It is. Just through via PM as Tirith said. Users being corrected in a post is not conductive to a good flow, and it's just plain annoying to people reading the thread for information. So we PM the users and expect them to improve in future instead.
Delicious irony indeed. Perhaps making an example of someone should be prioritised over "good flow". If someone sees a post filled with bad grammar, they may be led to believe that it's acceptable, and thus the cycle continues.
As a mod, I find it blindingly obvious when someone has a poor grasp of English, or when they're just being lazy. Grammar mistakes are acceptable, and understandable, especially when the person in question has English as a second, or even third language. What isn't acceptable is people who know proper grammar, and cant be bothered to use it, resulting in their post being an unreadable mess. While my own grammar is slightly more relaxed on forums (I tend not to use capitals, for example), I do try to ensure it is still readable. My experience is, that those people who apologise for their English skills, or lack of, more often than not have very little wrong with their English, and even the ones that do have problems are generally very comprehensible despite those issues. Some people may need to use online translators because their English skills are virtually non-existant; with these people I find that even though what comes out of the translator is a complete grammatical disaster, it is clear that it has come from a translator and not from a person, and so the lack of readability is not the fault of the poster. Maybe its just me, (Most of the people I was at school with had very poor English skills) but laziness with grammar just sticks out like a sore thumb, whereas poor English skills don't.
You can't force people to use proper grammar. If it annoys you then too bad. Don't come to the internet then.
If you can't use grammar and keep getting warned/shouted at/in trouble then don't post on forums or in chatrooms. Mmkay?
We're talking about the kids as a whole, not that the kids have a possession. Seeing as though this is something that kids lack, then it's something they don't have. Thus possession is out of the question, simply because it doesn't exist. I didn't pick up on the word English. Too busy thinking about my own typing.
Despite what I said before, I wanna note that a recent study found that people who use 'text language' generally have a higher level of written English than those who don't, this is because it takes special knowledge of the English language, and the sounds to which letters correspond in order '2 ryt lyk dis' lol... But hey, I'm not bothered 'cos I'm fluent in text
Whether or not they lack it, English skills are a possession and thus a "possessive plural case", as your quote calls it.
I was subtly going along with the title of the topic with the fact that 10 year olds, who use forums, lack full English skills. So yes arguably this could go either way. There is also the point that most 10 year olds haven't learned sufficient English skills to pick up on how English should be typed/spelt. Maybe "10 years old" is a bad example, taking into account the poor learning of 10 year olds in... Say England, which is also arguably bad, as an example.
