I wish the authors would proofread

When I was at school, proofreading was absolutely compulsory. Now I see writers in the keyhole challenge writing crap as follows: not wheals, not weals, not welts but.......wheels!
For God's sake!!!!!!!

That could be a result of a presumptuous spellcheck program.

One shouldn't be too censorious. I diligently reread my offerings, but however hard I try, there is usually at least one error I miss, and it is usually missed by the validators as well. (No criticism of validators intended - especially as I'm one!).

I would guess that the majority of us are not professional writers, and we cannot afford to employ professional proof readers.

Well equally as important as spelling and grammar, in my opinion, is the ability to put your point across in a suitable manner without aggression and swear words, especially when criticising people who do something you don't

We do. I usually leave a new story to settle for a few days like fine game, then return to it and re-check before posting to the site.

Trouble is, you can't get every single one and as in the OP's example, sometimes the spellchecker thinks it knows better than you, especially with specialist "kink" words.

Me proof-read? I always thought that's what my readers were for. Oops! Now that I know better...

Well my grammar checker changed one of my words on a previous story from 'jeans' to 'genes' which of course have entirely different meanings while both words are correct. I did read it after the change but my mind read 'jeans' despite the spelling and I submitted the story. Flopsy caught it right away and changed it but things do happen.

The other thing about this particular forum is I recall a old saying that goes something like this. "People who live in glass houses should not throw stones." I see the occasional mistake, especially as none of the challenge stories have been validated, but looking back at myself, I always think "I could have done that" and then I laugh and continue reading.

The admins always make sure each and every story obtains a certain level and that should be enough for everyone on site. I am extremely happy to have 93 stories to read, and don't really care one bit about the occasional mistake in spelling etc, it makes no difference to my enjoyment.

I always poof reed, and never make any misteaks.

I've found that the best way to proof read is to let the story sit for a few days then go back and catch errors. You won't do that if you rush, even if you reread it 50 times. Give it a rest. You'll also tweak it, changing things so that you'll get it exactly the way you want it.

What Rollin said!

For me writing/proofreading is an iterative process. After I let a story "age", I not only find errors, I find places where my story has gotten muddled, and I often find much better ways of expressing my thoughts. This is also the time when I attack wordiness. My stories sometimes shrink by hundreds of words in the rewrite process.

I have great admiration for those who can write a worthy story in one pass. But that's not me!

I do expect to find more errors in challenge entries because writers are against a deadline, plus stories are not validated in the same way. If this grates on you, it's only fair to take errors into account in your grading process. After all, when it comes to grading, you get to make the rules.