haifa- you’re a fan of P-Language. But thats not the used language. The e-language is what is used by the general populace. Maybe i just lean towards sociolinguistics over the ideal pure language standards, or maybe as (at the risk of exposing myself…) a language major, i’ve just learned that the standard based on the politically and economically powerful and the stigmatization that comes with deviation is unfair and unbased. what is stigmatized today becomes tomorrow’s standard, for example the verbs text, blog, email.
also, there are varieties of language used in different circumstances. the way one speaks to his friends differs from how he speak to the president, how he writes an essay from a letter to a cousin (and both from speech), etc.
I dont think its fair to be setting a standard at the p-language level because it will be cutting off and blocking out some posters. that is a decision only the ywn editor could make, alone. to request no text talk is one thing, to pull up every typo another. and even within that, if the mods can understand a text-like post, it may be directed to a specific other poster who also understands it, and i dont see reason to interfere with that. it may not be understandable for all the posters, but neither do i understand all the halacha debates or discworld discussions. so i will skip the posts i can’t or dont want to read, and go on to the next. if you cannot understand a post, you can ask the poster to repost. but if despite the errors, it is understandable, why interfere, unless it is in jest and taken that way. (yes, anyone who would like to find my grammar and spelling errors in this post has my permission 🙂 )