I’ve been wanting to write this post for awhile now. I just had to wait long enough to get good and peeved about things until I did. Well, today is the day although It may very well turn into a multi-parter as I find other things to complain about. And it’s all to do with my daily romp on the Internet and my problems with it.
(Warning: This is a long, rambling post and a complete rant on my part. Just so you know.)
Can you read this?
This is my top complaint, especially in the light that I don’t remember things really being this bad before.
Can you read this? Is it legible to you? Do you consider this comfortable reading? It certainly isn’t to me:
No kidding, this is the actual size of the font and this is a main stream news/opinion site—The Huffington Post. The thing that really gets me is that their headlines are HUGE(!) and the article title fonts and image captions are very readable and usually in bold. But the body text? You have a microscope handy?
Not main stream enough for you? How about eWeek? The text is no better believe me. And it’s not my browser settings either in this case as other websites I meander through on a daily basis have proper sized fonts that are easily readable.
Okay, so I could spend extra time zooming in and out of websites that insist on using these teeny, tiny fonts until I can actually read the thing but that blows up the images into a pixelated mess. Zooming just the text also has a problem in that many of these sites don’t scale properly with the increased text size and captions, links and buttons often go missing.
The point is that there is no reason for using these idiotically small fonts—none whatsoever. With display size being what it is these days, these site owners can afford to increase the font size to something more readable so that the reader doesn’t have to resort to using a magnifying glass. Virtual or otherwise.
Not everyone in this world has 20/20 vision, especially older folks like myself. Or am I just so much chopped liver?
Newest comment first?!!?
(Does not apply to social sites. They’re just weird and illogical by their very nature)
Look, I’m a nice guy most of the time and tend not to criticize when I know damn well that my discontent is more subjective than objective but this new thing of having a comments thread start with the newest comment rather than the oldest makes absolutely no sense to me.
A comment thread is supposed to be progressive in nature, not regressive. I don’t know about you folks but my thought processes don’t run in reverse.
So how am I supposed to follow a line of thought in a comments thread if I get the reply to a comment before the originating comment? It’s completely bass-ackwards. Makes no sense to have the most recent comment first unless it’s based on some ego thing, making the latest commentator feel special or something and even then it makes no sense.
Alright, so I can live with this illogical reverse-comment-threading thing as long as there’s an options section at the top of the comments that allow me to arrange the comments in a more logical order, meaning oldest first.
But then there are those other sites that don’t provide these options. They just go ahead and decide to list the newest comment first, like it or leave it, which forces me to navigate to the last comments page and scroll up??!! I’ve actually stopped reading certain sites because of this as the comments on any given article/post are sometimes just as relevant as the article/post itself.
But not when they’re in reverse order they’re not.
So to all you site owners who have opted for this newest comment first thing, please provide the option to rearrange the comment thread to something that makes a bit more sense?
It’s losing not loosing! (or proofreading is everything)
I’ll readily admit that grammar, sentence structure and proper punctuation aren’t exactly my strongest suits but I’m no piker when it comes to putting together a post or comment either. That being said I offer this singular advice:
It’s ‘losing’ not ‘loosing’!
So why do I pick this one out above all the other misuses of words and their meaning? Because this is the one I see all the time, especially in the comments section. And I don’t mean from folks whose native language is not English either, I’ll never berate them for trying to express themselves in one of the most complicated and confusing languages the human race ever invented (especially American English). No, these are people who were born and bred to the English language that I’m speaking of.
It’s not even a hard one to distinguish between one and the other as even the different spellings rather obviously reflect the correct pronunciation and/or meaning (unlike ‘there’, ‘they’re’, and ‘their’).
Here’s an example for you:
“Are the Republicans loosing their minds or what?”
Wrong.
The proper spelling is:
“Are the Republicans losing their minds or what?”
The word “loosing” is a verb:
Verb meaning: “to loose” (third-person singular simple present looses, present participle loosing, simple past and past participle loosed)
1. (transitive) To let loose, to free from restraints.
2. (transitive) To unfasten, to loosen.
3. (transitive) To make less tight, to loosen.
4. (intransitive) Of a grip or hold, to let go.
5. (archery) to shoot (loosed an arrow)
Or another way to put it…
“The elf stood at the tree line overlooking the battle loosing his arrows so quickly that the enemy below began to believe that there were a line of archers firing into their ranks.”
Same applies with the word “loose”.
“It sounds like the guy is about to loose his mind.”
Nope.
“It sounds like the guy is about to lose his mind”.
“Loose, loosed and loosing” are pronounced as they appear; with a long “S” sound. While “lose and losing” are pronounced using a “Z” sound as in; ‘looz’ and ‘loozing’.
Okay, everybody got that? Make sure, there’ll be a quiz later.
If anyone gets the idea that I’m just picking on them, I’m not. When writing a post or an article or even just leaving a comment you’re probably trying to make some point or get some idea across to those who read the post, article or comment, right? So you can believe me when I say that this kind of mistake can lower the credibility of what you write by a not insignificant amount.
Alright, this post is getting a bit long here so I’ll stop now. But I’ll probably start up again with another post later down the road as more of these pet peeves come my way. Don’t misunderstand me though, as I know very well that I’m far and away from perfect when it comes to my own writing ability. If you don’t believe me (heh-heh, right…) then check out some of my other posts and you’ll have no doubt.
But at least my fonts are of proper size, my comments are in logical order and I know the difference between “loose” and “lose”. 
Hi Kirk ~ You definitely picked on some of my pet peeves here. Love the grammar lessen too. HUGE pet peeve of mine… (Don’t know if you’ve checked my profile, but English-English is my mother language). I also taught it before getting into real estate, so the kinds of mistakes you’re ranting about get the hairs on my neck up! And don’t even get me started on the either-either, neither-neither debate…;-)
Denise
.-= Denise´s last ramble ..Things to Do in Iowa City: Music & Night Life =-.
Denise – Ah, so you must have had a bit of a hard time seeing us use “color” instead of “colour” and “favorite” instead of “favourite”. That must have drove you nuts at first?
And how about either-either>or and neither-neither>nor? (You know, I can even hear the difference as I’m typing the words? Does that mean I’m getting old[er]?)
Damnit, I’m probably guilty of the lose/loose one myself, though I don’t recall using the word on this site?
Since I entered this surreal world some years ago I have become very aware of punctuation and spelling, so maybe there is some point to this on-line writing thing after all?
I suppose you are now going to start a tirade on ‘on-line’ vs ‘on line’ vs ‘online’?
.-= Grandad´s last ramble ..The most boring nation on Earth =-.
Hi Kirk, Yes it did drive me nuts at first, but you know what they say When in Rome…
Of course there’s only so much I can turn a blind eye too – changing the spelling is one thing – totally ignoring the sentence structure and the use of correct grammar quite something else!
Oh, and while I’m here, I do try to avoid saying the word “tomato” in public, unless I want everyone in the store to turn around and look at me.;-)
ok – Yer on a spellin and punkuation rant so i.d. bitter give you a wide birth them
I confess I did actually use the ‘wide birth’ by mistake once and someone tore me to shreds
.-= Quickroute´s last ramble ..The Great Irish Potato Surplus of 1974 =-.
NICE ranting sir. My peeve is the postrophe. Even the most reputable companeez mess up their apostropheez. “Finbar’s Piano’s” or “Please return the basket’s”.
THE BASKET’S WHAT?! WHAT DO BASKETS OWN? (besides handles?)
Grrr.
.-= K8´s last ramble ..Ten things they don’t warn you about before you get pregnant… #5 =-.
@Grandad – So this is what my high school english teacher meant when he said that sooner or later we’d use all that we were taught in his classes? Funny, I don’t recall having stolen any pianos out of the principle’s office lately.
And it’s “online” as far as I’m concerned. Don’t have to hit the space bar or hunt down the hyphen that way.
@Denise – oh you mean when someone rights a sentence like this totally disregarding any sort of proper sentence structure grammatical sequence or punctuation that sort of thing.
And whether it be to-may-to or to-mah-to I still don’t like the things (except on a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich of course).
@Quickroute – Irish expats like yourself are excused from making any of the mistakes that I mentioned in my
rantpost as you folks are always kept busy dodging bullets and taking 3 day bus rides from hell over the jungle infested mountains in some obscure South American country. I’m just glad you live through the ordeals to publish anything at all let alone take the time to proofread.@K8 Iggerance is bliss? If so, why are there so many unhappy people in the world? Actually, I’m quite proud of the fact that use the ‘postrophe in the correct manner. Well, at least 90% of the time anyway.
I’ve been known to loose my mind when I’m trying to solve a particularly difficult puzzle. We usually call that “thinking out of the box.”
On the other hand, “thinking out of the bocks” probably refers to choosing a different beer.
.-= Larry Wallberg´s last ramble ..You Say You’re an Atheist: Part I =-.
Larry – Of course, I should have realized that you would say something like that. Last time I tried thinking out of the box though, I found out that the box was sitting on a 8 foot tall pedestal. I hit the floor rather hard. Since then I’ve kept my boxes more towards ground level. I’ve also increased the size of the box.
And I’m completely ignoring your last sentence as it was particularly horrendous.
Hi Kirk,
I can definitely relate! I’m no wordsmith but here are the ones that get me.
This is rampant, surprisingly even among folks in the media and politics. They’ll say “there’s” (a contraction for ‘there is’) when dealing with plural items when they should say “there’re” or “there are.”
Some folks (and I don’t know where they get this) will use the word ‘then’ in place of ‘than.’ For example: I’d rather eat out then cook.
Lastly is the use of “regime” (as in political or military) when they mean to say regimen (as in a diet or routine).
I pity foreigners trying to learn American English when we can’t even get it right ourselves.
Speaking of “rants,” I set up a blog where you can post your “favorite” Post Office rant.
http://post-office-rant.blogspot.com/
Thanks, Kirk!
Paul
“I see the garage, but I don’t saw the garage. You are moidering the King’s English!”— The Three Stooges — Curly to Moe
Welcome to my little bit of the innerweb, Paul – You know, that “regime” vs “regimen” fracas completely slipped by me and I thank you much for bringing it to my attention. I believe I’ll edit the post to include this one. I probably need to write a whole new post asking for readers’ personal pet peeves about online grammar, misspellings, misuses and the like. Could be fun?