Does anyone Beta the Gateworld reviews?

[Nathan]

Americans. Non-possessive. Other than snarking, though, I don't get why people (there are quite a few) feel the need to point out grammatical mistakes in public. Isn't that what PM and email are for? If I publically corrected every mistake I saw... well, first of all, everyone would hate me 'cause I'd be doing it all the time, and second, as unbelieveable as some people might find this, I try to take the other person's feelings into consideration. How'd you like it if someone made a public issue of all YOUR mistakes? It might be embarrassing. So if I see some glaring typo or grammatical error, I just PM the person or, in the case of a website, email the site owner and be done with it. Or I just shrug and move on. Depends how serious the mistake is and how much I like the site.

Typos are WONDERFUL for teasing purposes, though. Especially the Freudian ones.

I publicly pointed his out because he was going on about the need for gramatical perfection. So I pointed out his error

I'm the first to admit I type like crap on the net - it's the net - I don't care. When I write a user manual though that be different.

[Markey2]

I publicly pointed his out because he was going on about the need for gramatical perfection. So I pointed out his error

I'm the first to admit I type like crap on the net - it's the net - I don't care. When I write a user manual though that be different.

I have not been "going on" about grammatical perfection. I simply had a few simple questions about the quality of the reviews because when I read that one the mistakes glared at me that's all.

Whoever it was that thinks "favourite" is always spelt "favorite" anyway may I point out that "favorite" in my dictionary actually says "see: favourite.

[ShadowMaat]

I publicly pointed his out because he was going on about the need for gramatical perfection. So I pointed out his error

Which is why I mentioned that it's good for snarking. You DO know what snarking is, right? Pretty much everything McKay says is snarky.

[Whistler]

I have not been "going on" about grammatical perfection. I simply had a few simple questions about the quality of the reviews because when I read that one the mistakes glared at me that's all.

Whoever it was that thinks "favourite" is always spelt "favorite" anyway may I point out that "favorite" in my dictionary actually says "see: favourite.

If you ever use Internet Explorer (which I admit, I don't any more) you will see "Favorites" in the toolbar, no software company ever seems to translate their products, just an observation.

[Brassguy]

"Whoever it was that thinks "favourite" is always spelt "favorite" anyway may I point out that "favorite" in my dictionary actually says "see: favourite."


Do you still not get it?

Anyway, if I were one of the people that writes the reviews for gateworld, I would personally find asking if it if proof-read and edited offensive.

Gateworld is a quality site, of course it is.

I suppose "beta the reviews" is some weird British slang or some internet slang that I have only recently come accross for proof-read and edit?

[Whistler]

I suppose "beta the reviews" is some weird British slang or some internet slang that I have only recently come accross for proof-read and edit?

Actually it's internet abused Greek, people Beta test products and software (hence reviews) before they're released. So no, it's technical slang, not British slang.

[Brassguy]

heard of beta testers for games and softwear, but never for articles and stories.

Hey, why not?

[David]

Anything in print on GateWorld, besides most of the news items, is looked over twice before it goes to the Net. Still, some things will slip through our fingers. Sometimes after a news article goes up I give Darren an IM knock-knock and go "OK, we need to chat." And then we'll fix all the errors before the majority of people will read the articles. But this only happens about once every couple months. The interviews, for instance, are looked over about four times before they go up.

[Albion]

Well, he/she lives in England, so naturally he/she would complain about the American spelling.

Some people in England - indeed in the whole of the UK (and I'm sure elsewhere in the world too) - are actually well aware of the variances in UK/US spelling and wouldn't even take note of it, let alone complain about it. So there's not really a 'naturally' there. Just thought I'd point that out. It's not inevitable at all for a non-American to be confused.

For myself, though a Scot, I've been writing fanfic for almost thirty years now and because it's been mostly for US shows/movies, I've used US spelling for the majority of that time in my writing. So lack of Us don't faze me. <g> My only problem is remembering to put the beggers back in when I'm writing for a UK source.

Before the days of the net, we fanfic authors used to ask people to 'proof-read' or 'proof' our stories. /me salutes Brassguy for even knowing that word these days. <g> Then it became beta readers or betas. I'm always rather amused at the way people using the internet feel they have to invent new terms for things that have been done for decades, just because it's now online. Witness blogs. Why the heck can't they just call it a diary and be done?

Albion

[Whistler]

Some people in England - indeed in the whole of the UK (and I'm sure elsewhere in the world too) - are actually well aware of the variances in UK/US spelling and wouldn't even take note of it, let alone complain about it. So there's not really a 'naturally' there. Just thought I'd point that out. It's not inevitable at all for a non-American to be confused.

I wont complain about it, but it does annoy me if I see it wrong on something like "Hair Color" or "Builder Center". *shivver* No problem with American spelling, just when companies don't change it when they get over here.