# automatic "feel free to correct me" disclaimer



## nbr

Hi, I looked for a suggestion like this in this forum but didn't find anything. Sorry if it was already proposed.

My suggestion is for posts to be able to display an automatic message like "Native speakers, feel free to correct me" or something like that in all languages available. It could be an icon for each language, or something like that too.

For example, a person who posts and wants to be corrected in English and French, but not in Spanish (native), will have the icons EN-US and FR-FR always "turned on" and visible nearby the login name in each post. Anybody will see that at all times.

Why not using the signature field as many people already do (me included)? Because the default option is to not allow signatures to be displayed. I myself took some days to realize how to turn it on. Moreover, it would be a standard and quick way to see whether to correct or not a post.

The icons or standard messages would be easily configurable in the profile or in each post and one would be able to turn it on or off.

In case you like the idea, you would have to think what to do about variations like American English/British English, Brazilian/Portuguese Portuguese, etc.


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## Jana337

Hm... Aren't we creating problems where there aren't any? We are a language forum and most people want to be corrected by default (speaking of which, I thought that the default option for signatures was ON). 

We cover tens of languages: Does our server want  to load this much additional information?

Jana


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## maxiogee

nbr said:


> Hi, I looked for a suggestion like this in this forum but didn't find anything. Sorry if it was already proposed.
> 
> My suggestion is for posts to be able to display an automatic message like "Native speakers, feel free to correct me" or something like that in all languages available. It could be an icon for each language, or something like that too.
> 
> For example, a person who posts and wants to be corrected in English and French, but not in Spanish (native), will have the icons EN-US and FR-FR always "turned on" and visible nearby the login name in each post. Anybody will see that at all times.




We're a friendly enough bunch here and we tend to offer help regardless. 
We don't usually correct people's 'errors' in their native language (though someone did correct one of mine, thinking I was a non-native - must have been a whopper of a blooper, I can't remember!) and when it does happen it is usually accepted in the spirit in which it is offered.
The default-setting on most forer@s is 'assistance mode'.
Were a forer@ to use no icon would that indicate that it would be offensive to offer a correction for a glaring error? Typos happen, but we can never be sure that an obvious error is just a typo.


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## nbr

Hi Jana, I had this idea because I couldn't find how to make my signature appear  Days later I found the option in the profile options.
But as visualization of signatures is optional, it would be nice to have a "permanent" way to tell people "hey natives, please correct me", "francophones, corrigez-moi s'il vous plaît", and so on.

Sometimes, even if people are here to learn they may not expect corrections (for example an advanced learner). I guess that's why people state that they want to be corrected in their signatures, because there are other people who don't want to be corrected all the time. You know, we human beings are very complicated beings... 

Furthermore, if somebody doesn't display "I wanna be corrected", people can save their time doing corrections and only address the question. And there's also the situation described by maxiogee.

Anyway, it's just an idea.


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## TrentinaNE

nbr said:


> Furthermore, if somebody doesn't display "I wanna be corrected", people can save their time doing corrections and only address the question.


Another perspective: As a moderator in the IT-EN forum, I sometimes correct errors in people's English -- even by native-speakers -- because I don't want folks who are learning English to think that these errors are actually OK.  I usually precede such corrections with a comment that they are for the benefit our Italian members.  So you see, the desires of the writer are not the only consideration.  

Elisabetta


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## cuchuflete

Let's complicate things even more. Users have the option of not displaying one or more of--

-avatars
-signatures
-images

Some people with slower connections turn all of these off, so they wouldn't see a prohibition or invitation to correct errors.


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## nbr

I see... I just wanted a way to guarantee that everybody could see that I WANT corrections, specially in French (the reason why I entered the forum). With the signature thing, I have to expect that the person has "visualize signatures" ON, which in my case I had to turn on in the options menu. Other way is to always copy and paste a "corrigez mes erreurs, s'il vous plaît" in all posts...
Thanks for the replies, anyway!

p.s. chuchuflete, the idea is that the language icon banner would be always visible, as the login name, date, etc.


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## TrentinaNE

nbr said:


> I see... I just wanted a way to guarantee that everybody could see that I WANT corrections, specially in French


Well, there are no guarantees in WRF, any more than in other parts of life.     But if you post regularly in the FR forums, I suspect that the most helpful people will soon realize that you actively seek corrections.  So get over there and post!     

Elisabetta


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## nbr

Well, I guess you're right about life, but it's also true that we make a lot of effort to subdue uncertainties in life and increase guarantees: we buy products with warranty, we save money for the future, we have insurances, weather forecast, tornado warnings, tsunami alerts, restaurant reservations. Language icons? .

But never mind, I will use the signature instead and rely on the "regular posting and people's perception" proposal. Hope I can be that regular!  And people perceptive!


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