I'm beginning to wonder...

Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Leonardo da Vinci and W.B. Yeats - notoriously crummy spellers, all.

So you can spell?....what else can you do?

Mr t this is an open forum that usually leans toward audio but also interacts on tangential subjects such as posting about audio.

Grammar, spelling, syntax, vocabulary, country of origin and inability to capitalize letters all have a place here if a member posts it.

does anyone dispute that the subjects of diction, spelling and grammar does not belong on this forum ?

Frankly Tennis, it's a shame the issue has to be raised at all - so in that regard, I (technically) agree with you. HOWEVER Tennis, in my opinion, the value of (any kind of) forum lay first in the accuracy with which the participants communicate their ideas/information/questions. If a person feels they have something important/interesting to share, why wouldn't they respect their own ideas by delivering them as clearly as possible,

It is the people for whom English is not their first language, who I find usually make the biggest effort to be clear, and apologize for their mistakes beforehand ;-) While native English speakers seem to care less about butchering their mother tongue.

With free programs that can fix it all for you with the click of a mouse, I think there is simply no excuse for sloppy spelling, typos, and grammar. They are the medium through which we communicate here, and deserve to be as clean, clear, and "noise-free" as we demand in our audio signals. Otherwise, why listen to them?

Nsgarch -- good points, very well put, especially your observations about those for whom English is not their first language.

But I would qualify the statement about "free programs that can fix it all for you ...." to reflect the fact that the programs may leave a lot un-fixed, and can sometimes inspire false confidence which fosters carelessness -- see my previous post in this thread for an amusing example :)

Best,
-- Al

Al, you're quite right of course -- there is just no substitute for human proof-reading ;-)