User blog comment:Grizzly Bear/Can Nobody Proofread?/@comment-5239282-20140526141550

I don't think a lot of people realize how great a scale they're publicizing their works. They might think this site is their personal hub to store and showcase their "works" to close friends. In other words, they don't feel the need to prove themselves to others because they're stuck in the mindset that their audience won't care about their etiquette so long as it's legible.

That really seems to be the case on sites like DA and Fanfic. That'd be my best guess, but it isn't an excuse. It also explains why people are shocked when their stories are deleted -- they're unaware of our goal of maintaining a library of decent horror stories. But that's for another time...

It's refreshing to see someone taking extra caution in their writings. I think "personal" messages like texts can be excused, but you have a reputation to feed when you're posting publicly. That's generally where I cross the line.

I also recommend to ESL students to write a story in their mother tongue before translating it either on your own or in a group.