Oxford Comma

[RINO Tom]

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/what-is-the-oxford-comma-and-why-do-people-care-so-much-about-it/

[dead0man]

I was taught it was optional and since I'm an efficient German, I don't use it.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Yes

[Mr. Smith]

Yes (English B.A.)

[Antonio the Sixth]

Depends.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

It’s motonically stupid to end a list with two items that aren’t separated by a comma, unless, of course, they happen to be a pair and essentially one unit.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I like the Oxford comma, but the given example in the blog post doesn't affect me since if those two were my parents, I'd write, "I like my parents—Lady Gaga and Humpty Dumpty." Using the em dash more solves a lot of ambiguities in English punctuation.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

People who don't use commas are evil, rude, and don't deserve sympathy.

[politicallefty]

Yes, definitely. It makes no sense not to use it.

[DavidB.]

Yes, yes, and yes.

[Torie]

I use it in general when I think there is a risk of confusion (so I would not use it if writing that "my favorite colors are red, white and blue"), but always use it in legal documents. I try to avoid using it when I can because I find a plethora of commas distracting and rather ugly looking really.

[fhtagn]

Yes.

I don't trust anyone who doesn't.

[SamTilden2020]

FGI (Freedom Grammatical Idea). I support the Oxford Comma.

[muon2]

I use it in general when I think there is a risk of confusion (so I would not use it if writing that "my favorite colors are red, white and blue"), but always use it in legal documents. I try to avoid using it when I can because I find a plethora of commas distracting and rather ugly looking really.

I follow the same philosophy. I prefer it when there is a risk of confusion or for formal documents. My wife, the professional technical writer, is a stickler for it.

[Lechasseur]

Yes (unless there's no risk of confusion)

[Ban my account ffs!]

I use it for the reasons Cathy described.

It would be a useful distinction in a case like this:

The colors of the food most Atlasians eat are yellow, white, tan, beige, grey, and brown.  

Without the comma at the end, some might confuse some of the food for being both grey and brown at the same time, in which case you might need an extra and.

The colors of the food most Atlasians eat are yellow, white, tan, beige, and grey and brown.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

No. When I write in English (or the other languages I learnt at school) I use the German punctuation rules. We never learnt anything about commas, except for the relative clauses, whose comma rules differ strongly the German rules and are preferable to ours.

PS: Is the American past tense form of learn really learned, as my spellchecker suggests?

[TheSaint250]

Always

[Sirius_]

Always. It looks better and not using it can potentially change the meaning of the sentence.

[Ban my account ffs!]

No. When I write in English (or the other languages I learnt at school) I use the German punctuation rules. We never learnt anything about commas, except for the relative clauses, whose comma rules differ strongly the German rules and are preferable to ours.

PS: Is the American past tense form of learn really learned, as my spellchecker suggests?

learned

While some might pronounce it like learnt, that is generally frowned upon... not frownt upon

[Associate Justice PiT]

     Yes. The Oxford comma is the friend of grammatical clarity, and therefore I use it frequently.

[wxtransit]

Yes. I would rather have clarity than efficiency. And, we really aren't in the days of the printing presses anymore. Does it really take that much effort to type out an extra comma? Here:

,

0.1 seconds of your time.

[Dr. MB]

100% of the time

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

No. When I write in English (or the other languages I learnt at school) I use the German punctuation rules. We never learnt anything about commas, except for the relative clauses, whose comma rules differ strongly the German rules and are preferable to ours.

PS: Is the American past tense form of learn really learned, as my spellchecker suggests?

learned

While some might pronounce it like learnt, that is generally frowned upon... not frownt upon

At school we learned that the past tense of learn and dream is learnt and dreamt. But that seems to be the British version.

[Leinad]

Freedom Comma.