No, I have checked this a thousand times. I am sure it doesn’t have a hyphen
Ah, well, if that’s the case, then I defer.
Both my wife, Mary, and my son, Ben, have an hereditary condition known as dysgraphia. Dysgraphia affects the translation of words onto paper and tends to make spelling difficult. For some reason, it also affects the ability to write neatly. But both Ben and Mary are highly intelligent. Ben’s standardized test scores are off the charts (I know, there’s been some discussion about that subject, too). But unfortunately, it’s too easy for some to pass bad judgement on folks who display bad grammar, spelling or handwriting skills.
I did come down on one of our brethern once upon a time for spelling and grammatical errors when he attempted to call me lazy for having a few extra pounds on my frame.
http://www.unicyclist.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=30640&highlight=laziness+of+our+age
Tsk, Bruce. Your use of the word “bad” is totally and completely redundant. The phrase “to pass judgement” implies censure making the word “bad” entirely unneeded and utterly unnecessary.
You know, I actually went back in before I posted and added the word “bad” to the phrase. I was talking on the phone at the same time so perhaps I need to stick to within my limits - one task at one time.
Where’s my hari kari sword?
I’m sure if you head over to Wrigley Field they can find it. 
Sure, people shouldn’t be insulting when correcting other people’s spelling and grammar, but does that mean that it shouldn’t be corrected at all? Is there something wrong with encouraging better spelling and grammar? I, for one, would like to know when i make little or no sense, because i posted for a purpose, and i want to be understood.
It was brought up that, “just because people can’t spell or use proper grammar or punctuation, it doesn’t mean that they are stupid. In fact they may be amazing scientists, etc., but that never shows up in their posts”. Yup, you’re absolutely right, but, by the same token, if someone wrote that 2+2=5, wouldn’t everyone (even the English-smart, science-stupid people) pipe up and say that he was wrong?
Sure it’s tedious to be correcting people all the time, and it’s tedious to read posts that only point out other people’s mistakes, but i think that it’s worse to have to read over posts 2 or 3 times in order to understand WTF people are talking about.
It takes about 10 minutes to learn the difference between: ‘there’, ‘their’, and ‘they’re’; and ‘two’, ‘to’, and ‘too’. Why doesn’t everyone go ahead and do it?
The fact is that if you are wrong, then you are wrong, so there is no reason not to be corrected, but insulting has no place here or anywhere else. Horray for education!
P.S.
cyberpunk: It’s ‘riding’, not ‘ridding’, unless by ‘ridding’ you mean that you are getting rid of something. Haha.
I say the more “netique” and less “netiquette” the better.
(struggling not to resurrect)
How interesting it is that the more amusing and interesting threads on this forum tend not to be about unicycling and there probably should have been more punctuation in this sentence than there is to make it more readable but what do I know and at least I can spell TYRE and ALUMINIUM !!! 
I know I can be a bit pedantic at times about language, but this is a forum where people express their views in whatever terms they see fit. Presumably most people would communicate in similar vein face-to-face. It is, however, easier to offend in writing than in speach because the reader can’t get the visual cues we send with our body language and facial gestures. I do not know what my point is really, just rambling because I liked this thread.
Only a moron would believe this to be the case. Only a complete idiot would fail to recognize that that this is not the case is one of the defining characteristics of newsgroup communications. Only the dumbest person in the world has never seen this or having seen it failed to immediately understand its significance:
Seems like an appropriate time for me to chime in on this great thread.
For! No, Against!!! No wait, I mean, uh, what were we arguing about?
I will never ‘learn’ to spell. I read more than most people I know & have been struggling to learn to spell for the past 40 years. It aint going to happen just because somebody points out to me that I’ve spelt something wrong.
But if you feel the need to do so - go ahead. You certainly wont be the first or last.
Cathy
"It takes about 10 minutes to learn the difference between: ‘there’, ‘their’, and ‘they’re’; and ‘two’, ‘to’, and ‘too’. Why doesn’t everyone go ahead and do it? "
there, their, they’re…don’t nick-pick ! 
What do you think is the reason they’re not going to learn the proper use of these words? Too lazy, or not having two spare minutes in their crazy schedules.
Interesting bit of psychology: if there are exactly two options, then some people find it almost impossible to remember which one is which. The reason is that they can’t remember whether the option they want is the one that is X, or the one that isn’t X. That goes for lots of things: homonyms, spellings, names, dates.
Another aspect of the spelling problem is that it is much easier to remember how to spell something, or which is the correct word of two similar ones, if you have some understanding of the etymology (or should that be “entomology”?
).
Also, grammar is less well taught than previously, and it seems that some people struggle to find the right word because they don’t really understand how words work together - they are self taught and get by in day to day life, but can’t translate their thoughts to the written word
None of that is a criticism, but simply an explanantion. The result is that many people, even very self confident and intelligent ones, are not very good at writing things down. (In my working life, I deal with solicitors and medical experts who consistently use wrong words in important documents. It’s not because they’re stupid.)
So, back to the forum: it is reasonable to expect people to make an effort to write as clearly as they can manage, but it is unfair to mock those who cannot write very well.
This becomes a slightly bigger problem when it is the mocking that’s the point and the bad spelling is only one of many possible excuses for the mocking.
I say, dear boy, that was a tad strong. Do you mean I could post here pretending I could ride a unimacycling thingy ?? Kooooool !!!
Back on thread though, I take it Mike’s initial point was that one shouldn’t replace carefully thought out and reasoned argument with language/grammar/spelling/typing-dissing. If you can’t argue your point effectively without recourse to insults, then don’t contribute. Fair comment - “Manners maketh Man.”
Learning to spell is like fixing the squeeky door hinge. It only takes 5 years and 5 minutes. 5 years of complaining, 3 minutes to find the oil can, 1 minute to fix it and another minute to put the can away.
If you have time to fix it, then you had time to go unicycling instead. Just think of all the extra time you could have. 1 Minute over 10 days =10 minutes of extra unicycling.
At this point all I can muster up is…
oppps. 