I'm sure you're great. Nothing against you, but please don't do that. Just write what you mean if you can't handle some people misinterpreting a sarcastic remark. Let's think about this for a second. What's the point of sarcasm? If you have to tell people you're being sarcastic, are you still being sarcastic? Not sure what territory, "/s" blunders into, but I'm confident it's not sarcasm. It's something else that seems kinda... dumb... like on a fundamental level. Did people think themselves above saying, "jk"? Mostly I've just seen, "/s" beg the question of why someone would go and ruin a good sarcasm, or whether the thing they labeled as such was ever sarcasm to begin with. Like the parent comment here for example, it's not sarcasm. There's no biting irony, mockery, or criticism. It's just a silly non-sequitur joke remark. You'd have to be like legitimately autistic or something to not see that, and at that point, "/s" is just a drop in a bucket. I mean hot-take here, sorry, but let's think twice before adopting social queues from reddit.
> You'd have to be like legitimately autistic or something to not see that, and at that point, "/s" is just a drop in a bucket.
I read up to this point thinking you’re being overly pedantic about the specific use of a sarc mark and overly dismissive of the benefit of intent-clarifying hints in text. All the while thinking “I’m going to comment about how much I value intent-clarifying hints in text… and then I have to decide whether I want to mention I’m autistic, and prepare for all of the ways I might be misconstrued or dismissed further.”
So here we are, you’ve saved me the trouble of making that decision. I personally very much appreciate when people signal intent when their meaning can be ambiguous. It doesn’t always feel necessary for me, but it’s never once felt like it taken away from something I otherwise understood as obvious.
My take, which is much cooler than it was when I was gathering thoughts leading up to this but still mildly hot is: what harm does it do to you if someone voluntarily makes something more accessible to someone who’s not you? If you already grokked /s from a sarcastic remark, it’s a tiny bit of information you can scroll past. I understand not explicitly recognizing and endorsing how it might benefit autistic readers, but explicitly rejecting it because it might is baffling.
Unless other techniques like bolding/italics etc are employed, or you work for DC Comics... because using MORE WORDS to correctly convey meaning is SO hard, YESSIR
Indicating sarcasm is not necessarily ruining it though. Look at IRL sarcasm, it will generally be accompanied with the right tone of voice and expression / body language that make its presence unequivocal. That doesn’t necessarily ruin it
It's the same reason why I often throw a emoji on the end of a sentence to a friend. Sometimes the sentence on its own can sound aggressive or hostile and a quick fix for that is a little emoji that can help make sure my tone is clear. I view something like "/s" as being quite similar to this. You're not ruining the sarcasm, but instead ensuring your tone is properly understood.
Written works have had sarcasm, irony, and related forms of wit for as long as they've existed. While people might miss the mark, it doesn't mean we should just give it up as impossible just because we're now writing comments online.
And it probably says more about me than the writer, but I always cringe when I see /s since it seems to be implying "Hey, in case you're a bit slow, this is sarcasm. Glad to help."
Sarcasm is by definition kind of elitist. You get it, and you're in the cool group, or you don't and you go on your way. It's a puzzle to solve. Removing all uncertainty removes its fundamental essence.
/s is just a wink, you still have to figure out whether the person did really fart and if so how they concealed it. You’re just here farting and calling it higher smelling because you think you’re the only one smelling it.
The very best sarcasm is so perfectly balanced and indistinguishable from the real deal, that it will leave its audience wondering but not missing the potential for sarcasm. Then the person that delivered it will promptly move on, before the audience gets a chance to really think about it.
Sorry, had two night shifts. Still owe you an answer. From my perspective. Since this is only text, no emojis ... how do you know that the person reading will get your tone / intention. Well, you don't. And thats you fundamental right: To say what you like and how you like it. This is why I phrased the remark like it is: In my opinion, your comment is 50/50 for understood / misunderstood, why not raise the odds of understanding in your favour. There is "good sarcasm" in personal communication with people who can read you. But this is a public forum ... anyway. Have a good weekend.
I agree in principle, but if there's one thing internet commenting has taught me, it's that a tragically large number of people are somehow getting though life with broken sarcasm detectors.
I've never seen that interpretation, but I have to say -- as someone who is not a fan of the /s, I find the fact that it could be interpreted as the exact opposite of the standard meaning pretty funny. In fact I think I will start using it this way, to sow discord among the /s fans. /s
Huh, I totally missed that "/s" was a sarcasm flag. I was thinking that usually it is ":s/" not "/s", and was looking for the completion, or if they really did mean "/s" that's not the best way to find ands.
Not many people know this, but similar to image alt text, the <s></s> tag was originally introduced for accessibility reasons, so that people with autism and similar conditions can experience the web in the same way as more neuro-typical folks do. The tags should be invisible in the average browser, unless you've got sarcasm highlighting turned on. Unfortunately, the feature hasn't really caught on, and it remains unsupported by most software.
_Big_ Adams, Twain, Barry, Pratchett, and most things sardonic, sarcastic, and satiric right here, who's also "autistic AF" as the kids say.
"/s" is stupid, always has been. I'm not sure if sarcasm is sarcasm if it comes with metadata, but if you're gonna use metadata, use balanced tags!
Edit: I read the link, and laughed at it. If anything, I get into trouble using sarcasm /too/ often (esp. as a kid), I know a few other aspies like this too. I think all one can say on the topic is that if you're on the spectrum your "sarcasm center" might be poorly deficient OR pumped up into overdrive.
I know it's a long rant on this point but I really wish more people understood that with ASD sometimes these things manifest as a deficiency...but sometimes as the opposite of a deficiency (a surfeit?).
