Well said, Invisible. Of course there are many people who, through dyslexia or whatever, have natural difficulties with spelling. And they're left to struggle with those difficulties, and they have my sympathy ...
But a huge amount of the appalling English which we see today is sheer idleness/inattention and lack of courtesy on the part of the writer (oh, they'll have to make of it what they can - who cares ...)
We have a wonderfully rich language in English and we should cherish and respect it - and when we take the trouble to write it, to do so correctly. I personally think that to see future English reduced to the crudity that is textspeak would be a criminal rejection of our linguistic heritage (while entirely accepting the usefulness of textspeak in its place in today's world).
Of course we all make mistakes but, when I see the number of obviously un-reread/unchecked posts on RYL, the word discourtesy does come to mind. Why should the reader have to interpret the sometimes illiterate meanderings of those who don't even try to spell?
All that said, I entirely accept that the primary function of RYL is to provide help for those who SH, and not to become some sort of teaching aid for English spelling/grammar. And as long as it does that, all sins are forgiven ...
Tony (in semi-pedantic mode).
PS. There may well be spelling/grammatical mistakes in any of the above, but at least I'll have done people the courtesy of checking it - something I always do before posting. And even then mistakes slip through, but I've tried ...
PPS. But don't let anything put people off posting whatever/whenever they want - and in whatever way they want. But it will be the more intelligible if written in reasonably spelled English!
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