Gosh. Sounds like some folk posting on the GW.

Quite frankly John it's like the pot calling the kettle black.....

Honestly, is that what anyone is here for? Why don't we start a whole thread that can just go on for ages with sny remarks so we can keep them out of the mainstream of other civilized conversation?

zp

zpMA4az:
You registered just for that?

It's not about gardening, and it's not about writing, so why post it?

My last post to this forum....

I registered yesterday after having followed this forum for almost a year now. I have never felt the need to involve myself until I finally got sick and tired of posts that were non-garden related. These should be left to aimless and mindless coffeehouse chit chat and not a forum that tries to foster intelligent discussion about garden writing. I no longer feel that this forum is accomplishing that. I feel several people on here are trying their best to hold on to civil conversation while others like yourself would rather create elevations of character that pose themselves into threatening and ominous positions.

Don't bother replying.....it won't be read and it will be like most of your other posts...sny and inappropriate.

zp

zp seems to have his/her own very special problems. Perhaps the Pseuds Corner reference to " flower-power poets and writers" was disturbing?

zp seems to have traveled south from Quebec, perhaps?

John -

I think you're right - & zp seems to be trying to travel incognito. But the writing style, the attitude and the mis-spelling all give the game away.

Herb

It's "misspelling," not "mis-spelling," Herb. Hoisted on your own pseud petard.

Nice try, Cranky - but my Concise Oxford Dictionary gives the word as 'mis-spell'.

Perhaps you'll now also explain how 'sny' was correct?.

The first time I saw that sny I thought it was a typo but when it reappeared I knew he was hearing the word snide and misinterpreting the sound and spelling. Too bad he stumbled into a bed of would-be editors who had him for breakfast. Any more lurkers out there want to venture into the pit? Aw come on, we've got it out of our system now, we'll be nice.

Okay, I'll admit, some of us (not me) really are editors.

Eddie - I don't think he stumbled. If you're familiar with another forum & read between the lines, it all gets a bit clearer.

Yes, Herb, your Little Golden Book pocket dictionary might well hyphenate "misspell." However, take a gander at an unabridged Webster's, and you will see that you are indeed quite wrong about its spelling. But why bother to go to the library and look it up when you can find it online?

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0015408.html
http://www.onelook.com/?loc=pub&w=misspell
http://www.bartleby.com/61/46/M0344600.html

Etc. I hope your face is red.

I have no need to address "sny." Everyone should know correct spelling, especially those who call themselves writers. If they don't, that is their problem. I don't correct others' spelling unless they ask me to (and preferably pay me), but you condescended to others about their language while posting howlers of your own, i.e., you asked for a spelling lame and got it.

Try posting on topic instead of acting like a troll.

Cranky -

You are of course entitled to your opinion that the authors of the Oxford Dictionary got it wrong. If so, then Fowler's Modern English Usage is also wrong. It says -

"mis-shapen &c. The hyphen is usual in compounds of mis- with words beginning with s".

I hope you'll continue your postings: they're nearly as amusing as Pseuds Corner.

I lurk here often, as it's one of the livelier corners of Gardenweb, and I hope no one will mind if I pop in on this discussion. (And I hope you'll please forgive my lazy reversion to colloquial spoken Chicago Sout'Sider. For lack of a brain today, my native tongue is just easier at the moment - I hope I won't make you want to thwap me with a style manual too much.)

On reading the thread over a bit. I see very intelligent people slapping each other around over something that doesn't ultimately lead to anything productive for anybody involved. What positive end result is there to spend time thinking about bad writing - no matter whether it's puffy lines by overstuffed academic peacocks and misguided marketing wage slaves, or whether it's well-meaning but inefficiently worded Gardenweb posts? And what positive time is spent by getting mad at one another?

...So people have different skill sets. That's perfectly alright. Believe me, I can't wire my house or set my broken leg or deliver my own newspaper at 4 AM, and if somebody can do that but can't express themselves effectively... that's OK. Besides, if everybody could write, we'd be functionally obsolete. People buy our work or hire us out because writing really is a specialized skill. I'm a writer in a different industry, and my entire livelihood is predicated on the fact that millions of intelligent people can't write their way out of a wet paper bag. And thank God for that, because there's precious little else I can do. Substandard writing skills in the general population directly keeps me from wearing a barrel and suspenders, or from sitting on the sidewalk with a tin cup.

It is truly galling that the snippets featured in the Pseuds Corner actually got published in such a sorry state. But if I let everything I saw like that tick me off, I'd probably have a ministroke every five minutes. Better to just accept and have compassion, you know?

As for Gardenweb posters... I can't help but feel that there's a special reason they deserve some slack from the denizens of this board. They do, after all, deserve recognition as the epicenter of the garden writing market. And no matter which way you slice it, garden writing is still serious niche territory. GW represents a hefty chunk of that niche's most devoted enthusiasts. So those people are your target market, right? Who's most likely to rush out and buy that treatise you've been writing about Japanese anemones, anyway? Who's subscribing to Brugmansia Quarterly?

What's more, it all does no real harm. Not much goes wrong in the world if I have to parse out someone's intended question, or if I have to skip over some jibber jabber every now and then. I can't possibly read all the posts anyway.

Anyhow. Just my $0.02.

I hope I haven't offended anyone. Gosh, thanks for reading this far into my did-too-much in-the-yard-today, addled rantings. I do really like reading your collective posts, by the way, and I'm almost always content to lurk quietly. This is a fabulous board. I just couldn't keep my yap shut on this particular topic. ...I hope I haven't introduced myself with a bit too much bang.

Now I think I will go pot up transplants while I await any possible hail of flaming arrows that might (deservedly) be headed my way.

cheers,

tropicanarama

I think most of us have been flamed at least once on this forum. I look back and laugh now at the gentleman from New York who said reading my writing example was like swallowing broken glass - a comment that hurt at the time but now should be good for at least some bragging rights. Hmmm? That gives me an idea for another topic.

I'm not intending to flame anyone - I'm just saying, why beat on one another? Why get worked up about bad writing or what have you? I'm missing the point, is all.

There are some more juicy mosels in the latest Pseuds Corner - especially the first and third ones -

Click here

"Why get worked up about bad writing " ????

Because it is evil. LOL.

Herb
I guess black holes are alright, as long as you don't drop your dinner?

John - Right on! If this guy's building induces a feeling of going into free fall while carring my dinner I think I'd rather eat elsewhere.....

Herb

Ditto.

It is nice to see some snippiness still runs here. I would hate to think that you had all gone civilized and developed proper manners, relegating yourselves to only discussing the theory of proper grapevine pruning.

As far as to whether discussions of black holes is appropriate in this forum, it seems that one lacks the imagination to be here if you cannot see the possibilities.

Patio design certainly should be considered when laying out one's backyard space. Incorporating a black hole is a novel way to eliminate all those unsightly black trash bags hanging on the backs of fold-up chairs (Yes, we throw some classy affairs on our patio!). Toss the paper plates in the general direction of the patio and WHOOSH! Of course, you might warn that cute little brunette you've had your eye on all night, not to lean too closely to see where the things are going.

Poppa

A second thought about black holes: Isn't that where writers live? (Or hang out?)

As for "snippiness" -- we're never merely "snippy."