Random Thoughts....

[ESPNSTI]

Those incomprehensible dialects like Cockney need to die out. Now. I don't care if people are using them at home or whatever, but if you are trying to convey ideas to others who don't speak your tiny dying dialect you need to use the common tongue. Otherwise you'll get overlooked or ignored. It's even worse when the others need to communicate with you because of one of your screwups and you refuse to use the common tongue.

Seriously, Cockney rhyming slang makes about as much sense as the Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra fictional bullshit. The faster that becomes extinct the better off we all are.

Everyone must conform!

 

[Spectre]

Everyone must conform!

You really want me to start posting in Cajun, don't you? (Speaking of dialects that need to die...)

Seriously, if you have a forum (in the classical sense, not just the internet equivalent) it only works for everyone if everyone is speaking a common tongue. Using obscure dialects either locks others out of the conversation, or locks the user out, and ideas do not get passed back and forth.

If you are doing customer support and you sold a multi-thousand dollar cement handling device, you goddamn better drop the rhyming slang when you are trying to walk the buyer's representatives through a workaround.

 

[_HighVoltage_]

Accents and dialects are perfectly okay, and are often quite interesting to listen to. Writing with an accent is a just a made-up thing with the sole purpose of getting attention. I am sure that there is no school, or even a teacher, in the world that teaches kids to write English with a certain accent.

 

[ESPNSTI]

You really want me to start posting in Cajun, don't you? (Speaking of dialects that need to die...)

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Seriously, if you have a forum (in the classical sense, not just the internet equivalent) it only works for everyone if everyone is speaking a common tongue. Using obscure dialects either locks others out of the conversation, or locks the user out, and ideas do not get passed back and forth.

If you are doing customer support and you sold a multi-thousand dollar cement handling device, you goddamn better drop the rhyming slang when you are trying to walk the buyer's representatives through a workaround.

I can see your argument for customer support.
But for a forum I don't agree, I think it makes things a bit more interesting, especially since there are so many other factors that can have the same effect as someone having a different accent.
Take for example things such as age, culture, etc...
There are plenty of references that I don't get because I didn't grow up watching pokemon or haven't played final fantasy, or I don't know how to replace my blinker fluid, etc...
No big deal, when I don't get it I either google it, I ask or I just move on to the next post.

 

[Spectre]

Accents and dialects are perfectly okay, and are often quite interesting to listen to. Writing with an accent is a just a made-up thing with the sole purpose of getting attention. I am sure that there is no school, or even a teacher, in the world that teaches kids to write English with a certain accent.

This, with the exception of nonsensical rhyming slang. Though the Louisiana school system has been known to have the kids write in Bayou Cajun...

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Oh, no, not Cajun French, that would be too easy. Bayou Cajun, that awful melange of mangled old French and English. I'd be more than happy to pass the awfulness on to this forum. I mean, after all, accents are delightful and entertaining and blah blah blah.

No big deal, when I don't get it I either google it, I ask or I just move on to the next post.

And you just made my point - I'm moving on rather than bothering with those posts and I think most other people are too.

 

[ESPNSTI]

Writing with an accent is a just a made-up thing with the sole purpose of getting attention.

This, with the exception of nonsensical rhyming slang. Though the Louisiana school system has been known to have the kids write in Bayou Cajun...

I don't see it that way. I'm sure everyone has things that irritates them on this forum.
I for example hate the troll face pictures and comics, they irritate me to no end, and I don't like the "do it faggot" pictures, but rather than complaining about it I just ignore it.

And you just made my point - I'm moving on rather than bothering with those posts and I think most other people are too.

I don't see much of a problem with that.

 

[_HighVoltage_]

I for example hate the troll face pictures and comics, they irritate me to no end, and I don't like the "do it faggot" pictures, but rather than complaining about it I just ignore it.

True, but in all fairness these only appear in certain threads. As long as you stay away from the Funny Pictures Thread or the NSFW threads, you can't see most of them.

And if it's okay to start writing in accents - should I start writing in hillbilly West Virginian?

 

[Spectre]

I don't see it that way. I'm sure everyone has things that irritates them on this forum.
I for example hate the troll face pictures and comics, they irritate me to no end, and I don't like the "do it faggot" pictures, but rather than complaining about it I just ignore it.

Naw don be actin likh dat dere is some gree gree on dis heah foh-rum cauz dem boude pitchers iz up. Beb, dem big bahbin pics be raht funnah!

Note, the above is NOT ebonics, nor is it racial speech - it's Bayou Cajun, spoken by people of all races there.

I can keep this up for hours.

And if it's okay to start writing in accents - should I start writing in hillbilly West Virginian?

That seems an excellent idea, we should all type in whatever accents we prefer. I can do Cajun, Valleysp33k (like, omigawd!), Nooyawk/Joisey, Baaahstn and a couple others.

 

[ESPNSTI]

True, but in all fairness these only appear in certain threads. As long as you stay away from the Funny Pictures Thread or the NSFW threads, you can't see most of them.

The ignore button makes the accent problem go away as well, and I wish people would do that rather than bring it up time and time again.
I don't expect people to stop posting trollface and I don't expect them to stop making references that I don't understand.
I don't think it's fair to expect someone to conform to your expectations, especially when it doesn't involve being insulting or being rude or anything like that.
I do find this constant complaining about it a bit rude and some people have been downright insulting (not you), and that does bother me.

And if it's okay to start writing in accents - should I start writing in hillbilly West Virginian?

Wouldn't bother me one bit.

 

[Spectre]

I don't think it's fair to expect someone to conform to your expectations, especially when it doesn't involve being insulting or being rude or anything like that.

Related: http://www.petitiononline.com/norway/petition.html

It's old, but it's still relevant, if you want to talk about "conforming to expectations". So, by your lights, it was wrong to have the old *!*@*.no bans because it wasn't fair to expect people joining, say, EFNet #english to actually speak, you know, English? I just want to get that straight...

 

[_HighVoltage_]

I don't think it's fair to expect someone to conform to your expectations, especially when it doesn't involve being insulting or being rude or anything like that.
I do find this constant complaining about it a bit rude and some people have been downright insulting (not you), and that does bother me.

No, they are not just my expectations. They are the expectations of the entire English-speaking world, and the accepted social norm. Let's put it like this - if you have an accent and you go to a job interview, decent employers would never discriminate against it. Write your resume with an accent, and see if someone will even invite you to an interview.

Of course, here at FinalGear we have always tried to keep an informal atmosphere, and the rules are very lenient towards stuff like this. We are just offering constructive criticism (but I do agree, that some people may have crossed a line).

 

[Shawnw]

The run-down, neglected, crappy, duplex a couple houses down from me just went up for sale. Asking price, $1,250,000.00. Kind of kills my hopes of buying a decent place in the next 5 years.

 

[ESPNSTI]

Related: http://www.petitiononline.com/norway/petition.html

It's old, but it's still relevant, if you want to talk about "conforming to expectations". So, by your lights, it was wrong to have the old *!*@*.no bans because it wasn't fair to expect people joining, say, EFNet #english to actually speak, you know, English? I just want to get that straight...

Well speaking Norwegian in #english shouldn't be allowed because it's off topic, not because it's not understandable to most people.
And there is a difference between speaking a completely foreign language, which requires taking classes for months to be able to comprehend, and speaking with an accent, which maybe requires a bit of extra effort in reading.
As for "the old *!*@*.no" bans, you seem to have made a reference that I'm not familiar with. :lol:

No, they are not just my expectations. They are the expectations of the entire English-speaking world, and the accepted social norm. Let's put it like this - if you have an accent and you go to a job interview, decent employers would never discriminate against it. Write your resume with an accent, and see if someone will even invite you to an interview.

I'm not talking about a business setting, I agree with you that it's inappropriate there.

Of course, here at FinalGear we have always tried to keep an informal atmosphere, and the rules are very lenient towards stuff like this. We are just offering constructive criticism (but I do agree, that some people may have crossed a line).

We have a different opinion on that there is a need to change, and I respect the need to offer criticism.
But when it's being done over and over and over again, when there is no real need to (because there is an ignore button), then it goes beyond constructive criticism and it becomes a bit hostile.

 

[Spectre]

Of course, here at FinalGear we have always tried to keep an informal atmosphere, and the rules are very lenient towards stuff like this. We are just offering constructive criticism (but I do agree, that some people may have crossed a line).

Perhaps. Remember, I am not complaining about her typed 'accent' and said that it didn't bother me, just that it made me skip her posts entirely. I simply pointed out that a dying dialect is not reason enough to inflict it on others and that my opinion was that some dialects should die.

Well speaking Norwegian in #english shouldn't be allowed because it's off topic, not because it's not understandable to most people.
And there is a difference between speaking a completely foreign language, which requires taking classes for months to be able to comprehend, and speaking with an accent, which maybe requires a bit of extra effort in reading.

Some dialects, as I've just demonstrated with the Bayou Cajun, might as well be a separate language.

As for "the old *!*@*.no" bans, you seem to have made a reference that I'm not familiar with. :lol:

Yeah, but that's not dialectic. That refers to back in the 90s (as the petition referenced) after, (evidently) they were finally connected to the Internet, Norwegians used to join EFNet channels only to babble and flood in Norwegian when nobody could respond in their language. *!*@*.no is the mask for 'everyone in Norway'. At the end of the 90s, pretty much every major high traffic EFnet channel had that ban permanently posted or had a bot that would automatically post that ban when Norwegians would join. As the petition says, 98+% of the time you'd get babbling and flooding if you didn't kickban.

Obviously, since then the English speaking population of Norway has gotten online and most places don't have that ban any more. Channels had them for a reason, though.

That was a reference, not dialectic.

 

[_HighVoltage_]

Agreed. It does annoy me a little bit, but that's just because my specialty is public speaking and I will be teaching it this fall. I'm very strict about the proper use of the English language.
(I go berserk when people say "y'all", which in WV is every second person. It drives me up the wall :lol

 

[BlaRo]

FER FOOK'S SEK, NAWT DIS SHITE AHGAIN?

 

[ESPNSTI]

The run-down, neglected, crappy, duplex a couple houses down from me just went up for sale. Asking price, $1,250,000.00. Kind of kills my hopes of buying a decent place in the next 5 years.

Perhaps instead just move to a place where they don't have insane people trying to sell their house?

Also, I see you have an "Accent", that is not allowed!

 

[Cowboy]

Oh, no, not Cajun French, that would be too easy. Bayou Cajun, that awful melange of mangled old French and English. I'd be more than happy to pass the awfulness on to this forum. I mean, after all, accents are delightful and entertaining and blah blah blah.

Bring it on!

 

[MWF]

As some who grew up in the North West of England I understand Shirahime's accent perfectly.

I realise many however have a few small difficulties with some of her posts therefore I happily offer my not inconsiderable translation skills to anyone who requires them. Should it be deemed necessary by enough people there is, of course, always the posibility of starting the Shirahime - English Dictionary/Translation Thread.....

 

[DanRoM]

1: Int process of thinking what I should talk about so you lot can really hear what I sound like.

Read us some Shakespeare.