but do we REALLY need people to run a spell checker for BBS posts?

Yes.

Poor spelling and grammar should not be excused. This just leads to laziness.

If English is not someone's first language, then I'll let it slide, although I'd hope that the person would be amenable to (subtle) corrections, in the interests of learning English. If I posted to a French BBS (which I don't), I know I'd appreciate being (gently) corrected.

Besides, most of the people on this BBS who have don't English as their first language seem to have better spelling and grammar than those of us who do.

Typos are forgivable, to a point; but does it really take that long to proof-read a post?

Dyslexia or similar are another problem. I'd let that slide.

Poor grammar, on the other hand, can often lead to a post being unreadable. In this case, gently asking the OP to clarify what they've written can lead to two favourable outcomes: the readers understand what's being asked/said, and the OP (hopefully) learns something.

Also, consider this:

A post is written once, but read many times. Would it not be better for everyone if it was proof-read once by the author, rather than multiple times by the readers.

Gently correcting spelling and grammar is a good thing. There is (certainly) a time and a place for it. I'd argue that the BBS is as good a place as any other, as long as the corrections are gentle and don't cause offence.

I don't think that anybody on this BBS has been/would be harsh when pointing out mistakes. There are usually subtle ways to draw attention to an error and gently correct it without pointing fun at the original poster (I've outlined a couple above).

Remember that people come here for help. They can reach a wider audience if their posts are correctly spelt and are understandable, otherwise most people just skip to the next post.