Writing, Speech and Body Language

[Cyclezee]

It is sometimes difficult to interpret the tone from the written word in a post.

In face to face discussion, speech and body language make a persons mood and temperament much clearer.

What I am trying to say is that people have different styles of writing when posting. Humans have different moods and emotions from time to time, anger, disappointment, sadness, joy, frustration, cynicism, ecstasy, regret, hilarity etc. etc., all of these can be easily misinterpreted and people can be very hasty to judge a person by what they write, when in reality this can be a quite wrong.

The use of the smiles icons in a post can go a long way to help convey the tone in which it is written.

Discuss................or not, it's up to you.

Here ends todays lesson

 

[Xcytronex]

Forums allways have their fair share of wordsmiths.People dazzled by their own literal capabilities.Often - though not always -threads deviate into the realms of pedantry and supercilious smugness.
This forum is inhabited by members from all walks of life -- I always to know what people can do - not what they can't.

 

[Cyclezee]

Very eloquent Dave, too early for the Jura then

 

[banbury frank]

I still think my postings using the lagwige from Halo Halo on the BBC

Is good as forget speling and puntuwtin its all buewist enyway

Frank

 

[Cyclezee]

I still think my postings using the lagwige from Halo Halo on the BBC

Is good as forget speling and puntuwtin its all buewist enyway

Frank

Clear as nud Fronk

Just for once I was trying to start a sensible tread

 

[allen-uk]

Discus................or not, it's up to you.

Nah, shot-put maybe, too much athleticism in discus.

Anyway, trouble with smilies is that they're over-simplistic. I want one for gentle irony, for tongue-in-cheek ribbing. I tend not to use them, but I'll have a go, just to show willing...

There, first time ever I've (successfully) used a smiley. May I be forgiven.


A.

 

[Cyclezee]

Nah, shot-put maybe, too much athleticism in discus.
A.

Thanks A., must learn to spell

 

[stevebills]

I use smiles all the time for my sarcastic banter when I take the ****

 

[allen-uk]

I use smiles all the time for my sarcastic banter when I take the ****

Now, I understand the WORDS in that sentence, and apart from the 'smiles' they're all good, sound English words, and add up to a meaningful set, but I can't say the same for the little pictures at the end.

And that's my main gripe against them - they're ambiguous, and a regression towards picture-language. How about grunts? (No, it's not rhyming slang).


Allen

 

[stevebills]

I have witnessed banter face to face and people just dont see it... they think the other person was dead serious and if they had a smiley sticker!

 

[Cyclezee]

You are right about the smiles as apposed to to a clearly written sentence Allen, but they do serve a useful purpose for the less articulate like myself to set the tone of the message. Or is that a feeble excuse?

 

[allen-uk]

You are right about the smiles as apposed to to a clearly written sentence Allen, but they do serve a useful purpose for the less articulate like myself to set the tone of the message. Or is that a feeble excuse?

No it's not a feeble excuse at all.

I think Philip Larkin (with whose general philosophy on life I normally disagree) had it right in the last lines of his 'Hedgehog' poem:

we should be careful

Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.

We SHOULD be careful of each other; and we should be kind, and what the internet allows is unkindness, through the anonymity of the keyboard, so a willy wimp can become a Macho Man and chuck insults about, kick sand in people's faces, and generally strut his stuff, even when he's got no stuff to strut.

I hope if ever I was guilty in this regard, nowadays I am less so.


A.

 

[Cyclezee]

Excellent, I feel I have learnt something very useful this morning.

Thank you for that Allen

 

[flecc]

I instinctively dislike smilies since an adequate command of the language should make them unnecessary, but in concentrating on the subject matter of a posted response it's all too easy to be unclear. Therefore I do use smilies when their meaning is fairly clear, and in my attempt to be precise in this respect I sometimes insert alternatives in turn to see which fits best when the sentence is read.

To my mind the most ambiguous smilie we have available is the "sarcastic" one. I don't feel it represents sarcasm well, more like amused surprise I think, and much less offensive than sarcasm.
.

 

[Cyclezee]

As usual Tony you make some good points. Possibly the most important is to actually read what we have written rather than to post in haste and wonder later why people have got the 'wrong end of the stick'.

 

[CheKmx]

Irony mark the world needs to start using this. ¿ Is the closest I can find on this phone though.