Hmm... it looks like you have a lot of punctuation.?

Question

Hmm... it looks like you have a lot of punctuation.

Yahoo! Answers keeps on telling me this whenever I write an answer to a question.

When I write on Yahoo! Answers, I use correct spellings and grammatical sentence constructions. I don't write excessively formally, but I do use punctuation including commas, full stops, colons, semi-colons, apostrophes, quotes, brackets, dashes and the occasional exclamation mark, where appropriate, considered to be correct by most guides to correct English.

Do you get this message, too? I propose that Yahoo! Answers raises the number of punctuation marks you need to cause this message to appear.

Yahoo! does this even when I do not quote a website. I understand that it recognises lots of punctuation in website addresses, however, as Yahoo! recognises websites and makes hyperlinks for them, it needs to exclude this from the punctuation count, too.

Nick

:)

PS: Other interesting questions regarding punctuation:

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AqBRRAUZr8bdsZrasniDeKVJBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20071111112024AA1l1Sd

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=An4MIKjx4Nrs274FUITi.65JBgx.;_ylv=3?qid=20080511001746AAh450w

Answer 1

Yeah, I get that a lot, but that's because I do lot of. . . .and such. . .Hmm... It looks like etc. blah! Open Spell Checker - what kind of English is that?  You mean, Please Open Spell Checker. . . .more dots to annoy you. . . . . . . . .

Answer 2

I liked the old screen better, where "Spell checker" just sort of sat there quietly on top of the box... : (

Answer 3

I "get" it, like, all of the time (I just don't understand why!)...........??

Joke!

Yes, it is annoying!

Answer 4

Yeah, I get those stupid-a$s tips when I write too... I wish they had an option where you could permanently disable it!!! I got one just as I'm typing this answer.

Answer 5

yeah i get it to!

Answer 6

ya we all get these messeges, they shud stop giving these dumb messeges

Answer 7

Yes,I get fed up with being told I have misspelled something when I have used a shortened version of a word,like "don,t".Now for another reminder from the Yahoo spelling police.BACK OFF!.Yes.I thought so,a reminder to not leave the caps lock on as it seems that I am shouting.OH DEAR!!

Answer 8

Yeah I always get this message... It is really annoying!!!

OMFG... I got that message again while I'm typing this answer!! WTF?

It seems to me that Yahoo! Answers doesn't want us to use any punctuation at all!!

It's just so dumb to me.

Answer 9

yes, i get that a lot too. it's frustrating as h**l, though! you type in the ellipses and it's "looks like you have a lot of punctuation"...see, there it goes! lol.

you know the one i also get a lot? the "oops! it looks like you have 1 misspelling(s)"...speak of the devil, there it is now. and there are no misspellings on this.  

Answer 10

I don't trust it- I tend to ignore the bubble the entire time I am writing. The punctuation thing comes up for me every time I put an exclamation point and a question mark together, but I mean come on, sometimes when you are asking a question, you need to emphasise your confusion or surprise.

What bothers me the most, though, are the 'misspelling' (s)... 'breastmilk' can be one word, dammit!

And I am from Australia so it's even worse; every time we I type words like 'recognise' (and 'emphasise')... we use lot of 's' in place of 'z'. We don't like that letter z.

Answer 11

Yeah, I know. In my opinion it is better to write properly with lots of punctuation, rather than writing slang with no punctuation at all.

Answer 12

Everyone seems to be irritated by it, if you search the forum you will find that there have been numerous posts about it on the suggestions board.

I suppose that Yahoo did it with the good intention of improving the general standards but they managed to go overboard to the extent of doing something really annoying.  They couldn't have done it like on Word I suppose though because this site couldn't do the colour for the red underlinings.

Maybe we'll get used to it, of course one solution is to compose answers on a program like Word or Note Pad and Copy and Paste.

Answer 13

I am a recent participant here, and and find their automated ****** very hair trigger and annoying.  You are normal, they are not.  If I use just one set of brackets and one set of quotes it will complain.  And another thing...if I capitalize one three letter word it accuses me of SHOUTING.  And speaking of caps, do they not realize we live in the age of acronyms?  One more?  When I click Ignore on the spell checker, it still keeps the nagging window open on the side.  Do they not know what ignore means?

So you are very not alone.

When I posted this, the even more annoying hair trigger censor put ***s where I used the word nag with the suffix -ger to describe the nagging of the punctuation checker.  Political correctness gone wild!!!

Answer 14

It annoys the h**l out of me.

They should really have a 'bubble' what says to those annoying people who type in text talk...

'Oh dear - You're not using ANY punctuation! And your grammar is appalling!'

....Instead of correcting people who use proper English.

Answer 15

Yes,,,, i get   it.......too!!!!!!!! really not sure why???????......

Answer 16

Yes, it is every bit as annoying as that paperclip in whatever word processing program it is that keeps making stupid suggestions.

Answer 17

They should stop that bleedin' speech bubble thing.

When you refuse to correct your spelling, it says "Please correct your spelling" in a silent, almost demonic way.