Is Their a Speel Checker Amung Us?

Begin rant in 3…2…1…

If I’m reading something someone wrote in say an internet forum somewhere, or a blog, or a comment on a story, etc. I will totally disengage if I see they have any grammatical/punctuation mistakes and/or misspellings.  (I know this is going to send both of my readers into a frenzied state spell checking my posts, but I’ll take my chances.)  It’s not like I'm asking anyone to get collective plurals correct all the time, (Rush are the bestest band ever!!) or disregard them over improper use of 'that' and 'which' (that Incidentally, I get wrong a lot)) or worse,force them to understand why comparative and superlative modifiers can’t be doubled up. (Although, if you want to sound the most dumbest, this is probably the best way to do it.) I’m just asking for a little proofreading to go on before they post all that junk I cared enough to read. 

OK OK, I know it sounds crazy to disregard content because of a few mistakes (hell, it sounds downright self righteous)  but cmon now…how is one supposed to take anything seriously when it's clearly evident the person posting it didn’t spend any time checking their work?  I question credibility when they cant get the simple stuff right.  It not like we are talking about getting out the DEC PDP-10 to verify their posting either.  It takes merely seconds to make all of this happen.  A spell checker exists on almost all pages where we are able to actually write something, and if there isn’t one, there is no reason you cant open your local word processor application and have that go through your musings for errors.  (If you don’t have Word, or OpenOffice etc, download a checker for your browser or use an online checker; they’re free, you know). The point is, in this day and age there I see no excuse to be using made up words (bestest and  favoritest are not words people! I was joking up there....) , spelling words  inacurately, (another joke) or hacking plurals to death. (i.e shelfs, testimonys, )   

All kidding aside, here is what goes through my head when I see posts that contain those types of errors:

• You didn’t care enough to double check your work because you obviously rushed through it. Either that, or you're just plain dumb.
• If you rushed through something as simple as posting a comment, asking a question or writing a reply to someone in a forum, how can I be sure you took enough time to understand anything about what you are posting? I mean if you’re too lazy to get it right when trying to tell someone else about it, how can I be sure you weren’t lazy in gathering up the facts before you got to this point?
• From here I just question your ability to comprehend, judge, interpret and retain.

So at the risk of sounding like my 9th grade English teacher, (not really a risk; her voice was much higher than mine) I’ll l say this. If you don’t care enough to check the spelling or grammar of your work, then I dont care enough to read it.

Thank you. 

Since we're all here, I have one more request. Please stop ending sentences with the word at!! I don’t care about the other prepositions with which we are not supposed to end sentences, its only the preposition “at” that concerns me.  I don’t know if all the English teachers finally got tired of correcting everyone, but in the last few years, ending sentences with “at” seems to have taken everyone by storm, and sadly, everyone sounds really comfortable doing it.  I’ve heard it on TV, I’ve heard it from friends and family, and I’ve seen it in print in multiple places all over the internet.  Nothing makes you sound like a moron faster than ending sentences with the word at.   Feel free to continue if it makes you feel better, but understand that by doing so, I will listen to less and less of what you have to say.

End rant.