Poor, Edmund W wrote:
We cannot allow spelling bots unless:
A. The bot is registered B. The bot draws from an approved list
A word like /thier/ can safely be changed to "their", since it's almost always a misspelling. However, there are many misspellings which can't be automatically corrected.
You can never be sure without looking at it in person. Wasn't there a French statesman by that name a century ago? If that's the case the proper correction would be to capitalize. :-)
I don't mind HUMANS whiling away their time doing a bit of spell-check work; I do it myself, when I want to relax.
I agree; I did some of that before our search function became non-operational. When it's back up and running I may do some more. It's a more productive way to build up personal edit numbers than engaging in reversion wars. ;-)
But if a machine can do it, then it probably shouldn't be done as a logged-in contributor (robot or "bot"). Rather, let's have our zealous programming staff write a custom spell-check program.
I would still be suspicious
Ec