"Going back to the original point of this thread, what riles me most of all is when people spell the shortened version of 'you are' as your and not you're. No biggie and I'm not having a go at anyone if it's happened in this thread - just a personal irritation (the cream doesn't work! lol)."

I agree (and I also have problems with many other spelling errors)...

My reason?
"Your" = "Belonging to you".
"You're" = "You are".
Two totally different meanings. OK, they sound the same, and in context they can usually be differentiated, but sometimes not (as in "Your stupid friend" as opposed to "You're stupid friend" (although the latter should really be punctuated as "You're stupid, friend".)

It's a lack of attention to detail. Try getting away with that in a picture, and you get pounced on. Why should language be different?

Of course, I have always thought that the Americans can't spell proper, like what we Brits can, but hoo no's hoos rite?

Cheers,
Diolma