Is there a genuinely good reason for all the notes on various images to correct grammar, spelling, etc.? I feel they are usually far more distracting than the errors, and don't serve any real purpose (beyond letting the annotator have a cheap, brief feeling of smugness). I wouldn't mind them in such rare cases where the English is so bad as to be nigh unintelligible, where they're added to actually clarify the author's meaning (i.e. translation notes, basically), but I've never actually seen one like that here.

Is there any reason I shouldn't just delete notes that only serve to highlight very minor language flaws?

Yeah, it's kind of silly. As someone who occasionally adds translation notes here, I certainly wouldn't add a giant note that says "Mokudai" (the guy's name) that covers this entire picture post #2588662. That would just be obnoxious and add nothing to the picture. On the other hand, the Grammar Nazi notes are almost always tiny (perhaps sometimes as tiny as a missing apostrophe) and only cover text, making them not nearly as disruptive.

elgranfracaso said:
Is there any reason I shouldn't just delete notes that only serve to highlight very minor language flaws?

Yeah, if you went on a spree of deleting them, I think you'd get a neutral record. Like it or not, they're considered a valid use, and you're not allowed to remove valid Notes.

crocogator said:
I certainly wouldn't add a giant note that says "Mokudai" (the guy's name) that covers this entire picture post #2588662. That would just be obnoxious and add nothing to the picture.

Doesn't it? While you or I may be able to read it just fine*, for someone who doesn't know Japanese at all or isn't that good with katakana yet, a note would be appreciated no matter how small of a thing it may otherwise be. I'm not sure I'd put a giant note covering the character, but having something somewhere would seem appropriate to me (though a tip: click on the image to hide/show the notes).

• Though with simple boxed text like this, it's not always clear if it's supposed to be read top-to-bottom and right-to-left (traditional Japanese), or left-to-right and top-to-bottom (less formal Japanese, adopted from the west). In this instance, the character's name being tagged helps clarify once you realize that's what's written on the background, but an accompanying tag isn't always applicable.

crocogator said:
Like it or not, they're considered a valid use, and you're not allowed to remove valid Notes.

I think that's ultimately what's being asked. Are or should unhelpful notes be considered valid? Like, if a comic has a misspelling of "youd", is it useful to have a slim note between the u and d saying ' (or covering the whole word and saying you'd or you would), even though what it means is pretty clear? If someone posts a comment with a similar misspelling, and I reply with a similar correction, that would be seen as spam (or harassment, if I keep correcting the same person) since it's unhelpful and just gets in the way. Shouldn't there be a similar standard for notes if it doesn't help and is just distracting?

I generally find notes to be way too intrusive to be useful during normal browsing. Having notes plastered over not terribly important things kind of breaks the immersion for me, so to speak.
So, I usually just have notes turned off completely.

IMHO, notes should primarily be used to translate text in languages other than english, or if the english text itself is difficult to understand.

crocogator said:
Yeah, it's kind of silly. As someone who occasionally adds translation notes here, I certainly wouldn't add a giant note that says "Mokudai" (the guy's name) that covers this entire picture .

I would have just put down a note below the character, not covering the whole thing.

The plethora of animal penises chart has this problem. Every single box is written in even if the boxes dont have a typo to fix

In the Mokudai example, how about covering the top left character instead of all four?

bitwolfy said:
So, I usually just have notes turned off completely.

I guess you used custom CSS, because I don't see a setting for it.

If an advanced setting was added for this, I'd suggest three options. On, Hidden, and Off. For Hidden you click to turn them on the first time. Put "This image has N notes" text in the image-resize-notice box. I think we used to have some text like that below the image.

lance_armstrong said:
I guess you used custom CSS, because I don't see a setting for it.

If an advanced setting was added for this, I'd suggest three options. On, Hidden, and Off. For Hidden you click to turn them on the first time. Put "This image has N notes" text in the image-resize-notice box. I think we used to have some text like that below the image.

Not CSS, a script. Adds a button to toggle the notes (alongside some other things): https://i.imgur.com/tveysjn.png
An option to hide/show notes like that is trivial to implement, I'm not sure why the site does not do that already.

Showing the total number of notes is a great idea, though. Could also have an option to automatically show the notes if the post has translated tag, since those are unlikely to be grammar corrections.

crocogator said:
Yeah, it's kind of silly. As someone who occasionally adds translation notes here, I certainly wouldn't add a giant note that says "Mokudai" (the guy's name) that covers this entire picture post #2588662. That would just be obnoxious and add nothing to the picture.

I always only cover one symbol, or perhaps stick the note next to the character, when clarifying who they are or what the big word/name is.

watsit said:

Are or should unhelpful notes be considered valid? [...] Shouldn't there be a similar standard for notes [as we have for comments] if it doesn't help and is just distracting?

Yes, this is my point. If a note is only made to point out spelling or grammar errors, it typically detracts far more from my experience of the art than the error itself. It's like trying to look through an artist's sketchbook and having to peel off sticky notes to see the drawings. It feels like folks who put in notes like these are missing the point of the medium. I'd much prefer people make comments about it than deface the image, even if it does only take one click to hide the notes.

I suppose another option would be for me to look into which users make notes like that and leave feedback for them if they do it regularly, but I don't know if the rules are on my side on that one, and I wouldn't want it to come back and bite me.

On (current behavior)
Hidden (you have to click to turn on the notes after the post is loaded)
Translated (same as hidden unless the translated tag is on the post)
Off (notes are not visible even if you click the image)

lance_armstrong said:
On (current behavior)
Hidden (you have to click to turn on the notes after the post is loaded)
Translated (same as hidden unless the translated tag is on the post)
Off (notes are not visible even if you click the image)

I don't know about Off. It would cause additional complications for people who turn it off and forget, and are told to click the image to toggle notes on the rare occasion they actually want to see them. Having Default On (current behavior), Default Off (aka hidden), and Translated (same as Default On when the translated or partially_translated tags are present, and Default Off otherwise) seems like it would be enough. A user that doesn't want them can set Default Off, and then not click on the image.