Quote:
Originally posted by taikara@Jul 6 2005, 08:23 PM
You know, spam in and of itself isn't that bad, and neither is sarcasm.
The trick is to use it in careful moderation.
Spam can be fun and humorous, and revealing of a person's personality. Too much from too many people, and it's just disruptive.
Sarcasm can be fun and humorous... as long as it's very obvious the person means no harm. Use it all the time, and you just seem like a big nasty troll.
The worst possible thing is sarcastic spam. Spam by its very nature is brief, and not extremely informative. Therefore, there's not really any context to show the person posting means their sarcasm harmlessly or harmfully. If you mean it harmlessly, and people are taking it badly, it's probably because you're assuming people know you well enough to understand you.
Guess what? Nobody here knows you, especially if you're newer. I don't hang out with any of you, and even those of you I do talk to regularly, I don't always know well enough to know when you're just joking around. Stop assuming that because you're a part of a community, you can just let it all hang out like you would among your bestest closest friends IRL.
Just because you're tight with a couple people on the board doesn't mean you don't need to show the rest of the people here a little respect and common courtesy.
Private conversations between a couple individuals should be private. That's what we have a PM system for. If it's just you and some other guy posting back and forth in a topic for several pages, there's something wrong. That's not a forum, that's a dialogue.
If you don't feel like taking the time to add some semblance of a disclaimer to let people know you're just joking around when you use sarcasm, maybe you should reconsider using it.
If you don't have something nice to say, maybe you shouldn't say anything at all. There's no need to jump down someone's throat just because they have a different opinion than you. We're all different people, with different experiences, and different beliefs. There's bound to be different perspectives, but that doesn't mean there's something wrong with someone thinking differently than you. Differences between individuals are exactly what makes life interesting.
Common sense, common courtesy, and common respect. It is always good to remember these things when dealing with people.
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Tai, I could kiss you I love you so much right now. :wub:
Obviously, common sense, common courtesy, and common respect are not so common these days...and that is tragic. I remember, I was on a date once and I opened doors for my date, held her chair for her, etc. You know, basic things that a guy should do, and at the end of the night I went to give her a kiss and she started crying on my shoulder saying she had never had a guy do any of these things for her before.
<sigh> Chivalry is dead, and it is so tragic.
Please everyone...let us all be friends. <starts singing Smash Mouth song>