'Your Probably From Worcester' Page Has 17,000 Followers - and Some Grammar Haters Too

WORCESTER, MA — "Grammar Police" — Those who seek to have correct English written online. They are not opponents of free speech, or 1337. They merely wish that the fundamentals of English are withheld [sic]. They will correct bad Grammar and Spelling, and flame the use of ridiculous, Chav, MSN inspired abbreviations such as 'wuu2'. They are in full support of 1337, and support net slang. - Urban Dictionary

Guilty are many.

Grammar Police lurk in and around Worcester and may cringe at the title of the the page "Your Probably From Worcester, MA if..." , for the error is a top pet peeve of those who value the English language.

The difference between "your" and "you're" should be a pretty simple one, Grammar Police argue. As Ross shouted to Rachel in "Friends," "By the way, Y-O-U apostrophe R-E? You are. Your is just ...YOUR!"

Start watching at 1:31:

Administrators of the "Your Probably From Worcester" Facebook page are quite aware of the glaring grammar faux pas, and they repeatedly ask Worcester's language lovers to let it go. Let it go, like a dangling participle, stuff it in a bag with "there" and "their" and "to" and "too," and move on.

Why? They can't change the title. The Facebook page was created prior to their reign, and despite efforts, it shall remain. Facebook does not allow changes to group pages with more than 250 members.

"Don't come here if you want to be the grammar police," reads a notice pinned to the top of the page.
"It continually comes up about the name of the group and the wrong grammar used in the title. I'm sorry to inform you all, but the group name can not be changed...We know it's wrong, and we thank you for not bringing it to our attention in the future. You will see that there are many groups that have the same misspelling. We're sorry that you're irritated about your."

Laura Johnson Ricci, one of the page's administrators, said she didn't start the group.

"It was converted from the old format when these types of groups came about, back in 2011," Ricci told Patch. "There was no administrator in the group and Martin Nathan was able to gain control of the admin. Martin didn't want to do it anymore so I recruited Joyce Small Sherr to help me. For the most part, the group runs itself."

Now, the Your Probably From Worcester group page has more than 17,000 members, and is consistently fed with a buffet of Worcester: photos, memories, events and commentary from locals, make it a must-check for Worcesterites. Avid photographers such as Jim Langley roam the city and share photos on the page often. It's also a popular landing spot for those who once lived in the city but moved away, or have family roots here.

A group created the You're Probably From Worcester later, and it has more than 6,000 members. Ricci said that "those people were booted from the group for being nasty and foul mouthed."

"Our group is for Worcester memories," said Ricci. "It's not to be used for job hunting, gofundme pages, or business advertising. If someones asks for a recommendation for a restaurant or the like, then people can share their suggestions. If those rules are not followed, then the posts are deleted. It's the only way to keep the group from becoming filled with junk. The same posts often appear from time to time about the Whistler, Coney Island, Spag's and other Worcester landmarks. It will happen because there are always new people being added to the group and sometimes people leave on their own or get deleted for being out of line and too much swearing."

The Your Probably From Worcester page should not be used as a political avenue either, reminds Ricci, adding that "people just don't know when to stop and can't play nice."

Plus, their are many other pages that commit the same grammer crime. Your just gonna hafta deal with that, to.