A simple request, sent to dozens of celebs, bore fruit:
If you don’t already see the problem, read on:
Is there a website that helps people with extra commas? @sp1989 I started a website that helps people, who need help with their grammar
— Darrell Dow (@darrellcdow) February 11, 2013
But not punctuation, apparently. "@sp1989: I started a website that helps people, who need help with their grammar."
— Amanda Hempel Munroe (@amandakhempel) February 11, 2013
Yes, there’s a superfluous comma after the word “people.”
We hoped this would turn out to be a prank, but it appears to be real.
Update:
We get grammar-challenged email!
My name is Salvatore Pezzino Jr. and I am the owner of theeditorguys.com. Last night there was an article published on your website http://twitchy.com/2013/02/10/aspiring-editor-asks-celebs-to-retweet-his-punctuation-challenged-tweet/ referencing our website theeditorguys.com. As amusing as your article was in pointing out the “mistake” made within the tweet, it seems that the intended irony was not clearly received and was over looked by a lot of people, not just you guys. The intention of the tweet was for everyone to click on the link to our main page where they would see a short article post called “commas encourage breathing”. The “ironic comma” in the tweet and the post on the website, where supposed to illustrate how commas are either used too much or not enough. One example being ironic but obvious and the other just blatantly obvious. The intention was to get people talking, the negative attention and misinterpretations are not exactly what we wanted. Still we succeeded in getting people talking.
That brings me to my request. We are a very young and very new business, the old phrase “any press is good press” might true but in our case even the smallest amount of bad press can be very bad. Now I can’t take away the comments and @replies on twitter but a website like yours with a very large readership, an article like the one you published can’t be very good for us publicity wise. I am not asking for an endorsement, but I do ask, please can you take down the article or explain to your readers what I just told you. I understand that you have absolutely no reason to believe me and I get that completely, but if you just take a look at what I am talking about you will see that it is the genuine truth. Also if you look at some of the @replies on twitter, some people understood what we where trying to do, not many, but some.
Like I said before you have absolutely no reason to believe me or listen to me for that matter. I am just trying to get our side of the story heard. I really hope you understand and I thank you so very much in advanced if you can help us by retracting that article.
Many Thanks,
Salvatore Pezzino Jr.
Co-Founder and Director of Marketing and Promotions
theeditorguys.com
[Phone number redacted]
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Other than the fact that we redacted the phone number, the above email is reproduced exactly as it was written.
“Where” we mistaken, readers? What do you think?
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