Than & then and chatspeak
Well, earlier today I took part in a Q&A that dealt with the difficulties for non-natives/learners to understand internet slang or chatspeak and how irritating it is for some of us, not so much for others, and the issue of misspelling came up after that.
One of the most common mistakes we'll see is the not-so-confusing, in my opinion, use of then and than; as far a I recall those two aren't homophones and their meanings are very different, or am I wrong and the two words sound the same, hence the confusion? And that's to not get started on the they're-there-their or your-you're thing. All this chatspeak stuff is so sketchy and lends itself to confusion it is leading to a dumbing down in the process of learning languages and about cultures other than our own.
I don't even want to talk about Spanish speakers, who are extremely prone to overlook , or even worse, ignore the orthographic rules of their language. Logging in to Facebook is a certain way to get a headache.
What's your take on this matter? should we be so free to express ourselves?
Please correct whatever is pertinent to be corrected.
9 Answers
I agree with what you say, is that many people do not have very good spelling accents do not put commas and periods where they should go, but this is because not everyone has the economic resources to have a good school study, there are many people who just finished school to level six and little study that we are very hard to know much about spelling. In contrast to people who had a good study is very easy to write them correctly. Personally I say that I am struggling to learn English and to put the accent in many words are in Spanish.
Yo estoy de acuerdo en lo que dices, se que muchas personas no tenemos muy buena ortografía no ponemos acentos comas y puntos donde deben de ir, pero esto es porque no todos tenemos los recursos economicos de tener un buen estudio escolar, hay muchas personas que solo terminamos la escuela hasta el nivel seis y con ese poco estudio nos es muy difícil saber muchas cosas de ortografía. En cambio para las personas que tuvieron un buen estudio les es muy fácil escribir correctamente. En lo personal te digo que yo estoy batallando para aprender ingles y para poner los acentos en muchas palabras que son en español.
It's irresponsable to come out and criticize people that you don't even know.
One can criticize what a person does without knowing them personally, that has nothing to do with anything. One is not necessarily criticizing the person. There are actually people that care about the quality of education and learning, and that includes the 'dumbing down' of people in general, these folks are the 'keepers of the flame', so to speak. If there are no standards in language, the result of it will be the garbage you see on Facebook and others social sites. The 'keepers of the flame' try to uphold the standard and teach others to do better, to raise their own standard.
I think it is an act of true responsibility, not irresponsibility.
Most people everywhere, myself definitely included do not have anywhere near perfect grammar in our own language. The important thing is communication, can we express our needs and wants, be understood, and understand others. I work with a guy from puerto rico, and his english is terrible yet i understand him perfectly. We have become friend and help each other with spanish/english. And unless your putting something in writing i wouldnt worry about "than" or "then" you will be understood and no one will think anything about it.
Plain and simple... people intentionally write crazy for two reasons, either they don't want others (except for intended audience) to understand, or it's a matter of convenience. I see it in English and Spanish (although I'm sure every culture has their variation) and it certainly perplexes the learning process.. but then again, that is the intention of doing such in general. 
That's why we work to enforce proper grammar and spelling here so those cultural road blocks in learning are avoided. 
As well, my two cents, then and than can sound very much alike depending on who says it (accent/ pronounciation).
Pues, el problema es que, particularmente en EE.UU., se habla con cierto acento (soy estadounidense, y lo hago yo). Por eso, "then," que significa "entonces" y "than", que quiere decir "que" suenan casi iguales y entonces los que no tienen buena ortografía los confunden. Pero usted es correcto/a de que son palabras muy distintas
También, es verdad que mucha gente (en todas lenguas) no les hacen caso a las sencillas reglas de ortografía y gramática. Ésas, si se las usa correctamente, hace que sea mucho más fácil de leer y comunicar. No sé porque las personas no simplemente deleitan las palabras con un poco más cuidado. Si lo hicieran, sería mucho mejor para todos. Estoy completamente de acuerdo con Ud., diagonx.
Well, the problem is that, especially in the US, people talk with a certain accent (I'm from the US, and I do it myself). So because of that, "than" and "then" which do mean totally different things, sound almost the same so those people who don't have good spelling get them mixed up. But you're correct that they're very different words.
Also, it's true that lots of people (in every language) don't pay attention to the simplest rules of spelling and grammar. If they're used correctly, these rules make it a lot easier to read and communicate. I don't know why people don't just spell the words a little more carefully. If they would, it would be a lot better for everybody. I completely agree with you, diagonx.
There are so many circumstances that encompass the experiences of a WHOLE continent. It's irresponsable to come out and criticize people that you don't even know. We ALL are humans and by that same nature we make mistakes constantly. You will see that if you focus your energies in your studies, you won't even notice what others are doing.
personally im not refering to slang, im just saying its a good idea to start trying to communicate in the language your learning as soon as you can and worry about perfecting your grammar after you can at least initialize small talk, basic needs, ect.
I should've made it simpler from the beginning:
This thread was started because one person asked what the meaning of a message sent to him/her was, the asker was not a Spanish native; and if I, a native speaker who takes some care of what I say and write, have trouble understanding this kind of speech, what's left for those learners when they're being exposed to this widespread sub-standard form of the language.
It is really important, in my opinion, to be thorough on this matter, it's not like I'm eager to see my language, or any other, degenerate into some bastardised version of itself, I think life doesn't take place in a chatroom
We're surrounded by the internet and everything that comes with it, this very site is a proof of it, but as an exception rather than a rule. I clearly stated the result of that is the loss of quality of whatever we intend to learn when we go online. At least for me it's not all about logging in to Facebook and start asking "ppl": "How R U?, CoMo StAs?, CYAL8R, ke HerMoZo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Never thought that my opinion would seem so harsh in the eyes of some of you, but then again if not me, someone else would have said it, or already did, and there's no way on this Earth I could think otherwise.
It's irresponsable to come out and criticize people that you don't even know. We ALL are humans and by that same nature we make mistakes constantly.
Problem is people are so influenced by this that it is more and more common for students to get bad grades for their awful spelling, and who can objectively blame them, they spend more time chatting with friends than knowing what they're taught.
