This morning I’ve been browsing the Amazon and Barnes and Noble music stores. I’m on a quest of sorts; I found Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, and Nightwish and I like what I hear. Now I just need more! But that’s not what this post is about. I’ve been reading a lot of user reviews, and quite frankly, it has gotten annoying. Is it asking too much to at least use proper spelling? Maybe I’m a spoiled Mac user, but even if my browser didn’t underline misspelled words, I’d look up those I was unsure of. Proper punctuation would be nice too. Perhaps just a comma or period now and again to break up the monotony? I refuse to become a grammar nazi. When it comes to making stupid mistakes, run-ons, and general bad writing, I’m guilty as charged. However, some of the verbal diarrhea I’ve read — gushing non-punctuated, non-spellchecked reviews — makes me want to vomit. What good is a glowing review of a band if I can’t understand the words you wrote? What good are recommendations of other bands if you can’t be bothered to spell names correctly? Evanescence is a good example; if I’d never heard of them I’d be in trouble if I searched solely on the spelling in a number of reviews.
The moral of the story? I don’t expect formal essays when you write a review. I do want to see intelligible comments, which I don’t have to read five times to understand what was written. Abbreviations such as “u” and “r” are fine in real time chat or text messages, but not in a paragraph out there for the whole world to see. Whenever I make an obvious blunder, I’m embarrassed. I just wish other people would take some pride in what they write, because you never know who is reading it.
