The Old Dog Gets: A Visit From The Grammar Nazi!
Yes I really did have a visit from the Grammar Nazi! Don't worry, I'm OK and after the initial shock I do believe that I've benefited!
What is This Really All About?
The Grammar Nazi is a fairly new account here on the Steem blockchain @grammarnazi. If you check the profile it explains its purpose in these words:
"I am a bot destined to educate the masses and fight illiteracy!"
While I don't consider myself illiterate we can all use a little help at times. I have to admit that at first I was a little bit put off when the comment below showed up on my page. After all, I had spent a lot of time preparing the article and there was no hint of appreciation. The comment got straight to the point!
The general rule is i before e except after c! @grammarnazi was right! I should have remembered that from grammar school. Once I went to @grammarnazi's page and realized that it was a bot I decided to give the bot a little upvote for its service! I mean, the bot was only trying to help right?
How Are Steemers Reacting to The Grammar Nazi?
Perhaps it's too early to tell but in the past 24 hours it has commented well over 60 times pointing out errors on many Steemers pages. With all of those comments just a few have been given an upvote as a sign of appreciation. There was also a flag, some downvotes and a few hurt feelings!
These humble Steemers showed humility and appreciation:
Way to go @carface and @cryptocoinews you know how to take constructive criticism and that's a skill! You're better people for it!
A Study in Psychology!
Check out what happened here. The person receiving the correction (@rinkuzblog) advice expressed appreciation and corrected the point but his expression of thanks was downvoted by @mack-bot.
One user has really been put off by the corrections and has gone on to leave messages of disdain for @grammarnazi on other Steemers blogs!
As I wrote above that was my first reaction as well but our first reaction is often not the best one!
How Will You Feel if You're Visited by @grammarnazi?
- Will the bot hurt your feelings?
- Will it annoy you?
- Will you resent or appreciate the correction?
- Will you upvote the bot's comment?
- Will you flag the bot?
I'd really like to hear your opinion on this new bot and I hope that I've not written anything in this article to trigger it again! On second thought before leaving let's have some fun. I want to see if @grammernazi will recieve this message! Ya I know I spelled receive wrong but if it shows up to correct me I'll upvote it!
I hope that you enjoyed this article about my visit from the Grammar Nazi!
Until next time,
@kus-knee (The Old Dog)
I myself always appreciate a little constructive criticism - but I very much fear the reaction @twiceuponatime might have.
It takes a certain level of maturity and self awareness to accept constructive criticism. Would not @twiceuponatime possess double your level of those admiral qualities which you've already demonstrated exist in you at a high level? If so relax and fear not!
he is the arrogant and sanctimonious side of myself. Sometimes I give up hope that he will ever see the light.
I see. So would I be correct in categorising @onceuponatime as the super-ego and @twiceuponatime as id? If this is the case who is ego?
I get a visit from Grammar Nazi tooo, but it was funny because I reply that I was happy to have just one mistake on my post (even if there was another mistakes that Grammar Nazi didn't see ^_^). It was not a problem for me, sure, at first because my mother language is not English and after, because my husband is an Italian Grammar Nazi at home :P
I admire you and I'm sure that your English has improved a lot! I was raised by a Grammar Nazi and I came to appreciate the training later in life. It seems that Paolo is appreciated by you.
If I had to write and speak Italian with Paolo he'd have a huge job correcting me!
Not everyone is so humble as you. In fact, you're the first Steemian I noticed, who is appreciating this bot. Wherever I've encountered this bot so far, I've seen it being criticized. So I too responded to this bot by pointing out grammatical errors in its own messages ...and people labelled me a bigger nazi 😜.
Frankly, I won't be very welcoming to this bot on my blog. I don't like purists. I'm fine with the errors as long as the text can communicate the intended message. Nobody is perfect in this world and we should learn to be accommodating for minor errors here and there. In fact, most people don't even notice the errors and their trained eyes & mind automatically correct these errors while reading.
I accept that I ain't a literary genius and nor do I expect all bloggers to be a literary genius. The more important thing to me is the exchange of views and delivery of the core message.
And I don't expect this bot to visit you for every error you commit or to point out all the errors. (as you expect it here ...but may be I'm wrong. I haven't checked all the comments yet). This bot itself is not perfect yet. MS Word do a better job than this bot.
I'd prefer if this service is made opt-in or I consider it as spamming.
I think that your view is probably in the majority and that the business model will fail. Also the choice of name could be considered as offensive to many. @grammarfriend or @grammarhelper would be better in my opinion.
My mother tongue is English and I have a few degrees but I make a lot of mistakes. If English is your second language you are truly amazing.
An opt in our out could be a good idea. As far as I know we can use the ignore button and we'll never see this bot's comments again.
Thanks for your detailed response.
Can't agree more! A friendly name gives a lot of positive vibes to start with. To me, the first impression was that this bot was created out of someone's strong irritation towards minor grammatical oversights.
Maybe all will be revealed in due time!
This is getting serious.
I can imagine the embarrassment it has caused people already forgetting that most writers try to make their post in English, not because there are fluent but to pass their message to the majority who happen to understand only English.
I just wish people can guard their heart against this. I believe the bot was meant to help but it kindof embarrassing.
Thanks for sharing @kus-knee
At the risk of being pedantic, shouldn't he be calling himself the "Spelling Nazi" or the "Orthography Nazi" if he is checking spelling ;-)
A name change would be positive and while doing the change how about OrthographyFriend? That would represent a kinder gentler bot!
Commentators on network news routinely say things like "between you and I."
That or "between I and you" should make one's ears hurt . Or "who did you vote for?" instead of "for whom did you vote?" Nonetheless, I find it a bit much to spell check and grammar police blogs.
I actually heard a politician say, "Nobody hates terrorists more than me!" :-)
Thank you very much dear friend @ kus-knee for sharing this news, I must admit that I ignored the presence of this bot @grammarnazi, I have never had the luck to visit this bot, surely, because it would stay alive in my publications, imagine I am bad writing in my native language, Spanish, as not be in English that uitlizo the help of google.
In my case I am not bothered by construction criticism, siver to enrriqueser and be better people.
I wish you a wonderful day
Well, there are almost a million of us now and it made only 60 visits yesterday so I guess that it is a rare privilege to see the bot in action!
I admire you for what you do and for your excellent dual language blogging!
May you and your family have a wonderful day!
I don't think @grammarnazni is wrong in any case. If bot is pointing out your mistakes and they are some gramatical or spelling mistakes then you shoudn't be offened by that.
Even you should encourage and appreicate that it read your whole post to come to the conclusion.
You make 2 valid points here. I think that the bot just mechanically looks for mistakes and cannot read and express genuine appreciation for your article.
Yeah you have a point there as after all it is a just a bot for now lol
I hope It doesn't start making his own language the way bots at facebook did and then they had to close shut that project down.
I could only benefit if the @gramamarnazi decided to visit my posts.
Unfortunately I think that the amount of misspelled words and grammar mistakes would overwhelm it and ultimately force it to terminate itself.
I'm actually amazed at how well you do! Your competition in the SteemBay auction received his cards all the way in India!
How cool is that?
He put up a nice post about it!
Yeah I saw it!
I congratulated @crytotrader for recieving those amazing steemtradecards.
Thank you for the compliment but my English is far from being perfect : )
:) , yes idem ditto over here !
Well if it going to worry about apostrophes, Im in big trouble! Why dont they code it to put the apostrophes in for us lol. Well I guess they have bigger fish to fry LOL
I know what you mean. I proof read and proof read my articles before pressing post and I just don't see the mistakes! If I get @lellabird60 to read them over she sees them right away!
I will probably flag it just because I hate these types of comment bots!! :0)
Go get em tiger, er I mean Lion!
Lol, I will!!!
is it not just a kind of kinky? :-)
We can always learn and improve. I have been know on occasion to be a grammar NAZI so I better be able to take it. LOL. Actually I have one follower who, on occasion points out errors of mine. When done tactfully and with kindness, it can be a positive experience. Thanks @kus-knee as I will keep my eye out for him.
I was raised by a Grammar "Nazi" and I have learned to appreciate the training that I received. When counselling tact is important and starting with a word of commendation helps a lot!
Thanks for th visit @enjoywithroy!