording because he has a small willy, while it may be true it was not the subject matter (well i think not anyway).
My own objections were against people saying things like "use capital letters", "use paragraphs", "insert a few commas and full stops" etc. etc.
People have been "attacked" over these things and it is irrelevent, folks should not be intimidated by the odd person or two with a superiority complex.

Congratulations Matt .......... Its the little things in life that are more pleasing lol


 ;letsparty; ;letsparty; ;cheerleader; ;cheerleader; ;letsparty; ;letsparty; ;cheerleader; ;cheerleader; ;letsparty; ;letsparty;

Thankyou Char...

But i'm no longer little... oh no.... i'm now fullll x

Absolutely I see the paradox! I was aware of it when writing but I wrote it in simple english and with paragraphs so I hope it was fairly understandable, and passed the complicated post test!   :D

Regarding quoting the 'many studies' I decided it wasn't required (and would be gilding the lilly a little) as this is not a clinical psychology forum and I didn't think that it would interest the majority of readers here, therefore I chose to omit it. I think that quoting the studies, including sorce notes etc would be over egging the pudding and unneccessary - that would be the action of someone definitely looking to impress, which wasn't my aim.

My intention was to inform people of my opinion in a way they would understand which I think I achieved.  8)

I love it when you talk dirty

Well - I have no personal knowledge about his willy - nor do  I want any!

I agree with IFM that people should be allowed to post exactly how they want to - and no one should be intimidated about posting, that's not what this forum is about. I'm merely posting about why I choose not to read difficult to read posts and what I think causes these posts to be made by some people. In no way is this about anyone on this forum unless the cap fits, I have never met or made any psychological evaluations on anyone on this site!  8)

Ding

Fair enough, but if i really was a person of the aforementioned inclination imagine how badly your post would've made me feel?
And for what? using a few obscure and colourful words.
not very nice, especialy if i was that emotionaly fragile.

Egging the pudding....egging the pudding....egging the pudding......now go and lay down in a dark room.

Ding :blonde:

I have a small willy irrespective of my useage of modern english, ty :D

I'm not going to have a discussion based on whats and wherefore, imagine this imagine that. I can only work on fact and as stated before my post was to explain why I don't read certain types of posts. I wasn't talking about you in particular, merely posts that are difficult to read due to their content and layout it's irrelevant. If you recognise yourself from the descriptions I have given then that speaks for itself but this post is not about you.

If you recognise yourself from the descriptions of personality types I have given then so be it.

End of discsussion from me - don't want to feed anyones ego.... 8)

I was using "me" as an example of however the person to whom the post was directed might feel.
I'm also sure that whomever it is your addresing dose'nt know you well enough to give you the credibility of being able to inflate their ego.

Ding.... giz a smile ...I'll be round i n five minutues with the massage oil get your dressing gown on

 ::) :o ::) :-*

Blimey - I was excited then dissapointed - I didn't want to keep my dressing gown on........ :-*

I had spent many a moment looking at other sites and forums before taking the plunge and joining Blonde, and the community spirit was the reason.  I would never have joined if I felt that i would be criticised for mistakes that I made.  

When I was encouraged to do my diary of the Bash I initially didn't want to because I didn't feel that people would want to read what i had to say.  But as I posted each part people were complimenting me on what I had written.

Reading it back now there are so many mistakes in it I cringe, but not once did anyone point this out, which I am thankful for.  


As some of you know i write reports for my local paper on the Local Table Tennis League.  It really is amazing the number of typos happen in these reports between me spell checking and sending the document to when they appear in the paper two days later!  See, professionals make mistakes too!

Not sure if I should wade into this one or not, being as I am a fairly new member to this forum. Personally, I don't mind about spelling or grammar that much, but the paragraph and punctuation thing does sometimes matter - as posts without commas, full stops or paragraphs can be very difficult to read.

No-one can seriously accuse Red-Dog of making his original post on this thread (or any of the others) difficult to read, for example.

On the other hand, on another forum I sometimes contribute to, there is a regular poster who at one time never used paragraphs, capital letters or any form of punctuation. Her posts were all in one 'block', which to me resembled the legal-ese small-type 'blocks' you sometimes get at the bottom of advertisements; it was incredibly difficult to make out what she was saying, or even where one sentence ended and the next one began.

Frankly, there were times when it gave me a headache just looking at it.

The matter was complicated by the fact that we didn't see eye-to-eye on content either, and most of her posts could be interpreted as attacks against me personally. After one such attack, I actually teased her about her inability to construct paragraphs or use punctuation, by imitating her and making a post in one 'block', just as she normally did.

It's not the biggest or cleverest thing I've ever done, I'll admit. But the fact remains, that breaking up text into manageable 'chunks' helps the reader along. It improves the communication between poster and reader no end, which is after all what we're trying to do - communicate with each other.

I don't pretend to know what the solution is to the problem of how to handle posts that are difficult to read, whether one should try and get the poster to improve the formatting of their post, or just "let it slide". I suppose that is a decision for the moderators. All I know is, there is a common-sense difference between posts that are easy to read - albeit possibly with a few typos/spelling mistakes/missed commas/whatever - and posts that will give migraines to half the readers who clap eyes on them.

So in conclusion:

spelling mistakes and typos = no problem.
Simple punctuation errors or lack of capitals = no problem.

Serious errors with regard to paragraphs and punctuation = Houston, we may have... well... possibly... ?

HOWEVER.

I definitely want to add that in my time here, I have yet to encounter a post so badly constructed that I felt I couldn't bear to read it. In fact, rather the opposite - perhaps it's the 'journalistic' bloodline this place has (via 425), but many of Blonde's contributors are extremely eloquent and clearly passionate and obviously that comes through, in the discussions here.

I'm guessing you lot probably don't have much to worry about.  8)

Wow this thread has created some serious discussion and some very elequant replies and posts.

 ;applause; ;applause; ;applause;

Yep, nice post Zimbra.  However, the spelling mistakes in your signature are unforgivable....  so bad that I can't understand it at all!!  :D

 rotflmfao rotflmfao rotflmfao