Pet Peeves

OK I try very hard to whine or complain (really, I do....) But sometimes I just have to vent. Then I don't worry about it anymore. (I"ve dumped it all in someone else's lap. ha ha) Here's just a couple of teeny things that are starting to get under my skin.

First, Pale, PALE blue fonts on a white background. I just looked at some web sites for research and I could hardly read them. I've been asked to fill in boxes on forms so pale that I couldn't even FIND the boxes. Is this some new trend? I know my eyesight isn't what it used to be but really!!!! Somebody needs to send them to a graphic design class.

 B. Supposedly professional business web sites with unbelievably bad grammar. OK I've already been accused of being a grammar Nazi, but really! Doesn't anyone proofread their stuff? It's one thing if it's a blog, or Facebook or email. But these are supposed to represent a business and sometimes the sentences don't even make sense. I find myself reading them over and over thinking I missed something. Nope, they just don't make sense.

There. I feel much better now. Feel free to add your own pet peeves. I bet you'll feel better too!

You may find that with those supposed 'professional' websites the content has been outsourced to somewhere else. That may also mean to a country where English is not the first language.

Ha ha. Yes, I've read assembly instructions from non-native English speakers. They're a riot. No, these sound like English speakers but with extremely convoluted brains....

If you don't mind, I'd love to check out any such sites for a laugh :D

Ragtimelil: 10/28/2012 - 09:14 PM

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OK I try very hard to whine or complain (really, I do....) But sometimes I just have to vent.

ROFL ;-)

Sam, you beat me to it. I'm sure if RTL had proofread her rant she would have noticed the missing 'not'! But then again maybe she did mean it the way it was laid out.

RTL - the reason for the convoluted sentence structure and the rubbish English is probably because the writer is the programmer who created the site. Programmers are notoriously poor at grammar and spelling - that's why they fall back on languages that have few words and unequivocal punctuation which only parses if correct.

I often fall into the 'if....then....else' construct syndrome (and add 'else....then if....else...') in my sentence structure. I do proofread - and often amend, so that sentences tend towards making sense.

I do agree with your rant about it - so unprofessional and brand destroying IMHO. It puts me off a brand when I see these oversights. Well vented.

See, I got a laugh out of it.   OK I don't proof my posts. Ya caught me.

brandon, Wordpress is one where I still can see the boxes, but just barely. I don't remember the site where I have to hunt for them.

You're probably right, Chaz about who writes the posts. I guess I should be kinder, but, as you said, it reflects on the business and it doesn't make it look good.

It's funny you should bring this up, Lana, because I've been tearing out my hair regularly over here. (Good thing I've got lots of it!) Lately I've been finding these gaffs even on billboards/ information boards where I live, and menus are notorious. I sometimes get annoyed because those of us who could offer help are without jobs writing for pennies online, while business owners who put up these signs are starting to look foolish. There seems to be a higher tolerance these days for writing that makes the business site look ignorant. I'm not saying these people ARE ignorant. Obviously they know their stuff well enough to be still in business. There's somehow, however, less appreciation for the English language overall.

Maybe we're reverting to the old days when it didn't matter how you speld wordz as longe as it made cense.

And sentences too. Although when you have to read something 3 or 4 times to figure out what it means, I don't think that is essentially a goode thing.

(O dear, if I tore my hair out, I'd be wearing a hat forever....)