Comment by llamageddon01 on 20/10/2021 at 11:43 UTC*

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View submission: The NewToReddit Encyclopaedia Redditica v2

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Pedant; Pedantry

Wikipedia[1] says “A pedant is a person who is excessively concerned with ...precision, or one who makes an ostentatious and arrogant show of learning.” In other words, *The Average Redditor*™[2]. Since the onset of the Internet, it seems that every user somewhere is trying to either outdo, derail or discredit other users by employing some form of pedantry as their weapon of choice, often in grammar or usage due to their errors being relatively easy to spot.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedant

2: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/pedantic

Because the likelihood of making an error in a post is directly proportional to the embarrassment it will cause the poster, it is often the case that the user making the correction will actually get something within their own pedantry wrong; so much so that the phenomenon has inspired three Internet Adages[3]:

3: https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Eponymous_laws

• Skitt's Law[4]: *Any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself.*

4: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Skitts%20Law

• Muphry’s Law[5], (a deliberate misspelling of "Murphy's Law"): *If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.*

5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry%27s_law

• McKean's Law[6]: *Any correction of the speech or writing of others will contain at least one grammatical, spelling, or typographical error.*

6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_McKean

There are more variations on this theme[7]. There will be even more.

7: https://www.dailywritingtips.com/breaking-muphrys-law/

 

• **Pedantry on Reddit.**

It has been said that Reddit has the most unprecedentedly dense concentration of pedantry that has ever existed in the history of humanity[8] and if those comments don’t prove it, nothing will.

8: https://www.reddit.com/r/TheoryOfReddit/comments/c9kq2f/reddit_has_the_most_unprecedentedly_dense/

Having said that, r/bestof is a sub that catalogues the very best comments on Reddit as submitted by the users of Reddit, and a debate about whether Reddit’s pedantry[9] is worse than anywhere else on the internet concludes that it really isn’t. Ah, Reddit; never change…

9: https://www.reddit.com/r/bestof/comments/8v3hlt/umritopmd_loses_patience_with_reddit_pedantry/

 

• **Ackchyually…**

And because Reddit *will* never change, we have memes about pedants[10]! The most well known one is the “Reaction” meme Ackchyually / Actually Guy[11].

10: https://www.reddit.com/r/memes/comments/ltsgbq/ackshually/

11: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ackchyually-actually-guy

• Ackchyually* refers to the deliberate misspelling of the word “actually” to reflect the sarcastic slurring of the word to emphasise the importance of the forthcoming pronouncement that is intended to correct or to discredit a statement made on (often but not limited to) a topic dear to them; usually paired with an illustration of a stereotypical nerdy or geeky person[12].

12: https://www.reddit.com/r/TooAfraidToAsk/comments/uy9tq0/why_does_the_fat_sweaty_foureyed_sarcastic/

 

• **"You are technically correct, the best type of correct."**

For our second example, here’s an innocuous phrase that is not quite how it appears. This is another of Reddit’s beloved pop-culture references, this time originating from Futurama S02E14[13]. And here’s a typical Reddit example[14] of it in action!

13: https://youtu.be/hou0lU8WMgo

14: https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/36m7dh/just_a_turtle_eating_pancakes/crfacnb/?context=3

• *Because there is a Subreddit for everything:**

Pedantry is found all over Reddit; share your instances at r/GrammarNazi, r/pedant, r/pedantic or r/Pedantry, while r/ackchyually is the one place for all your favourite ackchyually meme needs, and r/futurama welcomes you to the wooorld of tomorrowww.

• *See Also:**

• Autocarrot[15]
• Eponymous Laws[16]
• Grammar[17]
• “Grammar Nazi”[18]
• Grammar Traps[19]
• Internet Adages[20]
• Philosophical Razors[21]
• “Reactions”[22]
• Spelling and Grammar[23]
• Spelling and Punctuation[24]
• Spelling and Punctuation: Apostrophe Traps[25]
• "You are technically correct, the best type of correct"[26]

 

15: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhhipt1/

16: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhiiesf/3

17: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhjjeme/

18: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhjjifk/

19: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhjjmk8/

20: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhleky9/

21: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/icg6kj3/

22: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhcn5fb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

23: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhu1l7j/

24: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhu1npp/

25: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhu1r7e/

26: https://www.reddit.com/r/NewToReddit/comments/qbb173/comment/hhukmzu/

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