The End of Online Stupidity?
Posted Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 10:12 am by Marissa (46 posts)
One day, when I was in middle school, our principal sent us students home with a letter. My mom read it, furrowed her brow and reached for a red pen. She then mercilessly corrected the grammar, put the corrected letter in an envelope, and sent me back to school with it.
Which is why I was shocked to review an online conversation I had with mother, which contained many English offenses, among them, the word “tonite” (seriously, the correct spelling only contains one extra letter ?? is it really that much more difficult to type in that ght?
If only the ??stupid filter? was ready for prime time, I could have salvaged the childhood image I have of my mother.
What exactly is the stupid filter? According to the project??s site, the stupid filter is ??an open-source filter software that can detect rampant stupidity in written English.? The filter will take those odious triple exclamation points and shove them right back into the face of the digital delinquent who put them there.
All English snobbery aside, Ortiz??s ??stupid filter? serves a real purpose for non-profits who are ready to explore the world of user-generated content. Many organizations out there would like to dip their toes in this vast ocean, but are wary because doing so may dumb down the level of discourse on their Web site. Organizations spend so much time and effort writing, editing maintaining their message and tone. All it takes is ??LOL!!! i totly know what u mean? to ruin that balance.
So far, the only real solution had been uber-moderation, which can be quite a resource drain. Organizations need more than a filter that will reject dirty words. They need a filter that will promote intelligent dialogue over thoughtless reactions. While the stupid filter may not be a cure-all, the requirement of readable prose is certainly a start. It may just need a little bit of a politeness make-over.
That said, once it??s ready, I??m very eager to test out the stupid filter. When the filter talks back to my mother, I??ll totally be ROTFL!!!!!
