How accurate is your roadmap? Surely the Gregory's from 1983 will get you where you need to go?

So on Non-Fluffy Pagans, there was a discussion on whether or not the spelling "magick" should be used and why.

Ratatosk (squirrel of discord), had this to say:

Words are maps of ideas. If the word conveys the idea, then how important in the spelling?

This made my editorial brain whirring (it's one of those, Why bother doing what you do questions). I'm reposting here, because it's one of those flashes of clarity one rarely gets:

"Correct" spelling is a politeness to your readers, as is "correct" grammar. If words (and sentences) are maps of ideas, using "correct" spelling and grammar is a map using commonly understood symbols for the paths and quagmires within. "Bad" spelling and grammar is the same map, but using uncommon symbols that your reader is unfamiliar with so they have to keep referring to the key. Sometimes there is no key. Sometimes the same symbol means two things, or the symbol for "road" may change several times over the course of the map. Your reader may take a wrong turn once or twice along the way.

Both will (probably) get you to the same place, but one will get your reader there faster and in a better mood.