Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

dangerousminds.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 215 posts

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#161

Post by andrewaylett »

nraynaud wrote: post #57

(Non native english speaker) isn't the verb "to go TO" and the whole sentence: "Do you know where we're going TO?"

"Do you know where we're going?" would be what most UK speakers would say, and "Do you know to where we are going?" would be an archaic variant which implies a location is requested rather than an action. The verb used is "to go"; the answer might be "[we are going] to London" or "[we are going] shopping".

There's some potential for confusion in that the verb "to go" can be used for the future imperfect (I think, I was only taught my tenses in French and German lessons) as well as the present tense: note the difference between "We are going to London" or "We are going shopping" and "We are going to go to London" or "We are going to go shopping", or even "We are going to shop". The former is talking about an action we are currently undertaking (to go: implying motion), the latter about a future intent (to go: expressing an intent to do something in the future) to carry out the action in the former case. Using a different verb: "We are riding a bicycle", compared to "we are going to ride a bicycle"

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#162

Post by jokermatt999 »

burgerbrain wrote: post #54
n1ck4n wrote: post #12

He's missing this one Fill in the gap: a) it's b) its "The hacker got access to the server and killed ... processes" lolz

The problem with this one is that at one point in the English language's history (17th/18th century I believe), the correct possessive form of "it" was "it's", which is arguably more correct^. ^You make nouns possessive by adding a saxon genitive to signify the distinct possessive-izing "s" sound. The word "it" is also made possessive with this same sound when spoken, but for the sake of a contraction (read: abominat…

My way of remembering its/it's is to associate it with his/hers rather than the typical 's.

`The cat stepped on his foot.`

`The cat stepped on its foot.`

Still, I don't get annoyed at its/it's because it's such an easy mistake to make. I still do it occasionally without meaning to. I don't quite get how people consistently get their/there/they're or loose/lose wrong, but that's just me.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#165

Post by jmilloy »

forensic wrote: post #158
jmilloy wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good poet knows when and how to defy grammar.

Except he isn't defying grammar. It's correct to use loose that way.

It's just that being in a poem doesn't have anything to do with being correct or not, whether it is correct in this poem or not.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#166

Post by damoncali »

raganwald wrote: post #78
corin_ wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know people smarter than the vast majority of HN users (how can this really be judged, sure, but I'd place money on it, certainly far, far smarter than me) who wouldn't know those, and I know many, many people who are damn smart (just not fitting them into the "smarter than most people here", but definitely smart enough to belong here if they wanted to) who also wouldn't know them.

I beg your pardon, I was trying to crack a funny. It seems it is impossible to parody an extremist belief without somebody mistaking it for the general article. I was attempting to parody the fundamentalist debating pedant point of view. Poe’s Law strikes again: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poes_Law

A sign of great writing: Half the readers think it's serious, the other half think it's a joke. Well done.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#167

Post by damoncali »

silverbax88 wrote: post #32
raganwald wrote: post #9

Am I to understand from the title that we are equating “poor spelling/grammar in English” with “idiot”? Or is there some more subtle mechanism at work, such as equating “can’t be bothered to stare at hard-to-read-text just to post lulz, wat?” with “idiot”?

We are equating that after years of education, with the subject of English (albeit American English) being a core class for EVERY YEAR of attendance, and with spell checkers on most forum communities, that if someone still goes out of their way to transpose "lose" with "loose", then, yes, they are probably an idiot.

Maybe they're smart, but suck at spelling. Not everyone is wired the same.

Re: Captchas To Keep Idiots Out Of Comment Threads

#168

Post by eavc »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #84
darklajid wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this is not appropriate, but it made me laugh so hard. I'm trying to write as correct as I can, but the GP just proved that these mistakes happen to everyone, even the people that think that it might make sense. What about non-native speakers? Their point might be valuable, the participation in a discussion really help- and meaningful, but still - these now/know, there/their, you're/your mistakes are common. A…

FYI, you write "correctly". The only thing, grammatically, that you can do "correct" is "come correct", but that's an idiom.

Is 'correct' even working as an adverb in that case, or is it more like "come ready" or "come hungry"?
Post reply on HN