Bad Spelling Pays on eBay 525
peebeejay writes "People say that as long as they're understood, spelling is unimportant. These people are unwittingly making others a lot of money online, according to this article in the NY Times (DNA sample and clean boxers required). So, aside from clarity and respect for your reader, there's another good reason to either spell correctly or use a spellchecker: get bidders to find your eBay items and give you their money! Or you can go ahead and see how many people bid on your 'labtop computers,' 'camras,' and 'earings.'"
This article is ridiculous (Score:0, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It works the other way, too (Score:2, Insightful)
Lingo isn't in the dictionary (Score:2, Insightful)
Athelon, Athlon, Athalon, or equally correct but alternative spellings P3, Pentium 3 Pentium III...etc.
I think I will wait a few weeks and do some bargain shoping.
What a role model (Score:1, Insightful)
"It's ok to be a slob on the dole..."
Re:This article is ridiculous (Score:5, Insightful)
This 'feature' isn't going to go away because the NYT has mentioned it. The problem comes from clueless people, who will still be clueless now! I doubt people deliberately mis-spell items on eBay and now are thinking "perhaps I should spell things correctly from now on"
P.S. Remember to take full advantage, if you find cluelessness on eBay, "View Seller's Other Items" might be your key to many more bargains!
I am uneasy (Score:3, Insightful)
Then I started to think: what if instead of trying to make a few bucks off of someone's typo, why not email them and tell them about the error? Here on Slashdot there is endless (and justified) ranting about the greed of corporate officers and their PHB minions. But are picking up a dollar off the floor in 7-11 and pocketing it even though you saw who dropped it or pulling these eBay spelling error tricks or laying off 1000 programmers to boost your stock price before cashing in your options not all acts from the same human motivation?
Re:But what about the searchers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:This article is ridiculous (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You know... (Score:1, Insightful)
2. I'm sure OSDN doesn't want to sponsor crap-flooding of other online businesses' registration data (who may or may not be partners). It looks unprofessional too.
spell casting (Score:4, Insightful)
At Apple, we developed a "styled text pane" GUI component for a hypermedia documentation browser (not HTML, in 1993) as part of the corporate switch to a C++ toolkit. We threw hooks for spellcheck and themes (a la CSS) into the class, and argued that the component ought to be part of the toolkit itself, for *every* text display in the OS, which would mean every app, entirely standard. I heard that the design was part of Apple's plans right through the demise of the Bento initiative, which drowned our approach like a rat on the Titanic. So now every app reinvents the wheel, and it takes forever to crawl back to steel-belted radials.
Re:you mean.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Survival of the mentally fittest? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think this story beats mine, though.
The phrase that starts "a fool an his money..." also seems to apply.
(Oh, and I spell checked this because I'm smart enough to know I'm stupid.)
Re:I am uneasy (Score:3, Insightful)
Guitars are a great example: Almost every older 'consumer' acoustic made in the US (by Harmony) that you see on eBay will require a neck reset or brige re-glue, both very expensive repairs.
By including one picture (straight on to the top, where the soundhole is) and saying, "I bought this at an estate sale, and don't know anything about it - plays good and just tuned!", the seller effectively puts the onus on the buyer to determine its condition in a vacuum.
Yes, there are many clueless sellers, but I have known owners of music stores who get rid of the 'crap' by doing just this.
As always, buyer beware. You may be thinking, "This poor idiot doesn't know any better", but there is a good chance that the seller is thinking the same about you.
bad spelling = good deals (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Lower Standards for all! (Score:3, Insightful)
That problem has had a solution for ages. I don't think I'm good at something? Fine; I just don't do it. DONE
What I find infuriating is those people who would force me to compete even after I've told them to get lost, just so they can have someone to "win" against.