Here's an example of how the context-freeness of the web can work against you. I've never seen this guy's blog before. The headline was just interesting enough to get above my click threshold. But when I got to the post, all I noticed was how badly written it is:
perhaps it was quickly than trying to replicate
some Microsoft underlying thinks that they will make the old boss happy
If I knew the writer to be a frequent source of good insights, this wouldn't have much effect. But I don't, so it does.
Dismissing comments because of spelling errors? Not sure where it would lie in PG's categories (ad hominen?), but anyway. I remember the other saying, that sometimes you can learn more from your enemies than from your friends, because they are more likely to tell you the truth. How many people here on HN will dare to criticize a YC startup?
Personally I don't need or use Xobni, so I can't comment. And anyway, I probably make a lot of spelling mistakes, too, because English is only my second language. So feel free to ignore my comments.
I think you may have misunderstood my emphasis (my fault). I'm not interested in the grammatical mistakes as such; I'm interested in what happens when I go to read a web page from a source I'm unfamiliar with. Because URLs are pointers, I jump directly to content in medias res with very little context. In the absence of context, other indicators fill the vacuum. In this case, the sloppiness of the writing affected my perception of the author - which may be unfair. I'd have to read more to know for sure. But that's my point: fair or unfair, I'm not inclined to. (The photo didn't help, either.)
It's interesting that you brought up not being a native speaker. That is a piece of context I instinctively scan for, because if I get it wrong my judgment will be off. In this case, the title ("a UK VC") and the fellow's name made me expect the Queen's English and, now that I think of it, probably raised the standard I unconsciously applied.
One can make errors about this. I knew an American who had mastered Russian to such an extent that Russians thought he was Russian. This backfired. Inevitably, he would put things in a way that a real Russian never would. Not realizing he was a brilliant student of their language, native speakers concluded that he was an illiterate Russian. That's something Russians care about a lot, so he got badly treated.
As for your comments, I don't ignore them; I'm familiar enough with your user name that I must have read many of them, though I don't remember anything specific. I bet that if I had been asked, I would have identified you as an intelligent non-native-English speaker, and if I noticed any spelling mistakes I doubt they mattered.
Sorry if my reply came across a bit rough. Naturally, not being a native speaker, I felt a bit irked by it, because I would tend to fall victim to the "spelling mistakes filter" myself.
Of course judging by the presentation in general is perfectly valid and natural. Otherwise there would be no web design.
Not at all. I've often thought of how irksome it must be to learn English to a very high level and have one's mistakes judged by unilingual native speakers. My greatest envy of Europeans is how much easier it is to acquire languages over there... almost like it's in the water. Whereas here (I'm in Canada, US even more so) it's like pulling teeth. I've studied a few languages, some of them damn hard, and pretty much every European I meet speaks English 50x better.
It is much easier to learn English because most communication is English? Movies, the internet... I am confronted with English every day, whereas for another language (except my native language), I would have to make an effort.
I had the same reaction to his picture too, FWIW. I figure the guy's got more than one picture he can use to represent him, and presumably he picked the one that he thought represented him the best ...
The mistakes he made would not be caught by spell checkers, I think. What good grammar checkers are there? It seems Firefox comes with some spell checking functionality (at least it corrects me when posting on the net), but I have no idea how good it is. I think not that good...
I doubt many people on here need or use Xobni, it is strictly an Outlook plugin?
I didn't even use Outlook way back in the day when I was employed by a Fortune 500 that forced everyone to use it. I remember once someone mentioning to my manager that I hadn't completed my Outlook training and everyone in our group had a good laugh.
We aren't quite the target audience generally speaking.
People are getting accounts marked dead at the drop of a hat, if they don't drink the kool-aid.
That's false, as anyone can see by looking at the dead comments and submissions. There have always been people on here criticizing YC and YC-funded startups. And there have always been about 30 editors, for that matter.
"There have always been people on here criticizing YC and YC-funded startups"
And so there should be. Disagreeing on merits, and doing so in a good tone makes interesting conversation and broadens everyones minds. There's a lot of great disagreeing on YC news.
I would dare criticize YC startups (but not this one since I know absolutely nothing about it). If I got banned from here for doing so I would start a competitive site out of revenge...because that would be ridiculous.
Or have a lightsaber dual with pg, I would leave the choice to him. I warn you I would be wearing spandex during the latter though.
I was hoping someone would put together the spandex and the name and get the guy in the white spandex Tron outfit that was hopefully a Halloween costume :)
Incidentally, I think I was (probably) wrong then. I'm still waiting to see how it turns out, but their subsequent releases have been much, much more impressive than I expected them to be.
This is the third time in a short span that I've found myself interested in your comments. Contact me if you'd be interested in discussing issues relating to context online further (my email address is in my profile).
perhaps it was quickly than trying to replicate
some Microsoft underlying thinks that they will make the old boss happy
If I knew the writer to be a frequent source of good insights, this wouldn't have much effect. But I don't, so it does.