Dear fellow mod enthusiasts-

I am really curious about this question. Do spelling and grammar matter to you when choosing a mod?
Usually, if I am trolling the Nexus and find an interesting mod with a horribly misspelled description, I pass it up. No matter how interesting it sounds. The way I see it, if a person can't even form a coherent sentence or spell the word "version", then I want absolutely nothing to do with their mod. Why? Is it because I am a jaded old fart who can't stand the fact that the youth of today have so little personal pride that they can't be bothered to even spellcheck their mod descriptions? Well, yes, but that's not the only reason. The main reason I won't download your mod if you can't spell or form a coherent sentence is that I have absolutely no reason to believe that any mod you have somehow managed to cobble together will do anything other than bungle up my game.
Does anyone else feel the same way? Or am I some tired dinosaur, pining for the days when you used to have to tell the character in your game what to do by typing out commands?

Remember, Al says: Vote early, Vote often!

Thank you for voting

- EBOB -

p.s. - I hearby give some slack to those for whom English is not their native tongue.

p.s.s. - I hearby revoke all slack from those for whom English is their native tongue.

As an objective observer, I must say that one of the most avidly downloaded mods on the Nexus in the recent past was posted as "AMIMATED..." for a good long time.

Methinks that doth sayeth in a balanced regard that grammar matters not overmuch among mod dogs and Englishmen.

I didn't know bad spelling equals uncomprehensive description :mellow:
But,
I don't download a mod if it has no pic, no comments and a one-line description which is written without capitalized first letter.
I do download a mod,
which has pictures, endorsemants, a comprehensive description (or readme) and is generally interesting. Spelling itself is minor for me, as long as I can read the text.

when im checking out the mods, if the spelling is something like 9-year-old boy wrote or everything with all capitalized letters, then I probably wouldnt.

but im pretty picky with anything that I download. so the chance that I acutally click on any minor mod is very low.

Nudity>Spelling for most young lads I wouldst sayeth.


Anyways, due to the fact that there are many non native english speakers I would say that it's less proper spelling and grammar that matters, but more that there is a comprehensive readme, that explains properly what the mod does. Unless it's a quest mod, in that case spelling and grammar is really [censored] important to me!

I'm a fan of capiTalism.

But yeah, I prefer mods with good descriptions, correct, yet creative grammar, interesting plot, deep charac- wait, nevermind. I'll generally put more interest into a mod if the descrition reads

"This is a weapons mod I made, featuring several custom meshes and textures, made by myself. The weapons are found just outside Megaton."

rather than

"This is my wepon mod. i made texures + models its in megaton."

Good grammar and spelling shows that a person is interested in their mod, and modding in general, as well as being at least semi-intelligent and unlikely to react harshly to constuctive criticism. At least, that's what it usually means to me. I always use good grammar and spelling in my mods. Not only because it is proper etiquette, but it is because I just can't bring myself to write poorly.

Sorry, but what is "creative" grammer supposed to be?
As far as I know, grammar is not something that is open to interpretation or artistic freedom.

unfair?
sorry not all of us has English as our mother language. . .
understanding and tolerance would be nice.
Most important is the function of the mod and that you can read a description and the mod has the things in the description.
The mod author maybe struggles with English but he can attempt to make you understand the mod description. If his mod is stable with no conflict then who cares.
You want to spell the plasma gun or fire it? If there was the mistake of spelling in the mod UI or item description, change it yourself or inform the mod author. No need for this thread . . . I can realize my grammar is not 100%, but its fine i think you understand my meaning (honestly my gf's english is better than mine so she will often edit my mod before its on Nexus)


jerk. please dont download my mods.
"interested in their mod" <-- you dont know how many hours i put into EVE and my others
"modding in general" <-- I can write scripts, make models, UV, texture, GECK, and Nifskope as well as anyone else here
"semi-intelligent" <-- that was not needed. I have a BA in computer science.
your comments are directed at people who do not have "good grammar and spelling", and that includeds us non-native English speaker

(by the way Five_X, you may want to check your OWN mod's description. . Shouldn't it be "items" instead of "item"? Them implies plural.

Yes, it matters to me. These things matter to me in every aspect of life, not just when downloading Fallout 3 mods. If someone can't or won't put together a coherent sentence in writing with at least some punctuation and attempt at legibility, I just have no time for it.

I do not expect perfect grammar and spelling, far from it, and I am well aware that on the Internet not everyone is a native speaker of whichever language is being used. So I accept spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, typos, etc., as long as there has been an honest attempt to produce something legible.

What I will not accept are run-on sentences with annoying teenage chatspeak, leet abbreviations and argot, no full stops, et al. that makes me wonder if the poster is illiterate. If a post or a mod description is anything like that then I deem that its author is probably too immature or even uneducated to have produced anything worth my time. This goes double for adventure and quest mods. It breaks immersion badly, if there has been no attempt to clean up dialogue and in-game text in a quest.

Furthermore, I usually doubt the quality of any of the content, not just dialogue, if the modder cannot even string two sentences together. My experience is that an illegible description of a mod is a good indicator of the rest of the quality.

When I stumble a description that goes: "hi i made this quest its a great adventure shud be lots of fun with sum good loot," my first thought is: "Okay, but what is it about? You forgot to say."

My next thought is: "If that writing is indicative of the writing in the mod, then it's probably not for me."

My third though is: "A 3kb file? Doesn't seem like too much work went into this, other than setting a spawn point for some monsters, and then calling it a quest."

Max

Personally, I get very annoyed when I see evidence of "text" language or just bad spelling/punctuation in general in subtitles. I don't have an issue with grammar, however, and to be honest I would find it very odd if everybody in the Fallout 3 universe had perfect grammar. In content that was supposedly written by in-game characters, like notes, I don't have an issue if there are spelling mistakes or bad grammar of any kind as it's (supposedly) the fault of the character that wrote it, and that just adds to the flavour of the universe.

However, if I see a screenshot that shows subtitles or other similar content including such horrific things as "im" (as opposed to "I'm"), then I'm almost certainly not going to look any further into the mod. Oh, and I also find that in many cases those of us who don't have English as their first language tend to have better spelling and punctuation than those that only speak English.

I suppose having a well-spoken mod description helps, but that's really just good advertising. I prefer to let the quality of a mod speak for itself. If a well-made mod has a shoddily written description and/or readme, that's not going to stop me from using it.

I try not to show it, but I can be a bit of a spelling/grammar nazi. I guess it helps when you're used to writing code that requires a certain syntax.

Cipscis

Well, it's not exactly like your poll - it's not "grammar and spelling must be absolutely perfect or else". For example, I wouldn't pass up Mart's Mutigen Mod simply because he made a few, maybe even ten typos. However, if a file uses "text speak", "leet speak" or just plain crap spelling and stuff like that, I usually won't download it, simply because usually:

1) If it adds new items to the game, they will have mispelled names.
2) It (I repeat USUALLY) shows a lack of intelligence, and therefore any new items will probably be overpowered.
3) Extending on the above point, the creator may have also left their plugin dirty.
4) If it uses new scripts, they'll most likely contain syntax errors or just not work.

I'm not saying this is the case all of the time.
It's just not too reassuring that the mod is high quality, when, frankly, the creator looks a bit daft.
It does depend on the type of mod though, and there are other things besides spelling that will tell me about whether or not the mod is of good quality.

Taking it a little too serious there? You are nit picking over small things. Not all English speakers have perfect grammar, and ditto for anyone speaking any other language. Like all humans, we sometimes make mistakes without realizing it.

Sure, non-English speaking modders deserve some slack, but when their description blatantly shows no effort in even trying to get the grammar correct, then they really have no reason to be making mods in English. However, most mods I have seen have been fairly good about trying. I could sit here and nit-pick at your post, but I know you at least try to have decent grammar.

I tend to find bad spelling/grammar in a mod detracts from my immersion in said mod, and ergo, I guess it does bother me. Taken with a pinch of salt, of course.

Hey newsflash to you, there are Fallout modding communities in germany, russia, japan, spain, wherever. With translating their mods into english, even if it might not be perfect, they are just doing YOU a favour. So you shouldn't be a dike about it.

Depends. If the mod itself does not contain any text/dialogue I don't care about the spelling of the readme, as long as it's understandable.

But I find bad grammar/spelling in NPC dialogue very annoying and it can definitely ruin a mod for me if it happens frequently. But I understand that not everyone can write English perfectly and I do appreciate the fact that someone bothers to release mods for us.

Max Schreck summed up my opinion:

Not being a native English speaker myself I do not expect perfect language. Bad gramma or spelling mistakes only has minor influence, provided the poster actually made an effort to make the description readable (machine translations are fully acceptable, but poster should note use of machine translation). Chatspeek, l33tspeak and lack of full stops shows to me that the poster does not take reasonable care w.r.t. the description of the mod, and suggests that the poster has not taken care when making the mod, such as lack of testing, possibly causing bloat or game-breaking problems.

Bad spelling or language for ingame text is annoying, but (provided it is not everything) it is easy to report and fix.

Edit:

Well said!

I have not played that many Fallout 3 mods, but there were a lot of great mods for Oblivion that were either being developed in multiple languages in parallel (such as Less Annoying Magic Experience by bg) or ported from a German version into an English version, such as Blood & Mud. Blood & Mud, being a large quest mod, still had some remnants from German, such as subtitles to idle pvssyr in German, or voiced dialogue with strong German accent, but that only served to make the mod more destinct.

I let acky do all my writing for me.

He also handles the complaint department.

Works wonderously well, we never get repeat complaints



Acky also carries da "board of education" for dis kinda thing, cuz education is important hur hur hur



but even if Acky is acting publishist, as long as it's descriptive, grammar tends to just follow Acky's natural speak.
In game, text is handled a little differently, and I would always have any text proofread by someone else, and I am a native english speaker. Just common sense to let someone else scan your work for typos and other detail you might have overlooked, regardless of you level in English spelling/grammar.

example:
is it
Grey,
or is it
Gray?


edit:
I also edit a lot

Try reading what I wrote? I said if they are making English mods. I know there are other modding communities in other countries, and they make mods in THEIR language. Those that do convert their to English, often times put in the effort to get correct grammar. I was referring to those that do not should not be making English based mods.

Slow down. Even if what Echonite offended your sensabilities, you should know better than to start flaming people on the forum.

With that said, I think the poll choices should have been less comical if the creator intended to get any real data from it. This entire vote seems more of a gag/joke about grammer than any serious question - certainly not something worth a flame war between long-time posters here.

Miax

Generally speaking, unless there is strong word of mouth advertising... spelling / grammar / presentation in the mod's description at the download site and in the README file are critically important to me. When I go to FO3Nexus and search for a mod, that description is your one chance to make a sale and get me to download the mod. If it's a 2 line description, with no clear sense of purpose, then I'll probably pass on it.

Small mods that only change 1 specific thing get more leeway then larger mods. For larger mods, I expect a lot more information in their description / README. Especially how it plays with other mods or known potential conflicts with the other popular mods.

I have major language issues (even though English is my native language), due to the fact that the left hemisphere of my brain was badly damaged when I was little.

What this means is that I'm like totally visual, and can't even think in words, without translating everything into images that my brain can understand. I use Apple Safari as my web browser, mainly because it automatically checks my spelling as I type replies (which is a HUGE help). It takes me a very LONG time (as in hours) to do the documentation for each mod (and for nearly every update), but I' still make a LOT of mistakes in what I write in my ReadMes and in my mod descriptions. That doesn't mean that I'm not intelligent, even though I may appear to be a dumb blonde at times . . . I actually graduated in the top of my University class, completing a double major, while being a varsity athlete.

It is totally unfair to judge a mod or its author by how well they write their mods' documentation. Some of us happen to have language issues, and we do put a LOT of effort into what we write.

BUT (and you'll notice that it is a big but) . . . I feel that some of the worse documentation is done simply because the person didn't put much effort . . . which is partially due to the fact that cell-texting, with all its abbreviations, slang, and lack of capitalization has had a rather adverse affect on writing skills.

And I'm always so amazed to find that so many here, who's native language is not English, do such an amazing job of translating their native language thoughts into out language . . . often doing a better job than many of the native English members.

I never download mods with bad grammar and spelling.

The fact that said mod was the number 1 mod for a while, is quite depressing in my opinion. Is the "AMIMATED" mod, the pinnacle of creativity among the FO3 modders and fanbase?

I agree, but I chaulk it up to the mass market. Most of the people playing fallout are teen-aged or young men are dominated by testosterone. It has nothing to do with the pinnacle of creativity, and everything to do with the strong six drive that most of this game's audience suffers from. I don't even think I could use the word, "Creative" with those mods - there is nothing creative about re-creating six in the digital world. Its just a surrender to the passions.

I just try to ignore those mods and go for the quality ones.

Miax

Yes, that would be unfair, but I think that you'll concede that there is a vast difference between the post that you made, which was written in plain, normal and understandable English and, say, something like this: "lol i just mad this mod wear u can undres ur fav npc have fun lol haha leave feed back plz"

Like I stated in my post, it is not spelling mistakes, typos, incongruent grammar, or misplaced commas that bother me. We all have our failings and not everyone can be equally proficient in writing. I have no problem at all reading a faulty text, if there has been at least a minimum of effort in making it legible, and the text itself reflects concern and diligence on the part of the writer.

Now, a text such as the one I just made a parody of just rubs me the wrong way. I cannot help but think that when people write like that, there must be something wrong with them. It is borderline illiterate, it signals immaturity, ignorance and lack of manners, and it tells me that if the author of such a text did not see anything wrong with writing like that, then his tastes (or lack thereof) probably conflict with mine on so many levels that I needn't bother with downloading his mod, or in the case of this forum reading his posts any further.

Cheers,

Max