Can we please insist on a certain level of spelling, punctuation and grammar? It doesn’t have to be perfect, just readable. There’s quite a lot of stream of consciousness-type posting completely devoid of punctuation, capital letters, and syntax.
Of course, people for whom English is not a first language are exempted from the above.
This has a certain appeal, but life is full of unsatisfactory situations.
There is a testing organisation here for children with dyslexia and related issues.
I don’t think it helps matters by having the acronym SPELD. 
I don’t see why Americans should be exempt. 
Says the Antipodean!
What you want us to start handing out infraction points for spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes?
BTW…it may have been invented in England but it’s our language now!
Distribution of native English speakers by country (Crystal 1997)
Well, at least we can spell theatre, centre, through, and so on properly.
We also have boots in our cars rather than trunks, and bonnets rather than hoods. Probably why British Leyland managed to take longer to die here with the P76 than it did after launching the Triumph TR5 / 250 just in time to miss the Californian emission controls, following up that brilliant success with the Triumph Stag which missed everything in California by years and a lot of simple matters like engine cooling in England and elsewhere.
I say this as a Triumph lover, and the once proud owner of an unreliable 2500S which I endured for far too long because it looked nice.
You get the first point.
There should be a question mark, or at least a comma, after “What”.
who mentioned infraction points perhaps just a nice reminder that perhaps the post should be reformulated in readable english and a bit of polite encouragement and suggestion that people might wish to make the effort to write properly rather than as if it is like a my space page written by a 15-year-old in any case who cares if its american spelling or phrasing or proper english as long as it is readable and doesn’t hurt your head to look at it omg lolololol
Okay, you are hereby reminded!
:Quote: “Well, at least we can spell theatre, centre, through, and so on properly.”
Isn’t the use of “re” a gift from your Norman visitors?
Dunno, mate.
They never got this far south.
Seriously, I have some vague recollection that theater etc came from some attempt to standardise (standardize in US :D) English spelling in the late 18th century, which wasn’t all that long after the Brits attempted it in England (e.g. shoppe replaced by shop), but because of the War of Independence America got cut off for a while from the mother tongue’s sources and persisted with phonetic spellings like theater and center.
Fancy spelling a word like it sounds. How dumb is that?
Just be glad they only mess around with English a bit, try the major and relatively frequent Dutch and German spelling reforms over the last 100 years on for size…
The funny thing is, the US version of English as stated above, is probably closer to the real English.
Like Stoaty says though, no matter what language your using sentences and paragraphs etc can be used. Theres nothing worse than seeing a huge block of text and trying to wade through it.
After a while Ive gotten used to the way guys like Chevan write, God knows he wouldnt understand my Russian though!
However, I do think MOS has a valid point.
I wish the Gaels would have, 
And I have given up all hope of understanding Glaswegians, not to mention the different meanings of words used in common by the UK, and US. In England, (this is for those who dont normally use English) There is a word used as a short form of the name Francis/Frances, and is in some cases is used in place of the word “Bum” . But go a few hundred miles North, and the word “Fanny” means something very different. (Firefly is laughing already)
Generations of Australian children, including mine, have been shocked and awed when they first heard ‘fanny’, which is used here only in impolite company, on an American television show.
Paticularly as it is often in a statement like “He slapped her on the fanny.”
It made the Americans seem so liberal, until some older and wiser child explained that the Americans have got things front to back.
wut do u meen?
a comma like stalin an all de udder commas in de ussr
You are correct Sir!!
Yep, 3 meanings here, a ladies front bottom a mild put down and an act of doing something slowly or incompetently.
As in he is a big Fanny or shut up you wee Fanny[Fannies always seem to need a size qualification]. Then there is Fannying around, which means pottering about and holding others up. I often tell my family to stop Fannying around and get themselves out the door.
So in essence you can be a Fanny, act like a fanny, or just have one… Simple really.
I suppose I should mention that it’s not easy being Welsh in Australia, if you’re a sheila called Myfanwy.
Sooner or later, even in normally well-behaved circles, somebody has to make some ill-advised comment about it.