Spare Parts
For non-modeling topics and those without a home elsewhere.
Pet Forum Peeves
AJLaFleche
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Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 06:35 AM UTC
Yeah, I know it's not earth shattering and the sun's gonna set tonight and come up again tomorrow, but I've got to get these of peeves (in no particular order) off my chest.

A newbie explores a long established forum, digging deep into the archives and responds to a 5 year old post, one that has been long discussed and put to bed, one in which the OP may have long ago got his/her answer or settled a debate.

Guys, look at the last date before replying.

Someone who has no information in their profile about their location asks where they can get a given product.

First, Google is your friend. It's amazing how many dealers list their products on-line.

Second, if we don't know where, not even the country, you are, responses can be totally useless. Elsewhere, someone was looking for ground material, maybe Celluclay. I suggested they check out their local railroad modeling hobby shop since my previous response was the two major A&C chains here in the states. He came back with, "Can I buy it there?" Get in the car, on the bike, take a walk or let your fingers do the walking and make a call to the stores and ask. How are pepole a thousand miles away supposed to know if the store in your neighborhood has something?

People who ask for advice and never acknowledge they saw the posts giving them the information they need.

Vent and rant mode over.
Grumpyoldman
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Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 12:26 PM UTC
I agree Al,
Those are a few of my favorite things!

18Bravo
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Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 12:49 PM UTC
Hmmm... Threads asking about peeves?

No, seriously, you have a point.

My top one would have to be WIP's that have no photos. All to often a mention is made of it, several people sound off with how cool that wounds, and then it fizzles out, without photo one.

Conversely, a WIP that shows every single part added in agonizing detail, to include when it was still on the sprue.

lampie
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Posted: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 - 10:49 PM UTC

Quoted Text

People who ask for advice and never acknowledge they saw the posts giving them the information they need.



100% agree on this one!

And while I'm at it,,
People who just type a question, ( often without punctuation or capital letters, or maybe thats just coincidence), almost in the same way one would use an internet search engine.
A complete absence of " I would like to find out",,"Can anyone tell me", "Thanks in anticipation" etc.
Maybe another coincidence, but these are often the sort of people who dont acknowledge an answer.

Nige
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 01:48 AM UTC
Oh, go on then.

Peepul who can't speel.

People who think "definitely" is spelled "definately"; people who think "a lot" is spelled "allot"; people who ... oh, you get the picture.

People who don;t know how to use punctuation particularly this little cunning dot thing called a full stop or the little tadpoley, things called, commas or apostrophe's

People who use commas when they should use semi-colons, this really winds me up, why can't they get it right. And as for question marks ... and too many question marks, what are they, like, fourteen???????!!?!!!?

People who think every idea they have belongs in a single stream-of-consciousness sentence worthy of William Burroughs no people you have to stop from time to time and give us a chance to take a mental breath did they not teach you at school that a sentence is a complete concept in itself and the next concept belongs in the next sentence that's why they're written separately

People who think they're txtng. I mean, come on, even I can tell the different between a mobile phone and a computer.

PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT "CAPS LOCK" MEANS.

And people who start silly, pointless fights over silly, pointless subjects.
lespauljames
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 02:04 AM UTC
calm down Sean, it looks like you'd call the police if some uses wrong grammar and punctuation.!?"£!"!
exer
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 02:17 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Peepul who can't speel.



I don't mind that really since this is an international forum and we can't agree on the spelling of Armor/Armor, Mould/mold etc. People who can spell and don't bother get me. The capital letter at the start of a sentence and a full stop or question mark at the end is punctuation enough for me.

The type of post that annoys me is the one where the poster asks a question about for instance where he can get a kit of an armoured car. Someone replies and tells him about the Italeri Staghound. No, he says, I meant Armoured cars from the twenties. Another poster tells him about the Roden Rolls Royce A/C. No, he says, I meant in 1/72scale. Someone tells him about a 1/72 scale Rolls Royce. No he says I want a Polish Armoured car in 1/72 scale. Someone knows where he can get an Austin-Putilov armoured car in 1/72 scale. No, I don't mean that Polish armoured car I mean the Polish Samochod pancerny wz.28 (model 1928) armoured car in 1/72.
Well maybe if he'd thought about the question a bit before posting and didn't assume we were mind readers, he'd get a quicker answer.

Btw I made this question up so if you asked about Polish Armoured cars this is not about you



AussieReg
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#007
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 03:17 AM UTC


People from England who only want to talk about the ashes now they have won.

No futher correspondence will be entered into.

jaypee
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 03:36 AM UTC
Being mistaken for an Englishman.
AussieReg
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#007
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 03:48 AM UTC
Oops, a thousand apologies JP, I was just checking that you were paying attention, where I obviously wasn't.

Now, DEFINITELY no further correspondence will be entered into, maybe.
Grumpyoldman
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 07:01 AM UTC

Quoted Text

The type of post that annoys me is the one where the poster asks a question about for instance where he can get a kit of an armoured car. Someone replies and tells him about the Italeri Staghound. No, he says, I meant Armoured cars from the twenties. Another poster tells him about the Roden Rolls Royce A/C. No, he says, I meant in 1/72scale. Someone tells him about a 1/72 scale Rolls Royce. No he says I want a Polish Armoured car in 1/72 scale. Someone knows where he can get an Austin-Putilov armoured car in 1/72 scale. No, I don't mean that Polish armoured car I mean the Polish Samochod pancerny wz.28 (model 1928) armoured car in 1/72.
Well maybe if he'd thought about the question a bit before posting and didn't assume we were mind readers, he'd get a quicker answer



Yep them too!

TacFireGuru
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 11:06 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Shameful eBay plug for....


Hmm....if it's shameful or you are ashamed of it, why post?

And yep, lack of basic punctuation.

And Al, love (well, very much dislike ) your first example. I actually got interested about a recent one....until I opened it and found that it was from three years ago (or so). Heck, already had that bookmarked.

Quoted Text

Armor/Armor


Hey Pat, you got Armor spelled correctly both times! Guess there's no issue with that word!

Mike
retiredbee2
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 11:10 AM UTC
You know what annoys me are people who worry so much about peepul who can't speeel. This is the same person who is so critical of others because they are not one hundred percent perfect as he thinks that he is. If it isn't the spelling ,then the next thing would be some overdone criticism about a figure or some other less than perfect thing to complain about. I do not mind being a bit imperfect........and useing those annoying dots..........works for me ,a lot better than all that self admiration and worship. And so ,if my occasional misspelled words bother anyone........dot dot dot.....I say get over yourself..............life is much too short to sweat the small stuff.............dot dot dot.........oh ,and by the way .............????????? Have fun, kid around a little and be happy.......God loves you......... Al
MEBM
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 01:00 PM UTC
As much as I hate to say it, I've done many of those! (And more than once, I'm afraid!) However, I learn sooner or later. Although, since we're a ranting mood, I do have one that sticks in my craw, and not just on forums. And that is using an apostrophe when pluralizing something. For instance:

"Hey, I just got a couple of Staghound's!"

I see this kind of thing on billboards, newspapers, and magazines...I don't know why it bothers me so much, but for some reason, it does. I mean, if you're not a native English-speaker, I have no problem with it...I can't tell you how many times I wrote "If" when I meant "Yes" in Spanish class! (One little tilde can make a world of difference!) But honestly, if you grew up in an dominantly English-speaking country, and was taught English grammar, you'd think after 12 years you'd know something as simple as when to use an apostrophe and when not to!

Okay. Rant over. Back to my 6-page paper on Folk Tales from Pre-Modern India.
retiredbee2
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 01:38 PM UTC
Hi Mathew. From what I have seen more people in this country , butcher up the language than not. It would be great if everyone learned it correctly and used good spelling and grammer but not everyone has the same education or can remember all the rules. As for me, I don't use such terms as I aint got none. I can get by, but I probably will not get a A in English. For me to have this ,or say someones bad math skills as a peeve would be a waste of energy. The one thing on these posts that I think is strange , but not really a peeve, is that question of where can I get figures to ride in say any particular vehicle? Any common soldier wearing a standard uniform can ride in just about anything going. Anyone who ever served in the military knows this. Take care......Al
MEBM
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 02:45 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi Matthew. From what I have seen more people in this country , butcher up the language than not. It would be great if everyone learned it correctly and used good spelling and grammer but not everyone has the same education or can remember all the rules. As for me, I don't use such terms as I aint got none. I can get by, but I probably will not get a A in English. For me to have this ,or say someones bad math skills as a peeve would be a waste of energy. The one thing on these posts that I think is strange , but not really a peeve, is that question of where can I get figures to ride in say any particular vehicle? Any common soldier wearing a standard uniform can ride in just about anything going. Anyone who ever served in the military knows this. Take care......Al



Very good point. Although, I believe that it should be corrected if it's in a widely distributed newspaper or on a billboard. And make no mistake: I am no grammatical genius. I wish I were; that'd be great! And I agree, to complain about something that we can't (or shouldn't) change is a waste of energy. Like you said, don't sweat the small stuff. Have a great day.
UncaBret
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 03:52 PM UTC

Quoted Text



People who don;t know how to use punctuation particularly this little cunning dot thing called a full stop or the little tadpoley, things called, commas or apostrophe's



oh yeah i like ttlly no wat u meen u no ihate that 2 its like so ttlly anoying when som1 dos that n it like rilly makes me so mad u no nad theirs also that other thin tat rilly maks me wat 2 screem n pul my hare out

Of course, It also bothers me when someone clicks 'Reply & Quote' on a post with 37 pictures that I've already gone through and then just says "cool".
Grumpyoldman
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 07:11 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Of course, It also bothers me when someone clicks 'Reply & Quote' on a post with 37 pictures that I've already gone through and then just says "cool".



Yep! Another one.

As for spelling, here's a neat little free spell checker for IE.
IESPELL
I've been using it for years.- when I remember to use it!
LuckyBlunder
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 08:36 PM UTC
I have one really major pet peeve beyond those mentioned (many of which, I'm probably guilty of).It's network wide.

People who don't know the difference between "loose" and "lose" and people who don't know the difference between theirs and there's.

Why this gets to me, I don't know. Just a burr under my particular saddle.

Steve

Halfyank
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 09:26 PM UTC
The one thing that really gets me going is when somebody asks a simple question concerning how to fix a particular kit and is bombarded by posts either telling them to scrap the kit and buy XYZ kit, or pay two or three times the original kit price for the Nth degree P.E. upgrade kit from ABC. This bugs me for two reasons. The original poster might now feel they are unable to make a decent model from the material they have, and new posters on the board automatically assume they have to buy all this extra stuff even before they have even gotten the basics down.

PS, Dave I have had that spell checker on my computer for ages and I love it. It only takes a moment to double check yourself on spelling.
pigsty
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 10:46 PM UTC

Quoted Text

You know what annoys me are people who worry so much about peepul who can't speeel. This is the same person who is so critical of others because they are not one hundred percent perfect as he thinks that he is. If it isn't the spelling ,then the next thing would be some overdone criticism about a figure or some other less than perfect thing to complain about.



Nope, I don't think I'm perfect, and I don't criticise others' work on the assumption that I am. I'm only saying that there's a right way and wrong way to use the language; it's not demanding perfection to expect it not to be mangled. So long as I can make sense of what someone's saying, great, and of course if someone's not writing in his first language, you've got to make allowances. But far too much stuff on forums (of all descriptions) is so difficult to read that it's easier to skip it. And that's needless. If we've been taught how to write, why not use what we've been taught?
05Sultan
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Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 - 11:37 PM UTC

Quoted Text

The one thing that really gets me going is when somebody asks a simple question concerning how to fix a particular kit and is bombarded by posts either telling them to scrap the kit and buy XYZ kit, or pay two or three times the original kit price for the Nth degree P.E. upgrade kit from ABC. This bugs me for two reasons. The original poster might now feel they are unable to make a decent model from the material they have, and new posters on the board automatically assume they have to buy all this extra stuff even before they have even gotten the basics down.

PS, Dave I have had that spell checker on my computer for ages and I love it. It only takes a moment to double check yourself on spelling.





Good one Rodger! Think I started a somewhat a flame war of sorts years ago on another forum by using that peeve criticism.
Also, my rare evil-bay plugs are NEVER shameful. Totally shameless! Like, I have another round of auctions starting next Sunday PM PDT under my sellers name: minidudes.
Can I get some love and Brasso with that please?
Cheers!
Rick
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Posted: Thursday, October 01, 2009 - 03:30 AM UTC
Great topics! There's quite a few peeves I've always wanted to vent about but never got around starting a thread about it.


Quoted Text


"Hey, I just got a couple of Staghound's!"

I see this kind of thing on billboards, newspapers, and magazines...I don't know why it bothers me so much, but for some reason, it does. I mean, if you're not a native English-speaker, I have no problem with it...I can't tell you how many times I wrote "If" when I meant "Yes" in Spanish class! (One little tilde can make a world of difference!) But honestly, if you grew up in an dominantly English-speaking country, and was taught English grammar, you'd think after 12 years you'd know something as simple as when to use an apostrophe and when not to!


I second that. While those kind of mistakes very rarely make the post unintelligible, they still stick out like a sore thumb. Being a non-native English speaker myself, I must have my fair share of goofs so I doubt I have much to nag about others' language, but still I sometimes have to shake my head in disbelief on how some systematically make the same mistakes, either in grammar or just spelling of everyday words.
Personally, I feel I have to plead guilty to the use of "should - would" structures. Now what was the dialect that allowed that? Btw, am I the only one who thinks that the ways to avoid that rule tend to sound somewhat artificial and awkward?)

Talking of grammar and spelling mistakes, here's a great guide for avoiding all kinds of Common mistakes in English usage. Too bad that those who could it use it the most, probably aren't the ones browsing it.


Quoted Text

Of course, It also bothers me when someone clicks 'Reply & Quote' on a post with 37 pictures that I've already gone through and then just says "cool".


My thoughts exactly! That bothers me as well even though the comment was longer than just the single word compliment.
Not a big deal if there's one or two not-so-humongous pics in in the quote, they can be even useful in a thread with multiple posts with pics to make it clear which ones are referred to, but those quotes with a multitude of big photos is just nasty to scroll through.

Staying with the topic of pictures, another thing that I find bothersome is threads showing some recently finished build, with the picture link simply posted as text. Sometimes I find myself just skipping these kind of threads if I'm not in the mood for the brief copy-pasting spree required to view the pics.
dioman13
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Posted: Thursday, October 01, 2009 - 05:00 AM UTC
O.K. guy's, we are modlers, not spelling teachers. Often I find that my fingers are walking faster than my brain and when I read before I hit reply, I wonder what I just tried to say. Some times it's me, other times my key board. I do find it kind of hummorus trying to figure out what somebody from another country is trying to say at times, but it makes it interesting. And I am sure that they find it funny to read my stuff at times too, especially when we both speak and write in different languages. That we have comunication and can relate to each other is the important thing. .
BobCard
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Posted: Thursday, October 01, 2009 - 05:42 AM UTC
[/quote]
oh yeah i like ttlly no wat u meen u no ihate that 2 its like so ttlly anoying when som1 dos that n it like rilly makes me so mad u no nad theirs also that other thin tat rilly maks me wat 2 screem n pul my hare out [/quote]

I could actually read that.

I've been accused on more than one occasion of killing the Queens English.

Still kills me to do updates and bother posting photos, get 2459 views with only 10 comments. Just doesn't seem worth the effort. I just keep on posting maybe I'm helping someone or at least making them laugh.
Bob