Keyboards are not fun for me anymore.

[Hypersphere]

@adhoc: Nothing personal! I just cannot resist playing with words. In my opinion, non-native speakers of English often write more clearly than native speakers, perhaps owing to a more economical style. Thus, because native speakers tend to be more verbose, they fall more often into language traps.

[Blaise170]

Imagine that. This is the first time I've logged in for a couple of weeks. For some reason I don't have a whole lot of desire to visit anymore. That's not to say anything about Deskthority, it's still my home, but I suppose keyboards just don't mean as much to me anymore.

[bujorc]

Some initiative like reviving Alps designs would take you out of this state... Just please don't put your boards on ebay, I'm a ping away

[wobbled]

Keyboards have become a money making scheme to a lot of people which really ruins the fun for us nerds. I dont live near any recycle centres so the best chance I have of getting cheap mechanical boards is via ebay, and that place is plagued with reddit guys looking to profit from boards they got for cheap, or people that do 2 minutes of googling and list their cum stained shit boards as 'rare vintage clicky keyboard' for the price of a house deposit

[kbdfr]

[…] In my opinion, non-native speakers of English often write more clearly than native speakers, perhaps owing to a more economical style. Thus, because native speakers tend to be more verbose, they fall more often into language traps.

I would rather say the reason is non-native speakers (probably of any language), at least if they are proficient enough, write more clearly than native speakers because they in fact had to really learn the language in question.
As a non-native English speaker, I just can't understand how you can mix up 'its' and 'it's" or "there", "their" and "they're"

[Muirium]

As a non-native English speaker, I just can't understand how you can mix up 'its' and 'it's" or "there", "their" and "they're"

But their all so easy, Mr. Choc. Its no mean feet to get them strait when you think in English inside you’re head! We just type what were hearing; like Andrew Joy does, to my regular quiet amusement.

[Hypersphere]

[…] In my opinion, non-native speakers of English often write more clearly than native speakers, perhaps owing to a more economical style. Thus, because native speakers tend to be more verbose, they fall more often into language traps.

I would rather say the reason is non-native speakers (probably of any language), at least if they are proficient enough, write more clearly than native speakers because they in fact had to really learn the language in question.
As a non-native English speaker, I just can't understand how you can mix up 'its' and 'it's" or "there", "their" and "they're"

Good for you! The mix-ups you have listed are near the top of my list of 10,000 or so "pet peeves".

I think that another reason many US citizens are deficient in communication skills is that owing in part to the global pervasiveness of the English language, we do not feel compelled to learn a foreign language. Learning another language, even at a relatively rudimentary level, can help a person to understand more about his own language.

[Muirium]

This will get easier as America becomes a land of two languages. And, unlike French in Canada, Spanish is only growing as a first language for generations to come.

I’m a native English speaker too, obviously, and so I benefit just as much from the world bending backwards to speak what I already know. But I agree with you that it’s better we all have at least the perspective of what any language feels like, from the outside looking in. I suspect we will, too, as Chinese and Spanish take their place among the truly global languages.

[Findecanor]

This will get easier as America becomes a land of two languages.

You mean, USA? America is already a continent with quite a few languages.
Only by native English-speakers is the country with the large military in the north called "America".

[adhoc]

As a non-native English speaker, I just can't understand how you can mix up 'its' and 'it's" or "there", "their" and "they're"

But their all so easy, Mr. Choc. Its no mean feet to get them strait when you think in English inside you’re head! We just type what were hearing; like Andrew Joy does, to my regular quiet amusement.

That’s funny, but what isn’t is how many native speakers do not understand the phrase “I could not care less”. When somebody writes “I could care less” wanting to say the former, it tells me not only that this person can barely write in his own language, but also that he does not understand it either. And that saddens me. Especially since English is a very simple language (grammar wise, vocabulary is impressively extensive).

[Muirium]

You mean, USA? America is already a continent with quite a few languages.
Only by native English-speakers is the country with the large military in the north called "America".

As if I’d lay sneaky cognitive traps…

Anyways, as we all know, besides America, where Americans are from, the rest of the New World over there consists of Latin America, where they speak Latin. Fine language that it is.

That’s funny, but what isn’t is how many native speakers do not understand the phrase “I could not care less”. When somebody writes “I could care less” wanting to say the former, it tells me not only that this person can barely write in his own language, but also that he does not understand it either. And that saddens me. Especially since English is a very simple language (grammar wise, vocabulary is impressively extensive).

Actually, I quite like the phrase “I could care less” as it perfectly sums up its own attitude. You care so little you can’t even be arsed emphasising it correctly!

Now, I never actually use it—or its ironically less emphatic forebear—because I always care, or I just don’t engage at all. Such is the way of we Scots, and our own pithy layer in the language.

[adhoc]

You care so little you can’t even be arsed emphasising it correctly!

Alright, I'll buy it. Next up: why don't Americans understand what "literally" and "figuratively" means?

[Muirium]

Because, like, "figuratively" sounds kinda fancy, maybe even to the point of effete. And when you want to literally emphasise your point, like literally, that's not the look you're going for.

I have heard people deploy "You have figuratively *got* to be taking the piss!" quite effectively. But only because they are joining in the piss extraction stakes inso doing. "Figuratively" steals all the attention, even while making what is in fact a weaker, if truer, point. Bullshit wins, so literally.

[xxhellfirexx]

You care so little you can’t even be arsed emphasising it correctly!

Alright, I'll buy it. Next up: why don't Americans understand what "literally" and "figuratively" means?

https://xkcd.com/725/

[Hypersphere]

@Muirium: I thought Michigan was the only place where people said, "Anyways". Perhaps we caught the virus from the Scots.

@adhoc: Regarding the "I could not care less/I could care less" problem, you have hit upon the real underlying issue that prevents many people from writing and/or speaking clearly -- a lack of clear thinking. They need logic!

In my job, I do a considerable amount of editing of other people's writing in order to produce jointly authored papers for publication. The work goes much more smoothly with some of my senior colleagues who are not native speakers of English than it does with students who are native speakers of English. Of course, there are at least two variables here, but I believe I have isolated the main reason for this difference. My senior overseas colleagues write logically, making it very easy to polish the English. The relatively inexperienced students tend not to write logically, making editing difficult because I need to correct the logic before I can begin to polish the prose.

If I could recommend one course that students ought to take in high school or early college, it would be a course in elementary logic. Alternatively, they should spend a semester on Vulcan.

[Blaise170]

Keyboards have become a money making scheme to a lot of people which really ruins the fun for us nerds. I dont live near any recycle centres so the best chance I have of getting cheap mechanical boards is via ebay, and that place is plagued with reddit guys looking to profit from boards they got for cheap, or people that do 2 minutes of googling and list their cum stained shit boards as 'rare vintage clicky keyboard' for the price of a house deposit

You've summed up a lot of my feelings on the topic.

[fohat]

Bargains on ebay are harder to find these days, but prices do tend to stabilize on everything except the "hot" items that are in vogue at the moment. Ebay is the quintessential free market.

But then there is the additional problem that some of these things (eg beam springs) are truly scarce so prices may never (perhaps should never?) come down.

Evading the supply vs demand equation is seldom easy.

[Hypersphere]

Today, my faith in humanity and eBay was restored, at least somewhat. I was looking for another IBM 5140 keyboard, and I asked a seller who had posted the entire 5140 computer (which is the usual situation) if he would be willing to sell just the keyboard. It turns out that he already had a spare 5140 keyboard, which he sold to me at a reasonable price.

[Myoth]

Today, my faith in humanity and eBay was restored, at least somewhat.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOT-OF-2x-IB ... pt=truelol

oops

I mean they're cheap but we know what happened to them ...

[abrahamstechnology]

Today, my faith in humanity and eBay was restored, at least somewhat.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LOT-OF-2x-IB ... pt=truelol

oops

I mean they're cheap but we know what happened to them ...

That's pretty sad. I'd wish these keyboard scalpers would at least put in some Matiases to keep the original keyboards usable.

[snacksthecat]

Glad you've stuck around