Pointing Out Others' Mistakes Publicly Makes YOU Look Like an Idiot

First, allow me to point your attention to an Examiner article I wrote a little over a month ago.  This came on the heels of someone who publicly commented on one of my Examiner articles that I basically was full of s*** and had no clue what I was talking about on my page.  Why would someone take advice from someone who couldn't spell?

So, why the drama?  Because there was a typo in my title.  I inadvertently wrote "chose" which was supposed to be "choose".  And instead of sending me an email (which is available on the page), the person decided to rip me to shreds, demean my credibility, and try to prove their own superiority by downing me on a comment section which could be seen by everyone who viewed my page.

Lately I've been getting several comments on my Associated Content articles by people who want to be the grammar police and want to publicly throw stones at me for typos and mistakes.  It's been happening a lot more lately, which I guess is because of my new found success at AC, having come in over 100,000 page views now, I'm starting to get some more attention.  People are taking a look at my articles to either try to figure out where to go with theirs and get descent page views or they are taking a look at my articles to pick them apart for mistakes to try to tell themselves that they are superior and can write better.  The thing about this is that nine times out of ten, these "Guests" that leave questionable remarks on our articles are actually other contributors.  So to those who want to waste time trying to up their own ego by cowering behind a "Guest" title and leaving comments that only make them look like a nitpicking idiot, this post is for you.

I've never claimed that I was a better writer then anyone else.  When I began this blog, it was done so on the newbie level.  Since then, I've grown with experience and with that came the inevitable "figuring things out".  Now, while I've figured many things out, I don't know it all and I've never claimed to know it all.  I try to help where I can and if I don't know the answer, then I'll find someone who does.

What were the comments?  One comment from "Guest: Canadian Writer" stated, "Please, please, please take a writing coarse."  Another comment from "Guest: Jazz" pointed out some mistakes and proceeded to order me to correct them on my articles as if that person was paying me instead of AC.  And they do this publicly to try to rally support.  There have been many more comments but you get the drift.

Listen, on places like AC, Examiner, and all my blogs, mistakes are inevitable.  These are fast publishing platforms and as such, sometimes it runs like a mill.  Doing around 3 to 5 articles across the board on most days, I'm bound to miss something.  I am human despite what my stepchildren might believe.  If there is a very obvious mistake on something, I more then appreciate a nice quick (private) note to let me know so that if I have the power to go in and change it (if it is a Display Only on AC, for instance), then I can.  And trust me, I will thank the person who does that for me.

So, before you point out my most common mistakes, I already know what they are:

-Course and coarse: I used to have a BAD problem with this one.  I'm not that terrible with it anymore but occasionally in a hurry, I won't pay attention to which one I'm using.
- Then and than: same as the above.  Only I haven't gotten any better with this usage.  This is next on my agenda to conquer.
-I'm southern and as such, I don't talk (or write) the way most others do.  If you catch an "ain't got no" phrase in my work, it's just me writing in my talking voice.  Same goes for some other phrases that I use.  If it is too terrible to swallow, then drop me a note.  I may or may not have intentionally wrote it that way.

Having said that, if it is a matter of little things like "then and than" that you are drawing my attention to, I won't be going back to fix it.  Regular readers (who are not also writers) are likely not going to notice anyway.  I don't see the need to waste time going back through my over 200 articles to correct "then and than".

Inevitably, though, I will still get these "superior" remarks because there are those out there who simply have nothing better to do.  And I shall block and move on.