Rick, it's weird, but I seem to have developed a double standard. Of course, I probably always felt this way, but posting here has made me more aware of it. I detest my own imperfections, whether they show themselves as spelling mistakes, lack of clarity, offending people for no good reason, or not keeping my mouth shut at appropriate times. When other people do these things, I'm apt to not pay much attention to it, although the last two things sometimes get to me. I guess it comes with a greater acceptance of different perspectives. (I do the same thing with music though. Someone else hits a bum note, I ignore it and get on with listening. When I do it, I cringe and apologise, and hang on to that feeling of being a dunce. I also think I, too, might have a wee problem with brackets.)

I read somewhere, (regarding Usenet and newsgroups) that it's the lowest form of internet life who feels compelled to point out spelling and grammar mistakes. Most of us are typing here the same way we would speak, and to run everything through a spell checker or lengthy editing for grammar would just get in the way of communication. So does complaining about it. If we had to make sure everything we said in a conversation was correct before uttering a word, most of us with perfectly good ideas to contribute would just sit around and listen to people with good language skills. Perhaps we'd simply go somewhere where people cared more about what we had to say instead of how we said it.

Mind you, my writing ability has increased greatly from being here.