Most people’s mothers probably told them at some point during their upbringing that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all.
Some people practice this in face-to-face encounters, but for some reason choose to change their tune when commenting or conversing online. And those same people seem to have no regard for proper spelling or grammar (note the –ar spelling), making their attempt at conveying some semblance of an opinion a failure from the start.
Well, we at The Daily Cougar have taken matters into our own hands and decided to suspend the ability to comment on our online articles. The way we see it, if you can’t spell or use proper tense, why should we take anything you have to say seriously?
Instead, we will now require anyone wishing to post a comment to pass a quiz taken from a freshman-level English composition course. Some may find this a bit pompous or unnecessary, but it does serve a purpose: leveling the playing field, so to speak.
Would a world-class chef recognize, let alone accept, criticism from some short-order cook from an East Texas dive or a college kid who has an affinity for undercooked Ramen noodles?
No, he wouldn’t. He would laugh in your face and toss you out of the joint. That is essentially what we are doing.
But this won’t be complete censorship, though. We’ll still allow people to e-mail their comments to us, and if our copy desk approves of your style, grammar and spelling, you’ll make it through the proverbial gates and into our cyber sphere.
Some will say they’ll just stop reading The Daily Cougar. Well, this is a university, so there is quite a bit of turnover in the student body. By the time current students get over their temper tantrum and get their underoos out of a knot, we’ll have a whole new batch of readers to chastise.
One final point bears mentioning — look at the calendar because you’ve just been April Fooled.
To hell with the first admendment says the DC. Its a growing trend with US Socialist.