eh, could be worse.

Why isn't Gothamist raking in a cool $1m a year??

It must be the spelling!

im back in commenter mode.

re: everybody - im not saying jen should consult the MLA handbook or an english professor every time she posts.. there are just some really glaring mistakes in spelling that cause confusion. there are also times when jen simply forgets to write a word, which causes even more confusing. there have been posts where i comment on the mistake and the comment is erased and the mistake isn't fixed! you dont even have to pay me! you can keep deleting my comments! just change the mistake i bring up and we'll all be happy!

btw. Nickist is totally loving the Gothamist drink game!

what's a blog?

add to the drinking game: drink a 40 everytime a post registers 40 or more comments.

I'm curious: what does Columbia have to do with anything? Stop judging people based on who they were when at age 17.

oh, can i say one thing? (and i don't like to capitalize in my comments...) anyway, we gave a few proofreaders/copy editors runs, but it just never panned out.

it's not easy reading 20+ posts a day and scanning the site every minute to check for errors. and it's possible that within that five minute span before something was corrected, someone would have been up in arms over a misplaced comma.

Right on, pugsley, that's so po-mo. In the future, everyone will make up their own grammatical rules based on how they feel...

Holy shit! I completely forgot:

Gothamist Drinking Game: "die hipster die, die die" (or similar) comment

I'm a strong advocate of poor grammar. There's nothing more stilted than a spell-checked, proper grammared newswire story. The new grammar is visual and sound images. The only thing that makes my skin crawl is the use of the ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS gimmick. Usually when I see the all capped arbitrary words it involves some evil conspiracy about halliburton. garth should be fired for using the all caps gimmick.

I swear, you trolls are just as bad as the geeks who post and dump on everything on aintitcoolnews.com. I, for one, also find the grammar errors abit annoying, but I've made a game of it (sort of like the "How many times will Sue Simmons flub during a newscast" game.)

In short, if it so offends you that you have to post snarky, spiteful comments, just get your blogfix elsewhere. But you won't, will you? You'll just keep visiting and being an annoying hipster. Die, die, die.

As poorly executed as you all claim it may be, Nick does have a point. Proper grammar and spelling should be enforced here. The tone may be playful and casual, but sloppy grammar should not have a place here. As for the editors graduating from Columbia--you would be surprised to know how poorly students there, and at other "renowned" (i.e. expensive) institutions do at basic composition. Believe me I should know. Maybe Gothamist should contract someone to check each entry for errors and get paid for every error caught, reported, and fixed. I recommend BABABOOEY.

Gothamist Drinking game--

1) a google map

2) fresh direct

3) flame war over grammar

hear hear garth

Good one, Garth. Maybe hire Nick as a copy editor/proofreader, since he seems to have both a passion for this and a tremendous amount of time on his hands?

'Course, you'd have to teach him how to hit the shift key...

The following view is that of the author and is not necessarily that of Gothamist LLC.

Nick,

I don't really know about Jen's exact posting style/method, but I've been doing the weekend postings here for the past few months and maybe I can offer a glimpse into why this "grammar" issue is a built in one here at the G'ist.

Basically it's a time thing v. quality thing. But really, you probably already knew that.

A good half of the content written for Gothamist is written on the fly. i.e. One of the editors notices something interesting and wants to share it, it being a cool website, a nifty article, a panda picture, or whatever. We write it up, pick a picture, give it a proofread/spellcheck, preview it, and post it. Sadly, it can be difficult to spot errors in things you wrote yourself. Always has been, always will be. Looking at sentences you wrote you just miss stuff. It seems to me Nick that you are learning this quickly. For my part, if somebody else is in my apartment when I'm posting, I'll often ask them to check it over my shoulder for glaring errors. But still, things slip by.

That's where your problem comes in. In all of that speed going from something interesting to Gothamist post some errors are just almost always made. But here's the awesome part, a good 85% of the time those errors are pointed out (by people like the grammar nazi), are promptly fixed, and we all move on.. Or most of us do.

Now, you are correct that you'd think we'd all have learned from our mistakes, or hired a proofreader, but it just isn't that easy. For the first part, a writer can easily get paranoid about their habitual mistakes and stops being able to distinguish the correct answer from the wrong one (i.e. I constantly have problems with my apostrophes on Gothamist posts too, though I am really am clear on the distinctions, just as I suspect you are).

And remember, Nick, Jen is working a full-time job, planning a wedding, and doing her Gothamist posts. Sit down one day and notice just HOW MUCH SHE WRITES EACH DAY, and maybe you might cut her some slack?

As for hiring someone to proof, from what I understand Gothamist just isn't there yet as an organization. Personally, as a Gothamist reader, not editor, I'd take more Jen, more consistent servers and a constantly improving user experience over a few less grammatical errors any day...

Nick, seriously, if you are going to be a grammarian, you should write like one. Because unless you're the reincarnation of ee cummings, you're starting to sound like an asshole.

Wait!!

More Gothamist drinking games:

1. "Teany"

2. "Lazy Sunday" (or "x + y = Crazy Delicious")

3. "iPod"

!!

Nick isn't the only one put off by Jen Chung's constant spelling and grammar gaffes. They are constant, and for a person like me who finished college and reads things printed on paper and bound in book or magazine form now and then, it is profoundly irritating. Nick doesn't have to write well because this is a comments section; Jen Chung earns money off of her crappily proofread writing. Indeed, it is enough for me at times to quit reading the blog.

BookFace, anal retentive grammar obsession since 2005.

nick, you're clueless. Since when are ad hominem attacks considered constructive criticism? If you had some reasoned criticism, and the typos and grammar issues are certainly fair game, you would make them in a reasonable fashion. Instead you start your comment with an insult of Jen's intelligence.

Nice.

Is it any wonder people then pounce on your remarks? Or are you that much of a pinhead that you can't figure it out?