Pink Lexical Slime: The Dark Side of Autocorrect (2017) | Hacker News Reader

Pink Lexical Slime: The Dark Side of Autocorrect (2017)

cyberdemon.org

25 pointsdmazin11 comments

> If you actually prefer the spelling “miniscule,” you must wrestle with autocorrect.

I was not previously aware of any alternative spelling! Apparently "minuscule" is not considered an error.

I regularly need to write messages in both english and my native maltese. Sometimes in the same message. Autocorrect is more of a hindrance than a help to me there. If the problem was that I make too many errors, then figuring out a way to reduce errors was more useful to me. To that end, I ended up using a chorded keyboard with only 6 buttons (PentiKeyboard) that overlays on the whole screen. Now each button is bigger than my thumb and (after working through the pain of learning it fluently) while my speed is slightly slower, my error rate is way down.

> Without it, typing on a smartphone would be exceedingly difficult.

I've never understood this argument, and never use autocorrect. The phone has a screen and a delete key, fukkin' use them!

Anyone blaming autocorrect for their errors is just lying to themselves about simply being uninterested in reading what they write. Everyone makes typos, there's no need to be a victim and blame autocorrect for human error, pretending as if they actually do know the difference between there and they're and their when they obviously don't.

The worst part is how everyone gets so insulted when people don't buy their obvious lie. Come on dude, it's all over "you're" writing and it's insulting to me that you think I can't tell the difference between a simple mistake and your not knowing better.

/rant, at no one in particular, but also pretty much 9/10ths of native English speakers on the internet.

I disagree with this 100% most of the time I see the typo and move on because using my thumbs to delete and break the flow is way too much effort. This message alone had a dozen auto corrects passively because thumbs are bigger than keyboard buttons...... Thumb typing on a slippery glass brick is not pleasant. It's not that hard to understand.

The density of errors with smartphone keyboards is much higher. I've done this before when my phone's autocorrect seemed to be exceedingly buggy, but it's not a smooth experience at all.

If I decide to write messages 1m away from my keyboard using a golf club, the onus is on me to not produce gibberish; I can't suddenly cry that that the computer failed to magically / psychically produce the actual intended text without any extra effort on my part to correct the keystrokes I mashed by accident.

I'm the one with the eyeballs and intent, simple as that.

> On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

- Charles Babbage

Yeah, but you can complain that it kinda sucks as an experience. Autocorrect is generally speaking the better option, and it generally just means a different kind of error is more prevalent.

(you seem to be arguing that autocorrect is somehow an option that means that you don't pay attention to what you're typing. This is an orthogonal issue, and you can be lazy and error-ridden with and without autocorrect)

Elle Cordova - "Autocorrect - we have a live/hate relationship"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtOgnq8lLtw

I've never used auto correct, and likely never will; it's the first thing I turn off on a new phone.

Part of the problem for me is communicating in multiple languages, switching back and forth. It just ends up causing more frustration and mistakes.

I... just... https://www.reddit.com/r/PetsWithButtons/ (/r/PetsWithButtons)

(2017)

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