SEO Egghead by Jaimie Sirovich: A blog about SEO, written for nerds, by a nerd.

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Fri
1
Sep '06

I Am a Better Blogger "Then" You

It's funny that of all the bloggers in this little SEO-blogosphere, it is one of those "evil" black hatters who had to admonish us for our poor grammar.

I'm often very surprised at the horrible grammar mistakes in major SEO blogs.  I'm not going to point any fingers either, but the "then vs. than" mistake is my personal pet peeve.  "Then" is an adverb, and "than" is a (coordinating comparative) conjunction.  Mixing them up just looks really bad.

You know who you guys are -- there are many.  But when a spammer uses better grammar than you do in his Viagra spam, it's a sign.  Maybe you should have him proofread or something :)

Update: A friendly neighborhood grammar nazi geek pointed out that "than" is not actually a coordinating conjunction.  It is a conjunction, though.

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10 Responses to “I Am a Better Blogger "Then" You”

  1. Spanimal Says:

    Is this discrimination based on Hat color?

    There are many myths and misconceptions going around about Black Hat Seo. Some of them have a foundation in reality, some are a little far fetched.

    Creating spam is one thing, whereas writing "legitimate content" for a blog is a whole nother animal...

  2. Jaimie Sirovich Says:

    You took it the wrong way. Sarcasm, sarcasm :) I just find it funny that some white hatters tend to view themselves as a sort of "higher life form," villify the black hatters, and then make the same stupid mistakes. Sometimes they're worse.

  3. Joe Says:

    I have to agree with you there. I am guilty of the then and than problem. I'll be the first to admit it. Could be my Brooklyn accent has taken over in my writing... lol
    My content writer tells me all the time about it. Please don't hate me... lol :)

  4. pilkster Says:

    There's nothing worse than black hat seo being done so badly that the perpetrator tries to pass it off as WH... does that even make sense?

  5. phaithful Says:

    I swear it's not my fault. The Markov script did it... :)

  6. Spanimal Says:

    Not to worry my eggheaded friend, just being voluntarily uppity in the spirit of celebrating grammar nazies :)

  7. Emily Says:

    "Then" is an adverb, and "than" is a (coordinating) conjunction

    ACTUALLY, "than" is NOT a coordinating conjuction at all. Remember "FANBOYS" ? There are only seven letters. (link to info about cc's)

    If anything, I think you can call it a relative conjunction! :)

    Love,
    Your friendly neighborhood grammar geek (not a grammar nazi!)

  8. Washington DC SEO Says:

    Jaimie: "You know who you guys are"

    Me: Actually, I don't think they (we?) do. And if you are actually talking about me, I'll be deeply mortified. (Just shoot me an email privately when you see typos on my blog and I'll fix them toute suite) :)

  9. White Hat Kingdom not Good Enough for You? » Black Hat Seo Blog Says:

    [...] Jaimie Sirovich is an expert coder, a knowledgeable SEO, somewhat of a grammar Nazi … and he is tempted by the dark side. [...]

  10. No Hat SEO » Blog Archive » White Hat Kingdom not Good Enough for You? Says:

    [...] Jaimie Sirovich is an expert coder, a knowledgeable SEO, somewhat of a grammar Nazi … and he could certainly hold his own in the darker side of things, if he so chose. [...]

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