• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Readability Of Posts

Status
Not open for further replies.
Smudger

Smudger

master brummie
Hi all.

I don`t wish to be a nit-picker (yes i do). It would be helpful when reading messages if the poster could slip in the occasional comma, full stop, apostrophe etc, so numb-nuts like me can grasp what they`re writing about, & please don`t type too quickly as i`m a slow reader. Thank you for your patience & understanding.



After an intense high speed chase, an officer finally gets the lawbreaker to pull over. "You know," says the cop, "I was originally pulling you over to tell you your taillight is out. Why the hell did you take off like that?" "Last week my wife ran off with a cop," the man said, "and I was afraid you were trying to give her back."
 
Do bear in mind that there are a lot of people who make very valuable contributions to this forum have either visual, learning or other disability’s, that can affect the way they put their thoughts and ideas into writing.
 
Morturn said:
Do bear in mind that there are a lot of people who make very valuable contributions to this forum have either visual, learning or other disability’s, that can affect the way they put their thoughts and ideas into writing.
Click to expand...

excellent post mort...one worth remembering..i have never been one for punctuation etc..had no complaints so far...

lyn
 
Last edited:
Oh no! the Grammar police are here again. My grammar ain't good but I try. Absolutely agree wiv Morturn.
 
Smudger said:
Hi all.

I don`t wish to be a nit-picker (yes i do). It would be helpful when reading messages if the poster could slip in the occasional comma, full stop, apostrophe etc, so numb-nuts like me can grasp what they`re writing about, & please don`t type too quickly as i`m a slow reader. Thank you for your patience & understanding.
Click to expand...
On forums I just read the messages not the punctuation and grammar.
My young grandkids are doing 'Sats' tests and I had a go at 12 questions in something called called Sats Stage 2. I got 10 out of 12 .... I was ok with maths questions etc but failed on english questions asking about 'subjunctive clauses' and 'progressive past tense' ... I thought those english questions were a bit difficult for primary school kids.

By the way Smudger a bit of friendly nit picking from me ... :)

I type don't

You typed dont `t

oldmohawk (passed English GCE 60 years ago and forgotten most of it) ...:cool:
 
Morturn said:
Do bear in mind that there are a lot of people who make very valuable contributions to this forum have either visual, learning or other disability’s, that can affect the way they put their thoughts and ideas into writing.
Click to expand...
It seems i`ve put my foot in it again, for which i apologise. I`m slightly dyslexic myself & find i have to read some post`s a couple of time to make sense of them. It`s just that commas etc make it a tad easier to read.
 
Smudger said:
It seems i`ve put my foot in it again, for which i apologise. I`m slightly dyslexic myself & find i have to read some post`s a couple of time to make sense of them. It`s just that commas etc make it a tad easier to read.
Click to expand...
No problems ... Smudger
One interesting thing, that character you use in i`ve, I had to search my keyboard to find it.
Eventually found it top left, I had never used it before on a computer.
I use the one just above the right 'SHIFT' key.
 
Hi Smudger, no problem or need to apologise, we all doing things with the best intentions in mind, so it is worth the discussion; we are all friends here after all.

If there is a problem with readability of post, there are a few things we can do to help:

I think increasing the font size has been most helpful, thanks Warren. There are some reader friendlier fonts around too, like Verdana and Sans.

We can also put a few extra paragraph breaks in, I tend to use one between each sentence.
 
A little well known tip ...
If you want to continue using the forum's default style, you can make the text etc larger (more readable) on a forum page by

Holding the CTRL key down and tapping the + key .... it enlarges the contents of the page for each tap.

to return to small text

Hold the CTRL key down and tap the - key ... it reduces the page contents ...

I usually run the BHF on my laptop at 125% but 150% looks very readable.

Your computer should remember the setting for whichever websites you set the above controls.
 
A useful discussion. Think we can get too hung up on grammar. We want people to feel comfortable enough to contribute to the Forum. So keeping expectations about use of grammar to the essentials makes sense. And if anyone struggles, we're all big enough and old enough to respect that.

Some good tips coming out here. One other that came up in the Xenforo discussion thread yesterday was changing your screen display to 'Accessability'.

To do it : Click on the 'Default style' button at the very bottom of the page (left side) and choose the 'Accessibility' option. The format gives some people an easier to read style. Viv.
 
Last edited:
The grammar (and spelling) don't worry me too much but I agree that some posts can be difficult to read and understand as the sentences seem to merge. Spaces and new lines can sometimes help the sense. It is easy to understand what you have typed as you know the information - the person reading it doesn't always and needs to make sense of what has been typed.
Janice
 
oldMohawk said:
A little well known tip ...
If you want to continue using the forum's default style, you can make the text etc larger (more readable) on a forum page by

Holding the CTRL key down and tapping the + key .... it enlarges the contents of the page for each tap.

to return to small text

Hold the CTRL key down and tap the - key ... it reduces the page contents ...

I usually run the BHF on my laptop at 125% but 150% looks very readable.

Your computer should remember the setting for whichever websites you set the above controls.
Click to expand...
oldMohawk,

That`s a good tip. At the moment i`m using the "accessability" style on the forum which i find a great help ( Thanks warren )

I`m using spellchecker with my Firefox browser but for some reason it`s not correcting my mistakes, so i`m having to copy &

paste my message into a free spell checker which does ok. Once again i apologise about my grammar comments. It was not my

intention to put anyone down.
 
now that you have explained your reasons for the post smudger there is no need to apologise..both yourself and others who struggle may get some useful tips..

lyn
 
I think that most of the "grammar" mistakes are down to people who use mobile phones, they tend to use Text speak ( like lol, pmsl etc.
Experts recon that as little as 25 years from now we would not be able to understand what is being said.
 
If anyone is interested in a well written ,and light-hearted look at grammar, then a paper back called "Eats , Shoots and Leaves" written by Lynne Truss ( ISBN 978-0-00-732906-9) is well worth a read.

I see I am listed as a New Member "davidk" but I am "anvil man" pre new provider !!!!!
 
I can still see anvil man on the forum ... put anvil man in the 'Posted by Member' in the search box and it accepts it. See the pic below of some of anvil man's posts when I searched.

Why not log out of your 'new name' and then log in with your old name by entering anvil man in the log-in and your old password and you should be on the forum with your old name.

note the space between anvil and man.
Screenshot (30).jpg
 
Last edited:
RE font size, this will depend on monitor size, if you have a small lap top you will need a larger font size than some one with a desk top with a 20" plus monitor (like me). 2 months ago I had cataracts removed from my right eye, because of this I was able to reduce my font size, on June 7th the are removing them from my left eye, so maybe a further reduction in font size. When I left school in 1944 my English was poor, apart from spelling, but I made up for it in maths and Art. I appear to be rambling so will shut up. Eric
 
I've always thought that the grammar and punctuation on this site was reasonable in the main, but what would I know never having achieved any academic credentials in my life. I have seen this subject discussed on several forums, and many different points of view have been proffered. No forum I frequent has ever made a ruling other than as long as a post is within the rules of the forum and that it is comprehensible then that is all that's required.

My opinion is, that we can't discount or remove someone's valuable opinion just because they were not lucky enough to receive a decent education for reasons we can't know and are in essence none of our business. I've known people who could hardly read or write but who had a vast store of local historical knowledge, would we debar them for the lack of a few capital letters or commas?
 
is iz ov the opinion dat nobody haz ny right 2 dictate ow anyone speakz or talks init, written or spoke

Cus if u iz bovvered wif ow people talk den u gots 2 much time on your hands init bruv.

thou hath also fogotten me thinks, the way thy talks is modern in comparison to thine olde way of spekenth, thou would be construed to be quite uncouth to our forefathers .

language evolves as does the written word it's neither lazy or a lack of education it's evolution and our lexicon changes.
 
Last edited:
Agree Warren. With the use of mobile phones more and more abbreviations are used in everyday language (and possibly will find their way into the Oxford English Dictionary- eventually !!!). Personally I think the important thing is that language 'communicates' - so if particular words evolve into general use and are understood, let's go with the flow.

I think even the use of the word "phone/fone"today has become almost meaningless. And you might as well forget the word "telephone" completely as its more commonly referred to as "mobile". Viv.
 
There is also the point that a word can often change its meaning somewhat. If you ask a (putting on my ancient hat) young buck of today about their wireless , then they will think about the wireless network, not a Bakelite box full of valves
 
oldMohawk said:
A little well known tip ...
If you want to continue using the forum's default style, you can make the text etc larger (more readable) on a forum page by

Holding the CTRL key down and tapping the + key .... it enlarges the contents of the page for each tap.

to return to small text

Hold the CTRL key down and tap the - key ... it reduces the page contents ...

I usually run the BHF on my laptop at 125% but 150% looks very readable.

Your computer should remember the setting for whichever websites you set the above controls.
Click to expand...

Perhaps also worth a mention that CTRL and 0 (zero) returns the page to 100%
 
I was never much use at spelling at school but think I am much better now. It is just that my fingers don't always hit the right keys. Knowing this I have taken a very relaxed attitude to how people write on this forum. I say that I never really understood English grammar until I had to learn Latin grammar.

However, one thing that does annoy me when I hear people speak is when they say 'I' when they should say 'me'. There is an advert running on TV where they talk about 'PPI mis-sold to you or I'. This should be 'mis-sold to you or me'. An easy way of getting it right that I was taught at school is to look at these two sentences 'John and I went to the pub' 'Bill came to the pub with John and me'. Now if you take out the 'John and' the sentences are still right but if you then swop the 'I' and 'me' round they are obviously wrong.
 
I`ve never really understood the need for Latin, except maybe for deciphering ancient text? When it comes to grammar, i simply write my message into a speller&grammar checker & let it sort out my mistakes. At Slade road secondary modern, we never had Latin lessons, although we did learn to sing "Oh come all ye faithful" in Latin,& Silent night in German.
 
Confusion may sometimes arise when two words are either spaced apart or the same two words used together as one word, e.g. "pull over" or "pullover". There was the case of a police officer driving up the M1 when he noticed that a car ahead was meandering in and out of lanes. The police car drove up alongside and the officer was amazed to see a lady-driver knitting as she was driving. The officer drew down his window and shouted out "Pull Over"! The lady driver, whose window was already down, shouted back, "No luv, it's not going to be a pullover, I'm knitting some socks for me 'usband" Dave.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top