DamnYouAutoCorrect: When Texting Turns Against You

Nov. 8, 2010— -- If you own an iPhone, this has happened to you.

You tap away at your keyboard to send off a quick text but, before you know it, your cell phone has changed the "White House" into a "whorehouse," or turned "songs" into "dongs."

It's not that your phone has a particularly foul mouth. It's just that your smartphone's auto-correct software, which tries to fix typos and misspellings in your messages, isn't always so smart.

To share the humor (and, often, humiliation) that these messages inject into modern life, the Pophangover blog network last week launched the aptly-worded website DamnYouAutoCorrect, which invites anyone who has ever experienced an auto-correct misfire to send in a screen grab of the damage.

Jillian Madison, creator and editor of the Pophangover sites, said the website has already collected hundreds of submissions and attracted about one million page views since Friday.

"It's obviously striking a chord with people," she said.

Madison said the idea came from a few embarrassing "auto-corrects" of her own. Not so long ago, when texting a co-worker, her cell phone turned "let's goooo" into "let's hookup." Another time, her phone sent a message with the word "fellatio" instead of "gelato."

"I just got so fed up with being humiliated by them and I said I can't be the only person experiencing this," she said.

Clearly, she isn't.

Since news of her site hit the Internet, she's been flooded with screen grabs from iPhones, Android phones and other smartphones. Madison said most of the submissions have been from iPhones, which seem to have difficulty detecting pop culture words. For example, "Red Bull" turns into "terbium" and "Netflix" becomes "negroid."

"Everyone's experiencing it. It's something we can all relate to. It's kind of laugh along with everyone's pain," she said.

The DamnYouAutoCorrect website includes pages of hilarious screen grabs. Click on to the next page to see a few examples.

Texter A: What time is the meeting? 9 or 930?

Texter B: Boner

Texter B: Stupid auto correct!

Texter B: Niner

From Rosemary:Texter A: "Oh lo I bought a dick cookbook. Haven't tried it yet & I've had it for 2 mths
Texter A: "LOL Whoooooaaa. *sick not dick. Lol

From Leslie:
Texter A: I'm going to take a howler
Texter B: The moon isn't full
Texter A: Lol shower!!!

From Unknown:
Texter A: Oh good! I mean not good that you have allergies but good that the nose is better. I have a whole box of slavery with your name on it.
Texter A: Oh my god.
Texter A: I tried to type Alavert and iPhone puts slavery in there

From Unknown:
Texter A: Sry I was teething
Texter B: Teething?
Tester B: Dang it, I meant tweeting. Stupid auto correct