Reading comments on the proposed FDA Regs... You people worry me

[Ryedan]

Then you'll also understand how I feel when I read 'vapor' when it should be 'vapour'.

I never pour my vape.

 

[AndriaD]

I never pour my vape.

EXACTLY my point... when you read 'vapour' it looks like it ought to be said 'vay-POUR' rather than 'VAY-per' -- and I do believe that's EXACTLY what Webster was addressing with the renovations in spelling.

Andria

 

[ClippinWings]

If Google cant fix there errors than it wont be fixed.

*their*

LOL sorry, totally couldn't resist.

 

[AndriaD]

*their*

LOL sorry, totally couldn't resist.

And "than" as opposed to "then" -- I got the feeling this entire sentence was completely tongue-in-cheek, there were so many errors.

Andria

 

[ClippinWings]

And "than" as opposed to "then" -- I got the feeling this entire sentence was completely tongue-in-cheek, there were so many errors.

Andria

I did too... but I knew if I didn't do it, someone else would. LOL

 

[Maurice Pudlo]

So I was browsing, the comments posted to regulations.gov

I am stunned by the number of comments by vapers that don't seem to understand the products they use, the terminology related to those products, or the proposed regulations themselves.

but for the sake of keeping this post short, I'll just point out some terminology that I saw that makes vapers look ignorant and uneducated.

I am a "vaper who vapes and inhales vapor while doing so."

I do not use my "vapes to make vaper"

and I am certainly not "a vapor who loves smoking my ecig"

It's mind boggling to me how a vaper could not understand these basic concepts.

Look, I get that some terms are generational, or maybe even regional, I can see calling a vaporizer a "vape". I mean, it makes you sound ignorant to me, but I understand it. I do not understand not being able to differentiate between "vapor" and "vaper".

Sorry, just had to vent as I was reading comments and wondering why some people even bothered. Many seem almost absurdly bad. I began to wonder if ANTZ were posting comments just to make Vapers look like uneducated simpletons who couldn't possibly have the mental capacity to determine what may or may not be in their own best interest.

It's like trying to stay afloat in a sea of stupidity, I hate it. Almost as much as I hate the folks who try to save stupid people from themselves.

Maurice

 

[AndriaD]

I did too... but I knew if I didn't do it, someone else would. LOL

Yeah... I was actually afraid that it maybe *wasn't* tongue-in-cheek, that whoever posted it meant it seriously, even with all those errors.

I'm somewhat ambivalent on the issue you raised; I do believe there is *some* value in numbers, no matter how illiterately phrased and spelled those comments were. But I've been strongly on the side of literacy, and decrying the general lack of it in America, for many years -- and you see how unpopular that opinion is. Apparently just being 'good people' is supposed to somehow make it ok to be functionally illiterate, and I strongly disagree -- to the point that I refuse to patronize any business or website which has any misspellings in its sales text. If the people selling something can't be bothered to spell their PR text for it properly, and use correct grammar in presenting it, then I have no confidence in their ability to even recognize a good product -- spelling and grammar are too easy, or too easily checked, to make errors of that nature, in that context, 'ok.'

But then I *know* I'm an oddball -- I actually enjoy reading books, and the thicker the better -- they keep me entertained longer, without roping me into a story and then BANG! it's over after just a couple hundred pages. In fact --gasp!-- I enjoy reading non-fiction -- learning is FUN, not something to run from with all speed. But that is most definitely a minority opinion.

Andria

 

[navigator2011]

Yeah... I was actually afraid that it maybe *wasn't* tongue-in-cheek, that whoever posted it meant it seriously, even with all those errors.

I'm somewhat ambivalent on the issue you raised; I do believe there is *some* value in numbers, no matter how illiterately phrased and spelled those comments were. But I've been strongly on the side of literacy, and decrying the general lack of it in America, for many years -- and you see how unpopular that opinion is. Apparently just being 'good people' is supposed to somehow make it ok to be functionally illiterate, and I strongly disagree -- to the point that I refuse to patronize any business or website which has any misspellings in its sales text. If the people selling something can't be bothered to spell their PR text for it properly, and use correct grammar in presenting it, then I have no confidence in their ability to even recognize a good product -- spelling and grammar are too easy, or too easily checked, to make errors of that nature, in that context, 'ok.'

But then I *know* I'm an oddball -- I actually enjoy reading books, and the thicker the better -- they keep me entertained longer, without roping me into a story and then BANG! it's over after just a couple hundred pages. In fact --gasp!-- I enjoy reading non-fiction -- learning is FUN, not something to run from with all speed. But that is most definitely a minority opinion.

Andria

Andria, I agree with your points about illiteracy, particularly as they pertain to businesses and websites. I think you know I wasn't saying that being 'good people' is supposed to somehow make it ok to be functionally illiterate. Perhaps, being 'good people' merits a less pointed approach to the problem of illiteracy, though.

 

[Ryedan]

EXACTLY my point... when you read 'vapour' it looks like it ought to be said 'vay-POUR' rather than 'VAY-per' -- and I do believe that's EXACTLY what Webster was addressing with the renovations in spelling.

Andria

Yup . The English language is so illogical. Silent letters in words, all the silliness like 'cut a tree down and then cut it up'. I mean, what's up with that, LOL.

But I don't take it too seriously. It's all about communication for me and the only time I will mention spelling or grammar is if it's so bad I can't understand someone. It has to be pretty bad for that to happen though. I am, like most of us are, intelligent enough to be able to figure it out the vast majority of the time.

 

[Zealous]

Yup . The English language is so illogical. Silent letters in words, all the silliness like 'cut a tree down and then cut it up'. I mean, what's up with that, LOL.

I always liked the English language for these things. To me it's quite lovely that our language is a big mash up of a variety of languages & English. It does make it more complex but I'm weird & like thinking about what words mean & their language roots.

 

[Maurice Pudlo]

Poor spelling doesn’t equal inferior intelligence, but it does require a Plan B | Marcie Brock, Book Marketing Maven

Just for fun.

Maurice

 

[bigdancehawk]

Well, I'll just assume you did not understand what I was trying to say, others did, based on the the 'likes' and responses.

Maybe that's my fault for not being more clear, for that I apologize. Two sentences should not be separated by a comma.

Let me try and explain a bit... I have an intense fear of public speaking, It's bad enough that once when i you neglected to capitalize "I" called into a radio program to try and win a contestyou need a space here(and won) i ditto forgot to breath breathe is a verb; breath is a noun out of fear. I passed out.

That has not stopped me from testifying at city council meetings about Vaping "vaping" is not a proper name or title and should not be capitalized, about how I as a vaper owe my life to this wonderful technological breakthrough. It's terrifying, I feel like I'm going to die every time i step up there. I literally have to force myself to remember to breath again?. I do it because it is important to me. I am trying to save lives.

If there is a will there is a way, but, if you think illiterate comments that confuse nouns and verbs but that's exactly what you've done, count for anything with the FDA, the first post applies to you as well:



As I explained later in this thread, it wasn't even really about grammar... but a complete ignorance of the topic, process, or purpose of the FDA taking comments in the first place.

No one's perfect, but I would expect someone to know what they are doing, why they are doing it and maybe proof read once or twice before making a comment.

BDH's third law of the Interwebs: Posters who criticize other poster's grammar and spelling inevitably make spelling and grammar errors.

 

[bigdancehawk]

Proof-read? Most can't be bothered to read something ONCE, nevermind twice. And even for those who do proof-read (raising hand), it's quite difficult to proof-read your own writing -- because you *know* what you meant to say, so it's very difficult to see objectively what you actually wrote -- using a word twice in a row, leaving out a word or a punctuation mark, that sort of thing. The brain can believe that it sees what you meant to say, rather than what you actually did say.

Andria

Ha! this is why God invented editors. Unfortunately, editors are a vanishing breed.

 

[RCHagy74]

What really got my attention were a few posts that had the 'caps lock' on... shouting is rarely the best way to get one's point across.


RC Hagy

 

[realsis]

Well...huh, I don't know what to say. I'm probably the world's worst at spelling errors and punctuation. However believe it or not, I am educated. Mistakes happen, spell check happens and sometimes replaces words, especially if typing on a cell phone. Don't be too harsh. It happens to us ALL. Best not to sit back and judge or critique anyone else's comments. At least they are being PRO ACTIVE . That's much better than doing nothing at all. We ALL make grammar mistakes from time to time. Take it easy. Don't be so judgemental. Even if they don't know any better, at least they tried....

 

[bigdancehawk]

I'm curious, where can one read the comments? I thought I'd found the place but 95% of the comments I saw were from people commenting on cigars & it seemed like they had all sent in comments in a copy/paste type format (every comment started with the same first sentence). So I either went to the wrong place or didn't dig deep enough. Can someone provide a link? ty

Do a search for the word "cigarette." You'll get all variations of that word, narrow it down to about 7,000 posts, and screen out most of the cigar comments.

 

[bigdancehawk]

You got a point, there, Bolivar. Functional illiterates are much easier to produce, AND much easier to manipulate as well.

(If I didn't have someone close to me associated with public schools, I would be hesitant to comment on such an important point. The stories I have heard from the schools, as well as some of the things I have observed, are very scary. The inmates are in charge of the asylum in many cases. The US educational system is way out-of-whack, if not completely broken, in my opinion, and a cause for great concern.)

The best and the brightest are not drawn to elementary and secondary education. That problem could be fixed, but there is little reason to hope that it will be.

 

[DaveP]

My experience has been that non-native English speakers, particularly from anywhere in Europe, tend to have far better command of English than about 95% of Americans.

And to Redd -- you'll have to blame "vapor" instead of "vapour" on Noah Webster, who lived about 200 yrs ago. Nothing to be done about it now. To an American, "vapor" looks the way it's pronounced, while "vapour" looks as if the emphasis should be on the 2nd syllable rather than the first -- and I think making clear which is the stressed syllable was the entire point of Mr. Webster's innovations. Ditto that with "color/colour" -- "colour" looks as if it should be pronounced "kuh-LORE".

Andria

Don't get me started! My pet peeve is the British use in America of verbs attached to collective nouns. ECF "are" is never right in my book. A collective noun is a singular container for a group of related items and that makes it eligible for a singular verb. ECF IS an internet forum. ECF members ARE united in the fight to retain freedom to vape.

<Dave steps down from his high horse.>

 

[DaveP]

Yup . The English language is so illogical. Silent letters in words, all the silliness like 'cut a tree down and then cut it up'. I mean, what's up with that, LOL.

But I don't take it too seriously. It's all about communication for me and the only time I will mention spelling or grammar is if it's so bad I can't understand someone. It has to be pretty bad for that to happen though. I am, like most of us are, intelligent enough to be able to figure it out the vast majority of the time.

You should visit South Georgia and converse with the locals!

"I'm fixing to fix this lawn mower engine! Son, go into the wash room and look on the shelf over the washer and see if you can find me a washer this size."

 

[ClippinWings]

BDH's third law of the Interwebs: Posters who criticize other poster's grammar and spelling inevitably make spelling and grammar errors.

Cute.

Perhaps you should have followed CW's First law of the interwebs:

Read the entire post you're quoting, before running your mouth:

...As I explained later in this thread, it wasn't even really about grammar... but a complete ignorance of the topic, process, or purpose of the FDA taking comments in the first place.

No one's perfect