Communication on internet forums ...

[Monique]

I just saw this XKCD, and it resonated ... mostly because of my own blunders ...



Hover text: "But there are seven billion people in the world! I can't possibly stop to consider how ALL of them might interpret something!" "Ah, yes, there's no middle ground between 'taking personal responsibility for the thoughts and feelings of every single person on Earth' and 'covering your eyes and ears and yelling logically correct statements into the void.' That's a very insightful point and not at all inane."

 

[Seldomski]

Communication in general is hard.

 

[Josh Matta]

interpretation is irrelevant. whats right is right because its right, and whats wrong is wrong because its wrong.

 

[Seldomski]

interpretation is irrelevant. whats right is right because its right, and whats wrong is wrong because its wrong.

 

[CalG]

"A lack of understanding on your part does not constitute any inadequacy on my part."

"I know I piss you off from time to time. Please know I'm working on that" ;-)

 

[scott43]

Interwebs is a terrible communication medium for nuance.

 

[Lauren]

 

[Magi]

interpretation is irrelevant. whats right is right because its right, and whats wrong is wrong because its wrong.

And yet...

 

[Monique]

And yet...

Another of my favorites. Oft quoted in this household.

 

[Tony S]

"People are mad at me again because they don't read carefully."

Have to confess I so so so SO relate to that. Josh and you too, I suspect.

After all, if I didn't want to take the time to write what I mean and mean what I write, I'd just f-ing TALK with people. But we all know how imprecise THAT can be. Jeez, what a cluster conversation is. So little space for polish and revision. Remember that horrible period in human history when mail order effectively became phone order and you had to talk with a human to get your stuff? Thank God e-commerce came along!

Anyway, Yes. It took me a half hour to write those four sentences. The least you can do is take four minutes rather than four seconds to read them!

 

[newboots]

Of course, we have emojis for conveying nuance - a very flawed tool.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

And yet here we all are and, as far as I can tell, everybody still likes everybody else. When it comes to communication, a

sense of humor helps, I think.

 

[cantunamunch]

So does defining an audience and using one's knowledge of that audience to (intentionally) write to their understanding.

Which, of course, is the middle ground ironically referred to in the hover of the original cartoon.

 

[Jim McDonald]

 

[Philpug]

Still one of my favorites.

 

[Jim Kenney]

This place is Internet Forums 3.0. There are so many fewer trolls and weirdos than years ago. The only people here now are the ones that want to be here and make friends.

 

[Monique]

Still one of my favorites.

I thought about posting this in the spelling/grammar thread, but it seemed like a different topic ...

 

[cantunamunch]

I thought about posting this in the spelling/grammar thread, but it seemed like a different topic ...

Taking it back to the original topic, and possibly way beyond, did you spot this over the weekend? The links within the first two paragraphs could all offshoot from this thread.

 

[Monique]

Taking it back to the original topic, and possibly way beyond, did you spot this over the weekend? The links within the first two paragraphs could all offshoot from this thread.

In a head-hurty kind of way!

 

[cantunamunch]

In a head-hurty kind of way!

Wear a helmet