Spelling/vocabulary words for GTTP...

Some correct spellings and usages. Please work on these:

BRAKE, BRAKES: Things that make roller coasters stop.

BREAK: When an employee goes for coffee and doughnuts

HYDRAULIC: Pertaining to fluids and fluid power

PNEUMATIC: Pertaining to compressed gases, particularly air

QUEUE: A line ("queue line" is redundant)

Thank you for your cooperation! :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Rideman,

I think it would be a great idea to have a GTTP (or coasterbuzz or both) "Rideman Reference Page". This page could answer many questions before they are posted. Topics such as LIM & LSM, what they are, how they work, how magnetic brakes work, commonly used terms in the coaster design world, G forces, how they are applied and how they apply to the rider, what airtime really is, and any other technical topic that is commonly asked about. That is of course, if you had the time to do this. I find your posts to be very informative and enlightening.

Idora Wildcat

I agree a referance page would be very helpful

No, what would be helpful is if people had a dictionary next to their computer. I have one, because even with a degree in English I still get confused on some words or just forget. Sure, I make typos now and then, as everyone does, but far too many folks on the Internet have a blatant disregard for grammar and spelling.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED!

Bingo. You win.

MrScott
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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

In addition to a dictionary and a thesaurus, I have found that the "New York Times Manual of Style" to be extremely useful! But that's the obsessive-compulsive English minor in me. ;)

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MrScott said, presumably to Jeff:
Bingo. You win.

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Of course he wins. It's his site, for crying out loud! :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Who actually figured this thread would have been nuked by now. Since that hasn't happened, apparently the moderator types are feeling as frustrated as I was this afternoon...

I have the AP Style Manual on my desk, Neil. ;) It only comes in handy when you aren't sure if certain things should be capitalized.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED!

Unfortunately, many people have gotten used to spell checkers which may catch a mispelling, but not in the case of brake/break or your/you're where the words are spelled correctly, but used incorrectly grammatically.

Computers are wonderful in that they now put the world at our fingertips, but the downfall is the up and coming generations can no longer spell or put together a grammatically correct sentence anymore. What's worse, is many of them simply do not care.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead

Trust me, not all of us *young people* are so lackadaisical about proper English. I will be graduating with English and Spanish teaching degrees in two years, and trust me, my students will be studying grammar and spelling until they get it right -- even if they are high school seniors! Many people have problems with homophones; these individuals just need a lot of special attention and practice until they get it right.

I think one of the problems with correcting the spelling/grammar issue on GTTP is that not only young people add to the problem. There is a fair amount of adults who also cannot spell, or choose not to. For many people, the Internet is a casual place, and *slanguage* and poor spelling is a part of the atmosphere. Unlike in business or education, the majority of people on the Internet don't know who you are, so it doesn't matter how you portray yourself. (Disclaimer: The above statement isn't what I personally believe, but what I've observed in others).

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~Lee~

Group Sales ATL '01
Group Sales TL '02
'03 -- TBA
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"The greatest leaders don't take credit for their actions; they don't have to."
*** This post was edited by Lee 1/13/2003 7:18:31 PM ***

That's not entirely true. When you participate in a discussion group, the things you say, the language you use, and the attention you give to your work becomes a sort of personality of its own. And whether it represents the real "you"
or not, it is the "you" that other discussion group members are going to get to know. When it is a discussion group like this one, there is a very good chance that eventually you will meet up with the other group participants. So ask yourself...based on the version of 'you' that people 'meet' online, would the other group participants want to meet you in person?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Everyone makes spelling errors... that's perfectly acceptable. Horrible spelling errors are very noticeable, and even more annoying. You pretty much have to be blind not to see them, and too lazy to fix them.

Chat shorthand can be very annoying when you don't understand it. CP, MF, or WT are well known on these boards since its a Cedar Point forum.

Example of annoying chat shorthand... 'I wanted to OC my P4 CPU, but my Intel MB won't allow me to change my FSB or Vcore.'

How many people know what I'm talking about? I bet there are some that can, but most can't. Here is what I just said in expanded form. 'I wanted to overclock my pentium 4 central processing unit, but my Intel motherboard won't allow me to change my front side bus or core voltage.'

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Remember, "Being fat can even ruin a romantic cruise"

Actually, that isn't even so bad. It's the "h4x0r" that really gets annoying. That and chat shorthand that isn't really *useful* shorthand. I mean, to abbreviate "Cedar Point's Millennium Force" as "CP's MF" is one thing. But to abbreviate three letter words...to start talking like a license pl8...that's beyond childish and silly. R u out of ur mind? Give me a ^C!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Beyond problems with basic spelling and grammar, what I dislike the most is the petty, self-glorifying arguing, name-calling and immature comments that show up on here from time to time... I can deal with a few abbreviations (I use many of them -- like "CP" -- myself, just like everyone else) and overlooked errors and typos; when it comes to ignorance, however, I am immediately turned off.

Barring holding some sort of entrance examination (which is unfair, because it wouldn't help to predict how a person would react in a given situation, age isn't *necessarily* proportional to intelligence or maturity, and some very decent people come to these boards because they are interested in the subject and want to learn more -- they are not already "experts" or what-have-you) I am not sure how to solve this. The moderators are doing a great job of getting rid of these things, though...the rest of us just have to put up with it and not respond until it's taken care of.

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~Lee~

Group Sales ATL '01
Group Sales TL '02
'03 -- TBA
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"The greatest leaders don't take credit for their actions; they don't have to."

Actually, I think a coaster reference page would be very useful. I still wonder what's the difference between LIM and LSM. Basic things like what certain abbreviations stand for and what their functions are (as far as how LIM's work) would be verying helpful and would get rid of un-needed topics such as, "How do LIM's work?" Its just a thought...
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Feel the Beat

I have a Webster Dictionary Attachment on my IE panel/w thesaurus...

If your looking for 100% correct grammer...your in the wrong place.. Like Jeff said people will make typos. But when someone (because there lazy) spells Hydraulic
"hidraluic" theres a problem. This is only my opinion but, I think everyone thinks this way to some effect.
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2003 only... agh who cares!
Evan H.
"Have you ever had that battle with the keyless entry and someone trying to open the door? Is it open? How about now?"-- Comedy Central

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RideMan said:
Actually, that isn't even so bad. It's the "h4x0r" that really gets annoying. That and chat shorthand that isn't really *useful* shorthand. I mean, to abbreviate "Cedar Point's Millennium Force" as "CP's MF" is one thing. But to abbreviate three letter words...to start talking like a license pl8...that's beyond childish and silly. R u out of ur mind? Give me a ^C!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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It's been so long since I've seen that... I haven't been to an un-moderated forum in a long time. Moderation of public forums in pretty much the only way to get a good content to crap ratio. That's the reason I forgot about that crap.

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Remember, "Being fat can even ruin a romantic cruise"

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RideMan said:
Give me a ^C!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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Please tell me someone else out there got this besides me?? :) Dave, would ^Z count as well??

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Scott W. Short, Rail Junkie
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

How about just using http://www.dictionary.com ???

I use it all the time, it works great.

Shivering Tim and Ride Man - I got it. Gave me a good laugh too, but I would never use that in a sentence. I don't think you could substitute ^Z for ^C - two totally different things...

^C : Break, cancel, etc...
^Z : Undo.

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cyberdman

Merriam-Webster has a nice toolbar that fits right into IE. I use it all the time. The definition pops up into a new window so it doesn't interfere with your browsing. Also, once installed, you can highlight a word on a web page and right-click to look it up.

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Virtual Midway
http://www.virtualmidway.com