Quote Originally Posted by ggiese View Post
Yep - gotcha... Lots of "seems to me..." Makes sense to me it "seems like to" you!!!

...and it "seems like to" me that "tacky" is what my wife does to the decorating of the house, if I let her. "Totally Meaningless" is the promise from my son to fill his bank account, rather than spend his money on video games. Those two descriptions just don't do it for me when it comes to helping someone with their spelling/grammar...

Besides - is it "tacky" and "totally meaningless" that CigarDan is DEFINITELY showing an improvement in his spelling and grammar since he first came here? "COMMON" (as they like to say in Eastern Europe!)

I'm just truly thankful that I don't participate on any Eastern European online cigar board - they'd DESTROY me if I tried to communicate in their native language...
Good. I'm glad we got that all sorted out. It surprises me somewhat that it isn't realized that most everything on these discussion forums is opinion. I have tried in the past to state things in a way that reflected my thoughts as opinions. I guess I need to do a better job.


...and since you brought it up

The American Heritage Dictionary lists one of its definitions for the word "tacky" as "Distasteful or offensive; tasteless: a tacky remark."

and by "meaningless" I was using it in the context of something totally unrelated to the discussion at hand. In the context of the post, I feel that your attempt to interject a grammatical correction did nothing to clarify or discuss your position on the point Dan was trying to make, which was we should value our differences and diversity, and could actually be considered a hinderence to keeping the discussion on track. I think it was a bit offensive (i.e., tacky) that you chose to correct him on something so petty on a public forum... but that's just my opinion.

It does seem to me that one or two folks here have felt an obligation from time to time to *help* others by publicly correcting grammar and spelling errors. In my opinion, if someone wants to give constructive criticism, it is something that is better given in private. I feel that if someone really has a need to point out a *personally perceived* weakness, it'd probably be much more appropriate to send a PM. In my opinion, criticism, whether constructive or otherwise, is still just that... criticism. I'd personally compare it to having your boss give you your review at the water cooler or in the company newsletter.

By the way, I really want to say that I never knew that Dan was a foreign national until I met him in Atlanta, so I guess I really never noticed anything in his posts that would suggest he needed any help. His posts have always come across to me as intelligent and well thought out; much more so, to me, than a lot of posters I've seen here and on other forums who were born in this country. I guess that's probably why I never noticed the "improvement" you speak of.

...and to your comment about Americans participating on European boards...

You needn't be afraid of it. I travel a lot to Europe, as Pauline is a foreign national also. The folks there are much more tolerant and understanding of those of us who don't speak their language "too good." In fact, they seem genuinely grateful when Americans make an effort to speak in the local language or dialog. Of course, that is just a personal observation.