Well, since Jon has asked for some spice in the forums a few times, I figured a topic about what gets under your skin could start some interesting discussion. Probably not, but what the hell.

I can't stand bad grammar. I can’t spell worth a damn, but I hate bad grammar. It’s mostly bothering me because of the proliferation of the internet (and the plain old laziness that has ensued.) I mean, just because there’s instant communication, doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be some thought applied between the generation of an idea, and hitting the send button. If I have to read one more ‘sentence’ without punctuation, rambling statements written in the third person, or all the other crap that passes for English, I might just... well, kick some ass or whatever.

Anyway it’s a topic that’s been discussed in these forums quite a bit, but I figured I’d throw out an example. So what peeves you off?

I'm sure you'll find this out soon, but as of right now, this post is (unofficially) the greatest target for pedants on the net. You don't like bad grammar? The pedants will be telling you everything that's wrong. Ooh, and your old posts are fair game too. Be afraid.

*Thunder rumbles, Ride of the Valkyries plays*

I personally lament the loss of the adverb. I have seen the occassional sign that advises to "Drive Slowly" and I rejoice everytime I do. Adjectives keep replacing adverbs and it bothers me.

Grammar gets under my skin often, too. I admin a net game of Legend of the Red Dragon, and there is a certain user there that constantly butchers grammar, as well as using the words you're, your, their, there, they're incorrectly. I once locked him out for five days for using your instead of you're. LingwishTIK was my favorite game in Academic Games, and I'm still bitter about my senior year, where I lost a round to someone who would later go into the playoff rounds and tie for first place. I mispelled theorem. It wasn't an important word in my sentence, but it cost me my glory.

That being said, any more I'm not know for perfect grammar (especially in sentences using quotation marks). Also, I chronically misspell words containing "per," as in "desperately" and "apparently." Usually I misspell them as "desparately" and "apparantly," respectively. This also urks me.

a topic about what gets under your skin could start some interesting discussion

Hmm... like a mini-beefnut thread? Well, ok.

At the moment, I'm annoyed by useless thing-repair shops. (That is, shops that repair things.) Most recently, I've been having trouble with the shop that repairs my bicycle.
  Every time I take it in so they'll fix one thing, it comes back with something else messed up. I'd think they were trying to scam me, but all the work is covered under warranty, so all they're doing is wasting my time.

In Response to themysticalone (#8295):

Because the statute of limitations hasn't quite expired on this, I have a "friend" who also abhors poor grammar, much in the way that nature abhors a vacuum. What especially pisses him off is what he terms "Institutional Misgrammar", so much so that after a night out in Stirling, he felt it his duty to bring grammar to the masses. Such was the strength of his convictions that he acquired a felt pen and corrected the grammar on any signs deemed to offend. The best/worst case of which still adorns his wall, replete with corrections.

In Response to daubergoat (#8289):

Yeah, but nothing like a good flame war to get the juices flowing.

In Response to evilaltor (#8304):

The mob demands blood. Or at least pictures.

In Response to mcgrue (#8320):

He has been emailed and I await his response.

In Response to jettaboy20 (#8310):

Plus, I'm on vacation.

In Response to zamphir (#8338):

I was wondering, I figured you'd be the first to respond; and you have been surprisingly absent from the forums lately.

In Response to jettaboy20 (#8340):

surprisingly

Almost everything I do can be described with "surprisingly".

In Response to zamphir (#8338):

u2?

In Response to zamphir (#8343):

Except your post count. that was surprising when it got to 800. now it's blahblah.

I remember that one of my biggest pet-peeves used to be people incorrectly stating when the new millenium would start. Since that's old news now, and it doesn't matter, I have developed a new pet peeve.

Latin derived words
I am not "an alumni"
Not schizophrenic

Say it with me people: one male alumnus, two male alumni, one female alumna, two female alumnae, mixed plural alumni.

That will be all for now.

In Response to Clan_Hanna (#8667):

Latin plural forms often do not carry over into english. For example, Your computer can have one virus, or many viruses. It can also technically have no viruses at all, which means you won't be spamming me. However, unless you're actually using latin, you will never have virii, nor virae, nor any other way to mangle latin.

However, alumnus and its 3 other forms is one of the rare occasions in english where we keep the latin fairly pure. My guess is that's because anyone who's worthy of being an alumnus or an alumna are pedants.

In Response to evilaltor (#8321):

No response? ;(

In Response to mcgrue (#8684):

Or even responcii?

In Response to unFalln (#8663):

My post count was past 800 when Phillip turned Forums 2.0 on.

What's surprising about my post count is the number of people who have read all of my posts.

And the genius-to-stupidity ratio of them as well. It's running about 50/50, which is surprising cause I do only about 20/80 with everything else.

In Response to lemur666 (#8692):

Julius Caesar would be rolling in his grave if he wasn't currently ruling Phobos with a zombie iron fist.

In Response to zamphir (#8696):

sorry zamphir...I haven't read anything in the self-promotion forum.

But you've read all your posts right?

In Response to Dynedain (#8700):

But you've read all your posts right?

Would it surprise you if I said no?

In Response to mcgrue (#8698):

Et tu, mcgrue?

Sorry, but I find people who are sticklers for correct Latin ("It's not Ah-Vey Maria, it's pronounced ah-WAY Maria") to be annoying in the extreme.

Latin is a dead language, so let's dance on it's grave!

In Response to zamphir (#8702):

zamphir is a good argument for people's titles improving with their post count.

Until they hit about 200, after which they should rapidly decend again.

In Response to lemur666 (#8714):

Well, that's a different point entirely. Sung languages can be pronounced differently than spoken.

Also, latin moguls should know that we aren't entirely certain how high latin was actually pronounced. Every latin course taught is a 'best guess' by linguists... seeing as we don't have actual recordings of old spoken latin, be it in mp3, vinyl, or even 8-track.

And to further my earlier point, I was basically saying to ignore latin when using english... the latin rules seldom apply when a latin speaker thinks they should based on assumption alone. The latin speaker would've said the plural of virus is viri. Where "virii" came from is a mystery to me (potentially from the 'it looks cool' factor?). An english speaker should just stick to the obvious 'viruses'.

Latin isn't very dead, either. It's read, spoken, and taught to many. I'd bombard you with meaningless statistics if google wasn't giving me a bunch of Latino information. If you want a dead language, Navajo is on critical life support. Latin's more like an AI language... it's artifically alive through the efforts of academia. ; )

Now you've made me all pedantic about would-be pedants. I don't know if I should be proud, or crying softly to myself.

In Response to mcgrue (#8727):

Hahah, I'm really surprised you haven't gotten all pendantic on my sig. From what I've been told it is completely improper latin grammar, but I still like it anyways.