this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2025
27 points (86.5% liked)

Casual Conversation

3281 readers
211 users here now

Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.


RULES (updated 01/22/25)

  1. Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling. To be concise, disrespect is defined by escalation.
  2. Encourage conversation in your OP. This means including heavily implicative subject matter when you can and also engaging in your thread when possible. You won't be punished for trying.
  3. Avoid controversial topics (politics or societal debates come to mind, though we are not saying not to talk about anything that resembles these). There's a guide in the protocol book offered as a mod model that can be used for that; it's vague until you realize it was made for things like the rule in question. At least four purple answers must apply to a "controversial" message for it to be allowed.
  4. Keep it clean and SFW: No illegal content or anything gross and inappropriate. A rule of thumb is if a recording of a conversation put on another platform would get someone a COPPA violation response, that exact exchange should be avoided when possible.
  5. No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc. The chart redirected to above applies to spam material as well, which is one of the reasons its wording is vague, as it applies to a few things. Again, a "spammy" message must be applicable to four purple answers before it's allowed.
  6. Respect privacy as well as truth: Don’t ask for or share any personal information or slander anyone. A rule of thumb is if something is enough info to go by that it "would be a copyright violation if the info was art" as another group put it, or that it alone can be used to narrow someone down to 150 physical humans (Dunbar's Number) or less, it's considered an excess breach of privacy. Slander is defined by intentional utilitarian misguidance at the expense (positive or negative) of a sentient entity. This often links back to or mixes with rule one, which implies, for example, that even something that is true can still amount to what slander is trying to achieve, and that will be looked down upon.

Casual conversation communities:

Related discussion-focused communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Serious or irreverent welcome

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
  1. "Thank you"
  2. "My bad"
  3. "I am not familiar with the subject so I have no opinion on it"
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

On point number 3, I once got dunked on for saying that I didn't know anything about the subject at hand when asked. The other person told me "Well, that's just a cop out. Just make something up!"

edit: clarification

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Too much to ask, pure fantasy

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

"lambasts" or "pillories" instead of "slams" in news headlines

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

How about “threw Mankind off Hell In A Cell, and plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table” instead of “slams”

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

lambasts

Lambastes?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I petition to bring back regular use of Kerfuffle.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

I'll sign that petition no doubt

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Verisimilitude. It's just nice.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

It's a good word! How would you use it in a sentence?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Poorly! As I'm currently high and do not feel confident using it correctly!

Looks cool though!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm less high now!

I normally use it when talking about miniatures and toy train setups.

"The miniature painted conifers with bits of snow really have the scene verisimilitude"

I could still be very wrong.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

The novelist's meticulous attention to historical detail—from the cadence of 19th-century dialogue to the texture of hand-stitched corsets—lent her story an uncanny verisimilitude, making even the most outlandish plot twists feel hauntingly plausible.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

The general meaning is the appearance of truth or validity.

But I usually use it to describe something that is "believable" even if the underlying premise is not. So a fantasy story that pays close attention to detail and is highly consistent might be described as having versimilitude. On the other hand, a story where the characters make out-of-character choices might be lacking versimilitude, even if there are no overtly "fictional" elements to the story.

That's usually how I've heard it used, not sure if it's the "main" usage though.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 weeks ago

"Wow isn't life great since we went to the 3 day working week!"

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
  • cerulean is a word that just has so much more class and gravitas than "sky blue"
  • gravitas is a word that simply has no other word providing such ... well, gravitas (dignity, solemnity, etc.)
  • charlatan is a word we need to apply every time a politician or a CEO or such speaks
  • the Holy Triad: whence, whither, wherefore
  • nubivagant is a word that doesn't mean anything like what it looks and sounds like
  • niggardly is another word that doesn't mean anything like what it looks and sounds like (and can get you fired if you have uneducated colleagues)
  • frippery is just fun to say

I would also like to see some further German words imported into English like we imported "Schadenfreude":

  • Backpfeifengesicht as an alternative for 'a punchable face'
  • Fremdschämen to express being embarrassed for someone who's done something cringe
  • Weltschmerz is a word I'll let you look up so you can see how it might be super-appropriate for this day and age

There's also a Chinese word I'd like to bring into English and make common:

  • 三观 (sānguān) which is pronounced kinda/sorta "san gwun", means literally "three views", and means idiomatically the alignment (or lack thereof) of worldviews, values, and ethics between individuals
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"cerulean is a blue dream." -- x-files

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

"I was wrong"

I love being wrong, it's the gateway to new knowledge, but other people view not knowing through a self-esteem lens

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Good forenoon to you!

Also, I'm totally down with referring to the days of the Week by their etymological roots. Happy Day of Thor to you!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ooooh I'm 100% behind using the etymological roots. Good call!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

May tomorrow you have an excellent Day of Venus.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Why thank you 😊

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Surely you mean Star Period 4?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

"Hi nice to meet you I'm your soulmate and future wife and I'm going to fix you and we'll help fix the world together"

(i mean if someone said that exact phrase to me I'd probably run screaming lol. But you know.)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Call it cheesy, but people need to tell each other "I love you" more often.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

"I don't know."

If we were honest, it's the thing we should all be saying and hearing all day long. But it's not. Quite the opposite, it's among the rarest. Instead, people are shooting their certainties at one another, relentlessly.

Not knowing something or not having an opinion on a question is not an issue. It's to be expected, even if we were all geniuses (I'm certainly not one). Not doing the work to inform oneself could potentially be an issue but should not be as long we don't pretend otherwise. It's when one pretends to know, based on what one has heard someone else say, or because one wants to push a specific narrative that suits them, that shit starts hitting the fan. That's when living together turn into the stinking shit hole it has turned into in which lies are fine (when they're not adored) and facts have become suspicious if not dangerous.

Obviously, I don't know what I'm talking about.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

I've always been partial to there- and where-compounds (thereupon, therefrom, wherein, etc.).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Gadzooks. It's just such a fun phrase.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I love it! I'm also pretty fond of words like shenanigans and hijinks.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Ooooh those are good ones

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

"proselytize"

Only came across the word recently.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

No kings. United we stand. ✊

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Nae king! Nae quin! Nae laird! Nae master! We willna' be fooled again!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

I love you. :'(

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

Smoke weed every day

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

"I disagre, but you know what? That's fine, let's drop the subject and have a drink or whatever!"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

"NO! I will destroy you, and wipe your seed from this earth unless you agree that Batman Begins had some pacing issues at the end of act 1!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Old english stuff like thy or thou. Nothing practical, just for the lol.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

For me, the small politeness words are not "thank you", "sorry", or "good morning". They're "maybe", "I think", "perhaps", "I don't know". I respect honest doubt way, way more than I respect dishonest = rushed certainty, and I wish I saw more of that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

"Bosom". Religious nuts shouldn't have a monopoly on the word. Also, it makes me chuckle every time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

It's like the wholesome counterpart to "boob." Both kinda sound like what they describe, but "bosom" feels classy.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

What WAS that song???

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I care about you but not just said to me but to between other people.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Does just broader vocabulary count? Maybe it's just a rule that everyone sits down with a dictionary every couple of weeks for 30 minutes just opening it to a random page.

Also, more latin phrases. That's cool shit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›