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I’m glad it got banned, frankly. Those sorts of bots on Reddit are extremely spammy and annoying. Being a “grammar nazi” used to be a thing on Reddit and I’m g

I’m glad it got banned, frankly. Those sorts of bots on Reddit are extremely spammy and annoying. Being a “grammar nazi” used to be a thing on Reddit and I’m glad it died out.

baggachipz 7y ago
It violated no rules, and was all in good fun. All it did was reply with "Are you sure you couldn't care less?"
- fhoffa 7y ago
  Replies are considered a spammy way of getting attention. This wasn't Twitter arbitrarily banning you, but people repeatedly reporting your tweets. The option is right there, and aptly called "Uses the reply function to spam".
- kazinator 7y ago
  It probably did that even if you wrote a comment saying something like: "I could not care less" is a malapropism we should strive to avoid.
- nl 7y ago
  I'm glad it got banned too - bot replies are the worst. And since it's nit-picking, it's worth noting that the "could/couldn't care less" thing isn't at all as clear-cut as you are making out. In the early 1990s, the well-known Harvard professor and language writer Stephen Pinker argued that the way most people say “could care less”—the way they emphasize the words—implies they are being ironic or sarcastic along the lines of the Yiddish phrases like “I should be so lucky!” which typically means the speaker doesn’t really expect to be so lucky. Michael Quinion of the wonderful World Wide Words website makes the same argument. and Both Merriam-Webster and dictionary.com have weighed in and say “could care less” and “couldn’t care less” mean the same thing. Their reasoning is that both phrases are informal, English is often illogical, and people use the two phrases in the same way. “Could care less” has come to mean the same thing as “couldn’t care less.” https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/could-care-less-versus-couldnt-care-less https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/could-ca...
  - zimpenfish 7y ago
    Linguists and professional grammarians agree. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/001182.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/001182... http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001201.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001201.h...
- nyuszika7h 7y ago
  This is actually very explicitly against the rules: > The reply and mention functions are intended to make communication between Twitter users easier. Automating these actions to reach many users on an unsolicited basis is an abuse of the feature, and is not permitted. For example, sending automated replies to Tweets based on keyword searches alone is not permitted. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-automation https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-autom...
- johannes1234321 7y ago
  A reason why it is bad: I tweet only little and when I do I'm interested in the 2 or 3 replies I get. Those I can handle with notifications being turned on. A seemingly funny bot then innocently interrupts me. If that would happen to me I'd report it for having my peace.
dntbnmpls 7y ago
> Those sorts of bots on Reddit are extremely spammy and annoying. You could block them. > Being a “grammar nazi” used to be a thing on Reddit and I’m glad it died out. It's a shame it died out. Just like lots of things on reddit. The good/fun/interesting things are gone, only stale propaganda and silly nonsense is left. It's funny how some people think that something shouldn't exist because they personally don't like it. The entitlement and privilege.
- BoorishBears 7y ago
  Reddit is a proper noun and should be capitalized. > The good/fun/interesting things are gone, only stale propaganda and silly nonsense is left. Did you mean, “are left”?
  - dntbnmpls 7y ago
    > Reddit is a proper noun and should be capitalized. True. But I'm a rebel. > Did you mean, “are left”? Yes. Thank you for pointing that out. We need more of you helpful grammar nazis in this world.
    - BoorishBears 7y ago
      > True. But I'm a rebel. As are the people you’re trying to correct.
      - dntbnmpls 7y ago
        True. It's why I was defending and supporting grammar nazis.
        BoorishBears 7y ago
        My point is there’s no reason to defend them, people have a right to use grammar in any way that lets the communicate effectively.
- 7y ago
wutbrodo 7y ago
For what it's worth, I always appreciate having my grammar corrected, if it's wrong. Ive actually never understood the opposite view: Having someone tell you when you're wrong is pretty much the best way to get better at it. (No, I don't go around correcting strangers' grammar, but only because I know that most people are a lot more insecure about learning that they're wrong about something.)
- mandelbrotwurst 7y ago
  Some would argue that as long as you are able to communicate effectively, your grammar is not wrong. Another critique might simply be that while it is certainly useful to understand rules of grammar, it isn't worth derailing a conversation over.
  - wutbrodo 7y ago
    > Some would argue that as long as you are able to communicate effectively, your grammar is not wrong. Sure, but this is sort of begging the question. Bad grammar can subtly affect the effectiveness of communication in ways that sometimes aren't even explicitly clear to the participants. Grammatical rules don't exist (solely) because someone decided to be stuck up for no reason. > Another critique might simply be that while it is certainly useful to understand rules of grammar, it isn't worth derailing a conversation over. Sure, this roughly describes why I don't correct strangers in practice. But note that the "derailment" is just another side effect of the insecurity I describe, not an inherent quality of correcting grammar: when someone corrects my grammar, spelling, or diction, my reaction is "Thanks! <rest of comment back on topic>". I don't see how this is derailing at all.
    - redis_mlc 7y ago
      wutbrodo: Stop being that guy. You're a pedant.
    - andrewzah 7y ago
      > Bad grammar can subtly affect the effectiveness of communication The type of grammar that gets corrected is usually not bad to the point of causing misunderstandings. Simple things like "could care less", "would of", etc. Every once in a while there's a mistake that's so bad that it makes things ambiguous, but that's not common. And it's not what these annoying bots are replying to in any case. > I don't see how this is derailing at all These bots can devolve into linguistics discussion, etc, that's not related to the linked article or self text at all. And in reddit's case, there are "meta" bots that respond if people respond "bad bot" or "good bot" to a bot's response. > Grammatical rules don't exist (solely) because someone decided to be stuck up for no reason Grammatical guides existing does not mean advice is always welcome. I say guides because a lot of supposed rules are prescriptive opinions, and there's no arbitrator that can deem a rule to be "correct". English does not have a language council, unlike French or Korean.

I’m glad it got banned, frankly. Those sorts of bots on Reddit are extremely spammy and annoying. Being a “grammar nazi” used to be a thing on Reddit and I’m glad it died out.

baggachipz 7y ago

It violated no rules, and was all in good fun. All it did was reply with "Are you sure you couldn't care less?"

fhoffa 7y ago
Replies are considered a spammy way of getting attention. This wasn't Twitter arbitrarily banning you, but people repeatedly reporting your tweets. The option is right there, and aptly called "Uses the reply function to spam".
kazinator 7y ago
It probably did that even if you wrote a comment saying something like: "I could not care less" is a malapropism we should strive to avoid.
nl 7y ago
I'm glad it got banned too - bot replies are the worst. And since it's nit-picking, it's worth noting that the "could/couldn't care less" thing isn't at all as clear-cut as you are making out. In the early 1990s, the well-known Harvard professor and language writer Stephen Pinker argued that the way most people say “could care less”—the way they emphasize the words—implies they are being ironic or sarcastic along the lines of the Yiddish phrases like “I should be so lucky!” which typically means the speaker doesn’t really expect to be so lucky. Michael Quinion of the wonderful World Wide Words website makes the same argument. and Both Merriam-Webster and dictionary.com have weighed in and say “could care less” and “couldn’t care less” mean the same thing. Their reasoning is that both phrases are informal, English is often illogical, and people use the two phrases in the same way. “Could care less” has come to mean the same thing as “couldn’t care less.” https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/could-care-less-versus-couldnt-care-less https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/could-ca...
- zimpenfish 7y ago
  Linguists and professional grammarians agree. http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/001182.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/%7Emyl/languagelog/archives/001182... http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001201.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001201.h...
nyuszika7h 7y ago
This is actually very explicitly against the rules: > The reply and mention functions are intended to make communication between Twitter users easier. Automating these actions to reach many users on an unsolicited basis is an abuse of the feature, and is not permitted. For example, sending automated replies to Tweets based on keyword searches alone is not permitted. https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-automation https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-autom...
johannes1234321 7y ago
A reason why it is bad: I tweet only little and when I do I'm interested in the 2 or 3 replies I get. Those I can handle with notifications being turned on. A seemingly funny bot then innocently interrupts me. If that would happen to me I'd report it for having my peace.

dntbnmpls 7y ago

> Those sorts of bots on Reddit are extremely spammy and annoying. You could block them. > Being a “grammar nazi” used to be a thing on Reddit and I’m glad it died out. It's a shame it died out. Just like lots of things on reddit. The good/fun/interesting things are gone, only stale propaganda and silly nonsense is left. It's funny how some people think that something shouldn't exist because they personally don't like it. The entitlement and privilege.

BoorishBears 7y ago
Reddit is a proper noun and should be capitalized. > The good/fun/interesting things are gone, only stale propaganda and silly nonsense is left. Did you mean, “are left”?
- dntbnmpls 7y ago
  > Reddit is a proper noun and should be capitalized. True. But I'm a rebel. > Did you mean, “are left”? Yes. Thank you for pointing that out. We need more of you helpful grammar nazis in this world.
  - BoorishBears 7y ago
    > True. But I'm a rebel. As are the people you’re trying to correct.
    - dntbnmpls 7y ago
      True. It's why I was defending and supporting grammar nazis.
      - BoorishBears 7y ago
        My point is there’s no reason to defend them, people have a right to use grammar in any way that lets the communicate effectively.
7y ago

wutbrodo 7y ago

For what it's worth, I always appreciate having my grammar corrected, if it's wrong. Ive actually never understood the opposite view: Having someone tell you when you're wrong is pretty much the best way to get better at it. (No, I don't go around correcting strangers' grammar, but only because I know that most people are a lot more insecure about learning that they're wrong about something.)

mandelbrotwurst 7y ago
Some would argue that as long as you are able to communicate effectively, your grammar is not wrong. Another critique might simply be that while it is certainly useful to understand rules of grammar, it isn't worth derailing a conversation over.
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  > Some would argue that as long as you are able to communicate effectively, your grammar is not wrong. Sure, but this is sort of begging the question. Bad grammar can subtly affect the effectiveness of communication in ways that sometimes aren't even explicitly clear to the participants. Grammatical rules don't exist (solely) because someone decided to be stuck up for no reason. > Another critique might simply be that while it is certainly useful to understand rules of grammar, it isn't worth derailing a conversation over. Sure, this roughly describes why I don't correct strangers in practice. But note that the "derailment" is just another side effect of the insecurity I describe, not an inherent quality of correcting grammar: when someone corrects my grammar, spelling, or diction, my reaction is "Thanks! <rest of comment back on topic>". I don't see how this is derailing at all.
  - redis_mlc 7y ago
    wutbrodo: Stop being that guy. You're a pedant.
  - andrewzah 7y ago
    > Bad grammar can subtly affect the effectiveness of communication The type of grammar that gets corrected is usually not bad to the point of causing misunderstandings. Simple things like "could care less", "would of", etc. Every once in a while there's a mistake that's so bad that it makes things ambiguous, but that's not common. And it's not what these annoying bots are replying to in any case. > I don't see how this is derailing at all These bots can devolve into linguistics discussion, etc, that's not related to the linked article or self text at all. And in reddit's case, there are "meta" bots that respond if people respond "bad bot" or "good bot" to a bot's response. > Grammatical rules don't exist (solely) because someone decided to be stuck up for no reason Grammatical guides existing does not mean advice is always welcome. I say guides because a lot of supposed rules are prescriptive opinions, and there's no arbitrator that can deem a rule to be "correct". English does not have a language council, unlike French or Korean.