'Grammar Vigilante' Secretly Corrects Bristol Street Signs (irishtimes.com) 158
An anonymous reader shares a report: A self-confessed "grammar vigilante" has been secretly correcting bad punctuation on street signs and shop fronts in Bristol for more than a decade. The anonymous crusader carries out his work in the dead of night using the "Apostrophiser" -- a long-handled tool he created to reach the highest signs. The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the BBC that correcting rogue apostrophes is his speciality.
Bansky? (Score:3)
He's supposed to be from Bristol, after all.
Re:Bansky? (Score:5, Funny)
We need a grammar vigilante to come here and correct the misspelling in your subject.
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Technically you would want a spelling vigilante for that, rather than a grammar vigilante.
Re: Bansky? (Score:1)
Will we need a pedantry vigilante soon?
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so, there will be a queue? first pedantry, then grammar, then spelling, then punctuation...
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so, there will be a queue? first pedantry, then grammar, then spelling, then punctuation...
That's just being persnickety.
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Will we need a pedantry vigilante soon?
This is just a start. Wait until the rise of the P.L.A.!
Yes, the Punctuation Liberation Army will change everything!!!
"Nothing eclipses Ellipses..."
Oh, forgot, (ahem) Bawahaha!!!
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Not the Liberation Army of Punctuation?
Splitters!
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Not the Liberation Army of Punctuation?
Splitters!
Didn't that change to the Peoples Punctuation Army?
Oh, no, never mind. He's sitting right over there...
Splitter!!!
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Pedant comes from words meaning to lead to knowledge, (that means a Greek slave who leads children to school, aka crossing guard) and I think it is quite common for vigilantes to be driven by a desire to "teach" or coerce a community into changing some practice or behavior. So perhaps most vigilantes are already doing it pedantically.
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They do exist [theguardian.com].
Dupeman: Superhero of the Dark [Re:Bansky?] (Score:2)
How would a slashdot dupe-story vigilante work? DOS the dupe? Hack into slashdot and delete the dupe? Turn it into a cow story via word substitution? Flood the dupe story with ***WARNING: DUPE STORY***" flags? Pop the tires of the editor's car as punishment? Volunteer to read-check for free?
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We need a grammar vigilante to come here and correct the misspelling in your subject.
Sounds more like a job for - Grammar Chameleon!
He comes. And he goes. He strings along. Strings along.
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I know we're not supposed to RTFA, but here you go:
The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the BBC that correcting rogue apostrophes is his speciality.
None other than Anonymous Coward!
Re:Bansky? (Score:4, Informative)
"The man, who wishes to remain anonymous, told the BBC that correcting rogue apostrophes is his speciality."
There's an old British expression, the Greengrocer's Apostrophe, for apostrophes wrongly used to indicate plurals. The term comes from seeing signs like BEET'S 5 PENCE at farmers' markets.
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I just want to know which slashdot user it is.
I'd say Cowboy Neal, but it wasn't the cheesypoofs factory so he probably wouldn't try that hard.
Maybe it was Kurt 'The Pope.'
Re:I just want to know which slashdot user it is. (Score:2)
I just want to know which slashdot user it is.
Alright, ill admit, its myself.
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You mean Bank'sy, surely.
If he wants to do more grammar vigilantism (Score:2)
he should visit /. with his tool.
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Why'd he want stickers all over his monitor?
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Well, look at it this way: sure he'd have stickers all over his screen, but even if he scrolled or reloaded the main page, he'd still end up with better edited posts than without the stickers.
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You can have my rainbow-powered-unicorn-rocket when you pry it from my cold dead... monitor!
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The Unicoder! We totally need a unicoder!
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The Unicoder! We totally need a unicoder!
I suppose that's preferable to the Ebcdicker.
No thanks (Score:2, Flamebait)
Slashdot is already plenty full of tools.
In my day.. (Score:1)
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Grammar Nazis have become obsolete with the general acceptance of alt-sppeeleers and alternative sppeelings'.
Day feel its gooder dat way, man.
Re:In my day.. (Score:4, Funny)
"Back in my day, we called them grammar Nazis. It might not be allowed these days though."
The term we use today is alt-grammarians.
Vigilante? (Score:3)
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People really need to check their twitch response when it comes to these signs. Consider the following:
Your "Lowest Cost" Groceries
Are those quotes inappropriate? Ask the grocer and he might say "no, I said that, it's a quote from me."
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They read as sarcasm quotes to me. If it says "Lowest Cost" I'd assume it was not really very cheap at all.
Re:Vigilante? (Score:5, Funny)
Golly, here on the internet, they're called "Grammar Nazis". Maybe people who correct bad grammar aren't so bad after all...
Fun fact: in Germany, they don't call them Grammar Nazis (obviously). Their word basically translates as "comma fuckers," which is way cooler.
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Golly, here on the internet, they're called "Grammar Nazis". Maybe people who correct bad grammar aren't so bad after all...
Fun fact: in Germany, they don't call them Grammar Nazis (obviously). Their word basically translates as "comma fuckers," which is way cooler.
That's exactly how "Pilkunnussija" in finnish translates too. And even though vulgar expression it's recognized by national language office dictionary [kielitoimi...nakirja.fi]. On that page it shows how word is bent and alias "Pilkunviilaaja" which translates "a comma fiddler" in english.
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Fun fact: in Germany, they don't call them Grammar Nazis (obviously). Their word basically translates as "comma fuckers," which is way cooler.
Uh, sorry, but that's just plain wrong.
Dutch has Mierenneuker, which I believe translates to someone fornicating with insects of the family Formicidae, however, in less polite terms, and means nitpicker.
But German ... no.
We have Korinthenkacker (Korinthe is a type of raisin, and -kacker is a vulgar term for someone who defecates) - this is what the Dutch-German dictionary lists as the German translation for Mierenneuker - and I-Tuepfelchen-Scheisser (again, it's about defecation, this time of the dot on the
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[replying to myself]
Indeed, the OP was confused.
It's Dutch that has Kommaneuker as a synonym for Mierenneuker.
See: http://www.dwotd.nl/2008/02/368-mierenneuker.html [dwotd.nl]
Re:Vigilante? (Score:5, Interesting)
There used to be a site called Portland Pattern Repository at c2.com that was a wiki and discussion board for software-engineering-related topics. There was nothing really like it for general software engineering topics and debates. It wasn't a help-desk like StackOverflow, but up at the philosophical level. (It's messy, but arguably this accurately mirrors the different viewpoints and lack of formal research in SE.)
It was the very first wiki, invented by Ward Cunningham, who coined the term "wiki" for a kind of web collaboration software resembling Apple Hypercard. ("Wiki" is based on a Hawaiian word for "quick".)
Anyhow, a grammar-and-spelling-correcting "grammar vandal" (GV) ended up killing the wiki, which is set to read-only mode for now.
To save it, volunteers had built scripts to try to back out GV's changes, but GV was highly persistent and kept a step ahead of the clean-up scripts, flooding it with garbage at times. GV was one determined SOB.
Part of the problem was that some of the corrections were questionable/debatable in nature and potentially changed the interpretation different from what an author had intended (some content was signed). GV argued this was a small price to pay for improving overall grammar and spelling, which most disagreed with. Negotiations for a compromise broke down; GV wanted full editing control.
The wiki is still alive in read-only mode, but Ward Cunningham decided to experiment with a "federated wiki" concept whereby different participants can keep a version of how they wanted the content to look and more control over who can change one's own copy. Interesting idea in theory, but so far it's failed to catch on the way the original did. It makes things too fractured for users and readers. And, you pretty much have to manage your own federated-wiki-server to participate.
GV believed "my way or no way" and sank the entire ship. Jerk!
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With the WWII generation dead, people have forgotten how evil the Nazis really were.
Nazi leadership were dispicable, but it's really only movies that have taught us that Nazis were, to a man, inhumanly evil. It's fun having a cardboard villain, but hardly enlightening as to what people were like.
Heck, 25 years after the end of the Soviet Union, we have a new generation of people who think that socialism is all hunky dory
Why, it's almost as if with the passage of time we can look at things objectively rather than fall for the hysteria and propaganda of the day!
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This guy isn't bitching and moaning about people's grammar, he's just quietly going about fixing the signs...
We don't bitch at people. We are British!
Re:Why is this even on Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering the amount of misspelled words and improper usage (their/there/they're or break/brake), it might be a not-so-subtle hint to get your act together.
If you don't think proper grammar is important, then you probably don't believe proper coding is important either.
Re:Why is this even on Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
Grammar, it's the difference between knowing your shit, and knowing you're shit.
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And it's the difference between helping your uncle, Jack, off a horse and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
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I would much prefer the latter, thank you, but leave my uncle out of this.
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Except that it isn't. That's orthography, not grammar.
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brake; /*OOPS*/
Re: Why is this even on Slashdot? (Score:3)
"A count is also a measure."
Only if accompanied by a unit
Re: Why is this even on Slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)
"A count is also a measure."
Only if accompanied by a unit
Occasionally, a count is a vampire.
And number is how you feel after he sucks the blood out of your body.
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and the count is an amount
and the bird is the word
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(Or does a guy named Nacho own a couple thousand little restaurants here?)
Well, since they were supposedly invented by a guy named "Nacho", maybe they are all just paying homage to him.
As long as it's just apostrophes... (Score:2)
...and not trying to correct things like "10 items or less" when there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. (Clue: "ten or less items" is wrong; "ten items or less" isn't.)
Re: As long as it's just apostrophes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not less but fewer. ...ten or fewer items...
Items are countable.
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Even worse are the people who confuse the style guide their teacher taught from with "rules" of English.
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Wow I wish the OP had also exhibited lousy reading skills and got modded +5.
Now I'm going to explain to those who can be arsed to read the post properly why a sign announcing "Ten items or less" (notice the word order?) is not wrong.
"Ten items or less" is not a sentence, therefore you are being asked to infer meaning from it. From that point on, the "less" refers to whatever you then infer. You might well think, when you spot the sign, "Ten items or less? Thats OK, my basketful is less."
A non-sentence canno
Re:As long as it's just apostrophes... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, cripes. Are you suggesting that less & fewer are *sometimes* interchangeable? Wonderful. Just what we need is another ambiguity in this language.
I've heard the argument that what you have in your shopping basket ("groceries") is a fluid quantity because you don't talk about having a 'grocery'. That sort of makes sense. I think it's like quantum mechanics though. As soon as you take the groceries out of the basket and put them on the conveyor, they cease being fluid and become discrete "items".
I would refuse to shop in a place that has "10 items or less" on a sign. :-)
There's everything "wrong with it" when you've spent decades using "fewer" for that which is discrete and "less" only for that which is fluid or continuous.
"10 items or less" just sounds wrong.
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As soon as you take the groceries out of the basket and put them on the conveyor, they cease being fluid and become discrete "items".
How many discrete items are 1.5 pounds of grapes, sold by the pound?
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Acronyms are abbreviations made of the initial letters of other words and pronounced as separate words themselves. Examples: NASA, FUBAR, SNAFU.
Initialisms are abbreviations made of the initial letters of other words but pronounced by speaking each letter in turn. Examples: UN, US, UK, NSA.
"SKU" is sometimes treated as either. It can be pronounced "S-K-U" or similar to the word "skew."
Anyway, whether you add an apostrophe before the 's' in a plural form depends on the style guide you choose to follow. Oxfor
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There are some places on the internet where fluid quantities are denoted by the -age suffix. The basket would be full of foodage.
A special term for integers and real numbers (Score:2)
That's right. And the mathematics I was taught in grade school was wrong, too. Correctly:
2.3 is less than 2.6, but
2 is fewer than 3.
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2.3 is less than 2.6, but
2 is fewer than 3
No, 2 are fewer than 3 . //yes dammit I'm being funny and serious, and yes I'm well aware of the difference between numbers and collective nouns, and the difference between British English and American English when it comes to collective nouns.
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... the difference between British English and American English when...
Putting the words "British" and "English" together in that way is redundant. If you just refer to a spelling or grammatical construction as being in the English language, , this implies that it is not "American English". Only if you want to include serial commas, drop the letter U from some words, replace S with Z and so on, do you need to identify it as something other than just plain English.
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Here's oxford dictionaries blog to clarify [oxforddictionaries.com]
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Grammar this (Score:5, Funny)
I have a friend who has the nickname 'Chip'. I keep suggesting to him that he should open a fish and chip shop and call it.....
Chip's
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Fish's & Chip's
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He could also sell wood chips, but call the shop "Would Chip's?" Not that it makes a lot of sense, but it's no weirder than Tuesday Morning.
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Hire a monk to run the kitchen and call him the Fish Friar.
Similar sign-fixer in Los Angeles (Score:5, Interesting)
A few years ago a local artist improved a confusing L.A. freeway sign, making an interstate number shield in the process:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the... [slate.com]
https://www.good.is/articles/t... [www.good.is]
http://gizmodo.com/how-one-fed... [gizmodo.com]
One down, 9,999 to go...
Re:Similar sign-fixer in Los Angeles (Score:4, Interesting)
Use Both Lanes
to
Use Either Lane
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Of all the confusing and uninformative signs along the entire GWB, this is the one you fixate on? At least it tells you the correct direction to go in!
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To delve into a little language debate here, I don't find that a wrong statement as given. As I understand/interpret the word "confusion", it can be caused by ANY of these:
1. Ambiguity
2. Wrong info
3. Missing info
4. Sloppy reading
5. Ill-informed reading (poor language skills)
The original is better. (Score:2)
I could care less (Score:2)
https://xkcd.com/1576/ [xkcd.com]
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I've always treated "I could care less" as implied sarcasm, as in:
I could care less..... if I really, really tried hard.
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Which is likely the origin - specifically, NY Jewish culture. There are several similar sarcastic phrases (e.g. "I should be so lucky") in use.
Wrong Criminal (Score:2, Interesting)
The real criminals here are the sign makers. People who's job is written communication are either unable or unwilling to see basic, simple mistakes.
None of these incorrect signs should exist.
Moral of the story: just because you're paying someone, doesn't mean they are competent at their job.
Re:Wrong Criminal (Score:5, Funny)
Bwahahaha!
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(Hangs head in shame)
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Muphry's law [wikipedia.org] strikes again.
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You want to see bad writing? Look at the displays in a school. The ones written by the teachers.
Works at night (Score:2)
Works at night correcting signs because if he did it during the day someone would surely correct his face.
Whereas, grammar may have reached an epidemic of horribleness*, I think grammar Nazis are perhaps more of a problem than grammer**.
* deliberate use of an unword
** I wanted to make someone's skin crawl with that spelling mistake.
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Don't forget what happened to this guy (Score:1)
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The funny thin is that this asshole claims he "didn't know the significance of the sign or the watchtower," when it is explained right on the freaking sign he vandalized.
RTFA (Score:2)
Ideas over grammar (Score:1)
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Santa.
FTFY
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Perhaps he could give you some help with commas.
Re:idiots like this on stackflow (Score:5, Insightful)
The level of care given to writing a question sets the bar for the level of care given to answering the question.
If you can't be arsed to reach your pinky finger to the side to hit your Shift key, why should other people be arsed to stop what they're doing to help you?
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arsed too reply with speling and grammer correction?
Does anybody think those replies are 'to help'? Pitiful, self congratulatory, mental fapping. The middle schooler, desperate to show how smart (s)he is. Big words, half understood, that's the grammarian.
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arsed too reply with speling and grammer correction?
Does anybody think those replies are 'to help'? Pitiful, self congratulatory, mental fapping. The middle schooler, desperate to show how smart (s)he is. Big words, half understood, that's the grammarian.
Literacy is a hallmark of the educated. If you show yourself to not appreciate education, why should anyone listen to you or help you become educated?
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arsed too reply with speling and grammer correction?
I can't figure out what you asked here, so I won't bother with the rest of your reply.
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Because I have arthritis in my hands I typo stuff sometimes. I could carefully proof read my internet posts, but it's fucking Slashdot. Incorrect case isn't going to stop people understanding the message.
And if you are that bothered by it... Okay, I'll go without your reply, my life is too short to care about trivial mistakes.
Re:idiots like this on stackflow (Score:5, Insightful)
You want help specifically from pedantic nerds, but you can't be bothered to speak their language? Further, you're upset about the very personality traits that make them able to help you?
Just go back to Facebook and Twitter. You fit in there. You don't fit in here.
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Qapla'!