Showing posts with label language misuse web internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label language misuse web internet. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Thoughts on "acceptable misuse" language policies on the web

Software and web sites are fundamentally driven by the underlying language/code that provides either the operating system or a web browser with instructions. If there are errors in spelling or syntax within the code, then the computer will reject the intent of the message/instruction, and refuse to execute the wish of the programmer. Writing works in much the same way, but with a much more unpredictable audience. Unlike linguistic parsing within a computer (which offers second chances to rewrite code if the message doesn't get through the first time), a human user may actually tolerate errors, but a human audience also has the capacity to walk away from the writer's work permanently.