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I have never seen ”/s” on lemmy (feddit.de)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 211 points 3 years ago (46 children)

/s is an excellent modifier for sarcasm. There's no tone in text and bold/italic can only do so much. And with how many absolute crackpots are posting all over the internet, I'd prefer to be sure to not lump in a jokester with the absolute nutjobs.

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  • [–] 95 points 3 years ago (14 children)

    Also helpful for people with trouble reading tone in text cuz of things like autism.

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  • [–] -3 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    That’s the only legitimate defense for having to tag your sarcasm I’ve ever read.

    Back in MY DAY, nobody tagged their sarcasm on BBS or IRC and we ALL UNDERSTOOD AAAAA (but srsly for folks who have trouble with tone you’re fully right.)

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  • [–] 13 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    What are you talking about? Even usenet in the 80s recommended using emoticons to mark sarcasm/joking remarks.

    Avoid sarcasm and facetious remarks.

    Without the voice inflection and body language of personal communication these are easily misinterpreted. A sideways smile, :-), has become widely accepted on the net as an indication that "I'm only kidding". If you submit a satiric item without this symbol, no matter how obvious the satire is to you, do not be surprised if people take it seriously.

    Source

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago

    That’s a valid point! I forgot now many emoticons I’d use back then. I’ve always hated pointing out my sarcasm using extra things, though… I prefer to do it using italics, which is reeeeal helpful on Reddit where it goes over nobody’s heads at all.

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  • [–] -5 points 3 years ago (6 children)

    As someone with autism, I’m here to say that it is actually the opposite of helpful.

    People need challenges in order to grow. They need opportunities to fail.

    Putting training wheels on sarcasm makes autistic people even further behind the social curve by depriving us of opportunities to fail.

    Much like a sterile childhood environment has been scientifically proven to be a causal factor in developing allergies as an adult, I predict that science will eventually establish a causal link between lack of ambiguous communication during developmental years, and reduced intelligence in life.

    Human society is so fucking hard to understand for an autistic person, and I really appreciate your looking out for me, but the struggle is worth it, and human culture is intricate and beautiful, and that’s why I chose this username.

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  • [–] 29 points 3 years ago

    Okay but lots of other autistic people I know really appreciate tone indicators so you cannot really speak for everyone. Not to mention, why does knowing that something was meant to be sarcastic hinder learning instead of essentially guessing?

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    You misunderstand, this is from my own perspective as an autistic person. Plus, the lack of tone of voice over text can make communication harder, for everyone. It’s literally just a tool for communication, clearing up what you mean.

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  • [–] -4 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    How ever did autistic people survive before the internet to help them cope?

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  • [–] 21 points 3 years ago (11 children)

    To me it's born out of this moment: "Wait, will someone see this joke and think I'm serious? If they did they'd think I'm a psycho..."

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  • [–] 6 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    People on Reddit are scared of downvotes affecting their karma score, so they have to tag controversial comments to make it absolutely clear if their comment is sarcasm.

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  • [–] 16 points 3 years ago

    I have used it because my sarcastic comment, read at face value, might encourage someone to support something I despise. I'm not interested in creating or bolstering that shit, I just want to make fun of it. Karma points never had anything to do with it. I had millions but what's a million nothings, still nothing. Reddit Karma is just multiplying by zero.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Personally I used it to keep shinigami eyes users from tagging my then-universal handle as problematic when I made an off-color joke. I've been banned from subreddits I never heard of because of something I said as a joke in a totally different subreddit

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago* (5 children)

    Am i wooshing myself??

    That is literally the point of sarcasm. People legitimately wanted to murder Jonathan Swift.

    If you write "/s", just write the direct unironic statement in the first place.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    "If you want to tell a joke in which the humor is derived from you saying something incorrect, or something that would be offensive if you genuinely believed it, you should instead just say the actual truth and never use sarcasm again"

    That's actually such a good idea, it would make life on the internet so much better /s

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)

    If you want to make a joke, assume that some people won't get it. If you don't want any ambiguity then no, do not use sarcasm. If you write "/s", you're not being sarcastic at all, you're just using a double negative.

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  • [–] 11 points 3 years ago (2 children)

    That's the best part of internet sarcasm. There is little in this world that is more fun than a 6 reply deep argument between someone making serious counterpoints to my sarcastic comments, while I try to see how much more sarcastic I can become before they figure it out.

    Putting a tag up absolutely ruins the fun.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 years ago (3 children)

    /S Is aN ExCeLlEnT MoDiFiEr fOr sArCaSm. ThErE'S No tOnE In tExT AnD BoLd/iTaLiC CaN OnLy dO So mUcH. aNd wItH HoW MaNy aBsOlUtE CrAcKpOtS ArE PoStInG AlL OvEr tHe iNtErNeT, i'd pReFeR To bE SuRe tO NoT LuMp iN A JoKeStEr wItH ThE AbSoLuTe nUtJoBs.

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  • [–] 0 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    That's the whole point of sarcasm though, that the delivery seems genuine. Don't write the opposite of what you mean if you aren't willing to have some people misunderstand you.

    And yes, people who use sarcastic tone in conversation are also missing the point. They also should not say the opposite of what they mean.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 years ago

    Sarcasm was developed in spoken word. If you are using the written word, it needs to be painfully obvious if you want the meaning to come across. But due to Poe's Law, that's becoming harder and harder these days. Especially in the political and human rights discussion.

    No one is forcing you to use /s. But shitting on people using it because you don't think it's "pure" is asinine and also abelism.

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