General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: So Jen Pskaki has these two guys on - Neil Katyal and Andrew Weissman - and boy are they spewing some crazy shit [View all]ShazzieB
(16,661 posts)1. None of us are mind readers.
2. No one here is such a brilliant satirist that they can be absolutely certain of conveying satirical intent in a messageboard post so clearly that no one could possibly miss it.
3. No matter how ridiculous a statement is, there are undoubtedly people in existence who are capable of stating it seriously and/or believing it when someone else states it.
4. Anyone who has been active on the internet for any amount of time should be aware of the pitfalls of communicating in writing. If I say something to you in person, my facial expressions, tone of voice, and general demeanor will provide a plethora of clues as to my intentions, including whether I am joking light-heartedly or being deadly serious. Words displayed on computer screen are sadly lacking in such clues. This makes misinterpretation much, much more likely.
5. Emojis and simple abbreviations such as "/s" are a courtesy we do for our readers, clues we provide to make the task of interpretation easier and less likely to go awry.
6. When I read a post written by someone whose views and writing style I am familiar with, I am likely to need less help of this sort. However, any post we make here is likely to be read by a mix of people, some of whom know us well and some of whom have no experience with our writing style and are therefore at greater risk of misunderstanding. (I, for example, don't know you at all and therefore have no baseline by which to compare your posts to determine if you are being serious or sarcastic. Judging by the replies to this "satirical" post, I have plenty of company here.)
7. When one person misinterprets your intentions, it may well be that one person's fault. When a whole bunch of different people either misinterpret or or can't figure how to interpret your intentions, it's a pretty safe bet that the fault lies elsewhere.
Moral: Using a sarcasm emoji (or /s) can't hurt a thing and has the potential to save a whole bunch of readers from confusion AND save the writer from the frustration of having to repeatedly explain their intentions.
That is all. Tomorrow is another day. Have a nice night.