Post the term/terms you find the most annoying to read and explain why.

[pekv2]

I'll start.

Hacked/Hacker/Hack
Legit

Why?

Hacked/Hack/Hacker is used so many times in the incorrect way. Even on tv, when I see or hear the word Hack/Hacked/Hacker, it is always, I mean always used wrong, I'd like to bash it with fire. I'd prefer, if something bad happened, the correct term would be crack/cracked/cracker. I believe good programmers that do good are hackers, programming, etc. Bad people that use the computers to infiltrate I consider crackers.

As for legit, maybe because I've read it so many times, I'm not sure. A new terminology needs to be invented to take this term out.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

That said/That being said

There was this Afro-American on the Weather Channel that used that line at least six times during each time he was on the air. Unfortunately, I now find myself using it a tad to often. That said, when is this damn heat going to pass?

~Bruno~

[nimda]

Guess what?
The only suitable response is "what?"

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Guess what?
The only suitable response is "what?"

I remember the first time I lived down south and heard the phrase, "Heard that!" I recall thinking to myself, "I hope so! I thought I did a pretty good job enunciating with a clear voice."

Or the first time I heard, "Do what?" I recall that she should have asked, "Do where?" taking into consideration the vernacular, for the discussion was centered around a place and not a doing anything.

~Bruno~

[Matthew N. Wright]

Unremorsefully.

Because Atlas.

[Phinnaeus Gage]

Unremorsefully.

Because Atlas.

Then, I got you beat all to hell with "..." because of...

[Foxpup]

Organic (in the context of food)
Unless you eat rocks, all food is organic.

Natural
Again, with the strange exception of "artificial chemicals" made by mixing natural chemicals with other natural chemicals, all food is natural, even if you do eat rocks. Just don't eat rocks containing lead, asbestos, or uranium. Despite being 100% natural, these rocks are not healthy snacks.

[Blind]

There was this Afro-American [...]

African American is my annoyance, Maddox sums it best: http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=your_stupid_ideas

[repentance]

People confusing "than" and "then" drives me nuts.  They don't sound the same and they aren't synonyms - how the hell can you confuse them, especially in writing?

[Matthew N. Wright]

People confusing "than" and "then" drives me nuts.  They don't sound the same and they aren't synonyms - how the hell can you confuse them, especially in writing?

There are worse problems then that, but if you don't like it than why don't you do something about it?

[rjk]

People confusing "than" and "then" drives me nuts.  They don't sound the same and they aren't synonyms - how the hell can you confuse them, especially in writing?

They're are worse problem's then that, but if you don't like it than why don't you do something about it?

FTFY

[realnowhereman]

"I could care less"

Oh you could could you?  So your current level of "caring" is higher than than some absolute minimum?  Just like every other level of "caring" right up to "I care quite a lot".

Personally, "I couldn't care less" meaning that it is not possible for me to care any less than I do, my caring quotient is lower than low, it is the least it possibly could be.

(How I wish I cared less about people saying "could care less".)

[austonst]

Your sitting on you're bitcoins.
I don't understand why people have such a hard time with this. As soon as I come across a your/you're mistake while reading, I lose my focus and have to spend a minute grumbling to myself.

You disagree with Science. Science says that _____. Because you disagree with this study, you oppose Science.
I've seen this mainly in anthropogenic global warming debates, economic debates, and other situations where the absolute truth is difficult, if not impossible to know, or where there is no right answer. I've seen many situations where person A refers to a scientific paper in a discussion. Person B looks it over and disagrees with its content, often for legitimate reasons. Person A then attacks person B by claiming they hate Science. The whole point of scientific study is to challenge what we think we know and to try to discover that which we don't know. Disagreeing with a paper by critiquing its methods or finding flaws with its conclusions isn't anti-science at all. Especially in the global warming and economics debates, it's possible to find evidence for pretty much any viewpoint. Most people just agree with the ones that support their opinion and pick out flaws with the ones that don't. I could rant about this for hours... "Science" is not a substitute for God, although that's pretty much what it's become.

[benjamindees]

Organic (in the context of food)
Unless you eat rocks, all food is organic.

This refers to the use of organic fertilizers, as opposed to nitrogen fertilizer.

[Foxpup]

Organic (in the context of food)
Unless you eat rocks, all food is organic.

This refers to the use of organic fertilizers, as opposed to nitrogen fertilizer.

All plants (other than legumes) require nitrogen fertiliser. Without it, they just die. But that's okay, because "organic" fertilisers contain nitrates too, the only difference is that these nitrates are naturally produced, as opposed to "artificial" nitrates, which differ in that they are artificial and therefore "bad". Yes, nitrates are technically inorganic, but so is water - does adding water to plants also somehow destroy their organic goodness?

[nimda]

We should just take the chemistry definition of organic: "containing carbon." That's a much better definition; it's cut-and-dry.

[benjamindees]

Besides "natural" nitrates, organic fertilizers also contain carbon.  The point is that organic fertilizer use is sustainable, and generally better for the environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_fertilizer#Advantages

Of course, that doesn't mean that all artificial fertilizers are necessarily unsustainable.  Several years ago, I had the idea to create an organization to promote sustainably-produced, synthetic nitrogen fertilizers as an alternative to "organic" food.  I didn't follow through with it, though, since I figured the market interest in "Nuclear Food" wouldn't be that great.

[niko]

We should just take the chemistry definition of organic: "containing carbon." That's a much better definition; it's cut-and-dry.

We should just be aware that different people at different times may be associating different meanings with a given word. There is a (hi)story behind any word. In this case, organum, organ, organization, organic. It's ignorant to ignore it.

Most annoying thing to read/hear is any thing that leads to confusion due to this perfectly avoidable problem. The map is not the territory.

[LoupGaroux]

"To tell the truth..."

If your statement begins with that qualifier, it is presumed to be a lie, as you know damn good and well that it is such a whopper, nobody is going to believe you!

"Sharpen your pencil..."

Often used by customers when discussing a negotiation. Hey, asshole! If I sharpen my pencil any more to make this sale I am going to use the surgically tuned tip to stab your hand straight through to the desk and pin it there while I slap the shit out of you for beating me up so bad on this negotiation.

"Just sayin'..."

Obviously numbnuts- you were just using words to say that, I don't need that kind of clarification, I've already suffered through whatever boring as hell thing you were saying, and now you want to verbalize the whole process and define it for me? No, just quietly go away and stop sayin'.

"Bro-ANYTHING..."

There is no such thing as a bromance, brotastic, bro-alicious or any other bro-fucking-thing. It is a lazy contraction and a sign of poor education and seriously hillbilly roots. Don't ever, ever say it. Unless you are some preppy asswipe frat boy cruising a gay bar looking for rough trade- then you deserve what you get bro-bitch.

"Troll, trolling, troller, trollishness, and all the derivatives of trollery..."

There was a time in the internetz world when "Troll" was a word that meant something. It was a clever little retort that made people think for ten seconds and relate the character of the poster thus tagged to those mythical warty smelly thuggish creatures of our Brothers Grimm youth, and cause us to smile thinking of the utter oaf who just said something off-topic, inane or otherwise non-canonical as a hunchbacked toll collector living in the swamp gas next to a picture book bridge in a dark forest and no access to proper hygiene. Now it has become the most over used phrase in online communication. Every Tom, Dick and Samantha instantly retreats to the cry of "Troll" when anything they cannot personally understand is said as a reflexive defense mechanism to make themselves sound witty and more intelligent than (note the correct use of "than"!) they actually are. It doesn't work. Even more so with those annoying little pre-made pictures of Troll Spray, and trite meme pix of trollish judgmental imagery. Is the best effort you can make in the conversation is to go copy some over-used photo that was originally generated by some 13 old fuckwit on 4chan to poke fun at his betters? Then (ah, how sublime! another than/then correctly applied!) the conversation was over your IQ level and the best thing you can do is shut the fuck up and not contribute, so folks can still wonder if you are an idiot, instead of you proudly proclaiming it.

"Grammar Nazi..."

Or any of the cleverly misspelled adaptions of it. First off- the point being made is nine times out of ten being made in reference to punctuation. So it would be better to call it Punctuation Putsch or something like that if you truly have a need to immolate yourself in the Godwin glory of a Fifth Column Reich online. Even when it actually is grammatical- most of the time the correcting simpleton is wrong, or adds their own errors to the discussion, and seriously now, if it was Nazis- they wouldn't just point out the errors, they would get all Kristallnacht on their asses, or whip out a can of Zyklon B and fix this whole spelling issue once and final solution for all.

[nimda]

Loup, bro, not trying to be a grammer nazi, or a troll but, to tell the truth you make more mistakes then you think. "Mispelled" has only one "s".