please help

[Kenny Shovel]

Thank you, you two. I too am getting pissed off with some peoples' sneering comments towards members whose grammar, spelling or reading choices don't come up to their exacting standards. Not everyone has had the same educational advantages nor do we all have Mensa IQ's. Surely there is room for us all on this forum. Isn't it better to just ignore posters that annoy you?

Well said Poppy1; this is one of the aspects of the forum that has made me a more and more infrequent visitor.

There seems to be a lot of looking down the nose at the OP going on in this thread, and based on what? So far all we can tell about this poster from their two messages is that they are a 9th grader who uses text speech in informal situations, and they have read 'Animal Farm' and are going to read 'Lord of the Flies'. We don't actually know if they speak English as a first language or not.

Despite the forum title being a generic all encompassing one, and having a membership from many parts of the globe I find the breadth of books discussed here surprisingly narrow, and yet there still appear to be members who want to tighten things further so that the scope of the board covers what they consider to be appropriate and in a way they deem to be acceptable. What makes this situation even more laughable is the vanilla taste of the people patrolling the board 'defending' us from unwanted intrusions.

Personally I hope this board continues along lines where everyone is welcome; where the Nabakov threads continue, I can occasionally talk to a Muscovite about my favourite poem by Blok, people can discuss TDVC without being called idiots and we can allow the mods to determine if OP's like this are destroying the fabric of the board.

K-S

 

[Dogmatix]

Well said.

I'll add that I do hate text speak, that's just me. However I have a friend that recruits top minds for Microsoft as future product designers. Guess what? They use text speak in their emails as well.

 

[ions]

There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. But it's good to know that you consider people stupid if they have bad grammar.

You don't know this person's situation but yet you judge and tease him/her. Job well done. I'm sure teasing serves a purpose for you. Perhaps it makes you feel better to put people down.

The situation is simple. The poster came in and disrespected us with that incoherent dribble. I'm willing to bet the poster speaks fluent english, at least average fluent english, but is extremely lazy. Do I feel better having to deal with people like that!? No! People like this are all over the place and it drives me nuts. I have no escape from them! They're even here and I get called a dick cause I treat them accordingly. Natural selection would get rid of them if it weren't for people babysitting them and accepting their massive amount of ineptitude because maybe they have a "situation".

I too hope there is room here for anyone who wants to be here. For anyone who wants to discuss books intelligently. Want to discuss The Da Vinci code? Go for it! There are a kajillion threads on it. Call The Da Vinci code a great piece of contemporary literature and someone will, hopefully, correct you because it's not. We're here to learn right? How does this book get into every thread?!

If you're so convinced I'm an unfair dick take a good look at my posts again please. If someone approaches this community fairly I do my best to communicate with them fairly. Someone brings garbage in all they should get is garbage out. Unless you want to teach posters like this they can do as little as possible and someone will do the work for them? I'm no doormat.

 

[Kenny Shovel]

...Natural selection would get rid of them if it weren't for people babysitting them and accepting their massive amount of ineptitude because maybe they have a "situation"...

...this is an interesting interpretation of "On the Origin of the Species", I'll run it past my scientific advisor and see what he makes of it...



...yeah, pretty much my reaction too...

btw, anyone else think this look a bit like Peder?

 

[pontalba]

Nice to see ya back and in fine form Kenny!

 

[AlphaOmegaX]

Wow you guys have really spread this out. This thread should have been locked 2 pages ago lol.

~Josh

 

[Libre]

 

[HermioneWeasley]

I'm in 9th grade now, but i have a feeling most books I would suggest would be too much on the classics side. If you liek fantasy, though, try Artemis Fowl. Agatha Christie thrillers are good for when you want a thriller. Princess Bride is a good book.

And i do NOT echo Catcher in the Rye. We read it for english this year, and i know it's considered a masterpiece and everything, but i just don't find it interesting. Not my type of things. But our school has a tendency to choose the worst English class books.

 

[raffaellabella]

The situation is simple. The poster came in and disrespected us with that incoherent dribble. I'm willing to bet the poster speaks fluent english, at least average fluent english, but is extremely lazy. Do I feel better having to deal with people like that!? No! People like this are all over the place and it drives me nuts. I have no escape from them! They're even here and I get called a dick cause I treat them accordingly. Natural selection would get rid of them if it weren't for people babysitting them and accepting their massive amount of ineptitude because maybe they have a "situation".

I too hope there is room here for anyone who wants to be here. For anyone who wants to discuss books intelligently. Want to discuss The Da Vinci code? Go for it! There are a kajillion threads on it. Call The Da Vinci code a great piece of contemporary literature and someone will, hopefully, correct you because it's not. We're here to learn right? How does this book get into every thread?!

If you're so convinced I'm an unfair dick take a good look at my posts again please. If someone approaches this community fairly I do my best to communicate with them fairly. Someone brings garbage in all they should get is garbage out. Unless you want to teach posters like this they can do as little as possible and someone will do the work for them? I'm no doormat.

My disappointment has changed to sadness. I truly feel sorry for you.

 

[Libre]

lilshorty, ions isn't so bad a sort. But he's a little annoyed by your shorthand. It does put many of us "literate" sorts off, you know. If you took a little more effort to write coherently, well, you might get a warmer response!
Now, back to your original question.
John Steinbeck has written quite a few short books, of tremendous quality and reputation. Of Mice and Men is the most famous, but The Pearl is great as well, and so is The Red Pony.
Another short book that I loved, and is a classic and a masterpiece, is Candide, by Voltaire. Any of those will be well received by any teacher, and will also broaden your own literary background.

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

Well said Poppy1; this is one of the aspects of the forum that has made me a more and more infrequent visitor.

There seems to be a lot of looking down the nose at the OP going on in this thread, and based on what? So far all we can tell about this poster from their two messages is that they are a 9th grader who uses text speech in informal situations, and they have read 'Animal Farm' and are going to read 'Lord of the Flies'. We don't actually know if they speak English as a first language or not.

Despite the forum title being a generic all encompassing one, and having a membership from many parts of the globe I find the breadth of books discussed here surprisingly narrow, and yet there still appear to be members who want to tighten things further so that the scope of the board covers what they consider to be appropriate and in a way they deem to be acceptable. What makes this situation even more laughable is the vanilla taste of the people patrolling the board 'defending' us from unwanted intrusions.

Personally I hope this board continues along lines where everyone is welcome; where the Nabakov threads continue, I can occasionally talk to a Muscovite about my favourite poem by Blok, people can discuss TDVC without being called idiots and we can allow the mods to determine if OP's like this are destroying the fabric of the board.

K-S

Kenny, I'm not so sure that you are the best person to be lecturing someone on forum etiquette. Most of the posts that I see from you are either patronizing or just plain spam, which is not really that respectful to the person who started the thread.

 

[actonbell]

oops, wrong place--never mind

 

[Kenny Shovel]

Kenny, I'm not so sure that you are the best person to be lecturing someone on forum etiquette. Most of the posts that I see from you are either patronizing or just plain spam, which is not really that respectful to the person who started the thread.

Short answer:

Oooo patronizing, that’s a big word for a little lady.

Slightly longer answer:

MC, thanks for your views on my posting style, I’m always willing to take part in a frank exchange of views. Unfortunately I’m not really in a position to respond in kind as your own posts haven’t quite registered with me in the same way; I’m sure that’s got more to do with a lack of attention on my part than any absence of stimulating content.

I’d agree that I’m guilty on occasions of ‘spam’, although not to the point were anyone has complained before; thanks for bringing it to my attention. It would be nice to think that my posts are the rotten apples in the barrel but a quick look round the forum seems to indicate that they are more in step with the majority of posts than we would like.
Let’s be honest, apart from the Nabakov threads there’s not a massive amount of in depth discussion going on; indeed those particular discussions are starting to form the fig leaf that covers our indecency.
I’ve tried in the past to initiate debate, but as my taste isn’t particularly mainstream it’s pretty much always a losing battle, especially now that a number of the members with more catholic tastes have seemingly left for places unknown.; Abecedarian and her excellent Olympic challenge thread excepted.

As for me being patronizing and not respecting people I can only partly agree. I often use humour to make my point and I regularly employ sarcasm which can perhaps take the form of a pompous and patronizing tone. However these posts tend to be reserved for responding to threads where such a tone has already been used by others; this thread being a good example. You won’t find examples of me making new members unwelcome or making sweeping statements like

’Please Help' is the generalized title for any ignorant kid…

or

…we shouldn't mollycoddle idiots…

based on the evidence of two posts. Personally I’d say they were quite patronizing, and a tad judgemental too.

Anyway, I’m sorry if my posts annoy you, but unless the mods decide to either warn or ban me, and so far the only pm’s I’ve received from them were thanking me for intervening in problematic threads, I’m afraid it’s a case of we have to agree to disagree.

Keep livin’ the dream,

K-S

 

[Shade]

So, er, for non-US citizens, how old would a ninth-grader be?

And what does OP mean (as used by Kenny in an earlier post)?

 

[steffee]

And what does OP mean (as used by Kenny in an earlier post)?

Original Post / Original Poster.

 

[Kookamoor]

Ladies and gents, this thread is starting to get a little bit too snippy for my liking. I think we've all said our 2 cents worth regarding both grammar and how we feel about snide remarks.

During the past year I've seen nothing that has changed the way in which some members reply to new posters who do not use the search function, or those who choose to use forms of shorthand (l33t, text message, etc). I find such remarks unwelcoming to new posters, but have come to accept it as the nature of some individuals. I would say, however, that those of you who are wanting more breadth to the forum should be encouraging of all new posters. These foibles are not always indicative of people's intellect. Should you wish to make a comment with someone's initial post, for example that they are not expressing themselves in an appropriate way, say so clearly so that they understand. There is no use in breaking a thread off into a diabtribe full of sarcasm or snippy remarks because it does nothing to address the problem in the first place.

We should not need a mod to wander in here and feel that this thread needs closing because of this argument. If the manner in which some posters address comments like this bugs you, then add another post and clarify to the newbie why that post has been made. Make the newbie feel welcome and help them out. It's hard starting out in a new forum and knowing all the rules immediately, and many people have become used to the rules of other forums, where text message speak may be the norm.

Peace out.

 

[Peder]

btw, anyone else think this look a bit like Peder?

In my younger days, Kenny, when I had hair! LOL

And thanks for the nice words on the Nabokov threads. We just mosey along reading our books and talking about them, and having some coffee and fun in between.

And you too, Libre!, for the different take on the same picture. I had never before seen how the great man derived his equation!

Nice to hear from friends,
Peder

 

[Mari]

Though I stand by my earlier post that writing should be work for the writer, not the reader, I will play devil's advocate for a moment. Here are some lines from the Gutenberg Bible, and the same lines from a much later edition:



Notice that the first word, Cum, is missing the m, and has a line over the u. Back in the day, some abbreviations were used this way by convention to help manuscript copiers crank out unending numbers of copies. In order to make his newfangled print edition look familiar (and therefore more marketable), he imitated that manuscript style in his Bible.

So, though my heart may not be in it, I suppose I could say that there is a noble precedent for abbreviated text.

 

[Peder]

So, though my heart may not be in it, I suppose I could say that there is a noble precedent for abbreviated text.

"A little knowledge is a dangerous thing."

 

[Halo]

Should you wish to make a comment with someone's initial post, for example that they are not expressing themselves in an appropriate way, say so clearly so that they understand. There is no use in breaking a thread off into a diabtribe full of sarcasm or snippy remarks because it does nothing to address the problem in the first place.

Make the newbie feel welcome and help them out. It's hard starting out in a new forum and knowing all the rules immediately, and many people have become used to the rules of other forums, where text message speak may be the norm.

Thank you for that post, Kook - you talk a lot of sense.

You make a good point in your second paragraph, when you say that other forums might allow text message speak, leading newbies to assume that was the case here. As you say, all that needs to be done is for someone to point out (in a polite and friendly fashion) that we don't write like that here. Most people would respond positively to that, I think.