Should we bring back the percontation point?

[lurok]

Yes. It suggests to me that irony, like humour, is primarily a form of aggression. That never occurred to me before.

Really? *sad* I view quite the opposite. Sarcasm is aggressive and lazy; irony is gentle and playful, reliant on shared commonalities of wit and artistic/cultural/literary references. The worse thing I think one can say of irony is that it could be considered cultural snobbery.

I think irony and sarcasm may both be viewed as aggresive in some circumstances ~ unless said drolly with one arm draped over a sumptuous couch and the other holding a martini. One must also accompany these comments with a slight eyebrow raise and a slight but charming smile

Hard to convey without apposite emoticon Wish there was one. But I still maintain sarcasm is different to irony. Maybe because raised to believe 'sarcasm lowest form of wit'. And always found sarcasm sneering in tone so inherently more aggresive. Still, what do I know? Hardly lived a life yet...

 

[Kestra]

It seems like most of the people in this thread are talking about sarcasm, not irony.

On TrekBBS, isn't the smiley intended to serve the purpose of indicating sarcasm? After a few misunderstandings, I've started inserting it whenever I intend to be sarcastic, even when I judge a misunderstanding to be unlikely.

I thought the purpose of was to make the reader want to smack you upside the head.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

"Upside", what a lovely word!

 

[Goliath]

I thought the purpose of was to make the reader want to smack you upside the head.

It really can be infuriating, can't it?

Although Count Zero (IIRC) once posted a giant rolleyes emoticon that vomited smaller rolleyes emoticons, until they filled up the screen. That was pretty cool.

 

[M'Sharak]

I call # the number sign, as I use it for that purpose sometimes (for example when listing rankings, such as I am #1, you are #2). But as others have said, its real name over here is the pound sign.

It's always been the number sign to me, used for ordinal numbering as you describe. Speaking as someone who remembers when dialing a number really was dialing a number, my recollection is that use of the label "pound sign" to mean that symbol only came along sometime during the mid-1980s - after the advent of automated answering systems, when telephone keypads began to be used regularly for keying in other bits of information than the number you were trying to reach. (The first touch-tone telephones—introduced in the late 60s/early 70s—had only ten buttons - no "pound" or "star" keys.)

As for pounds as a unit of weight, the abbreviation "lb" (for libra pondo) was the one I was taught to use—never #—and Jadzia's Shift-3 key/hex-23 explanation makes the most sense as a reason for the number sign/hash symbol having acquired a new name.

"#" is called a "pound sign" or sometmes "hash." But more often I see it called "pound."

£ = pound sign
# = hash

Your confusion is due to the bygone days of computing.

Computer text was originally encoded in ASCII, which was one byte per character.

European keyboards had £ on shift-3, while American keyboards had # on shift-3. But in both locales, shift-3 encoded to the same ASCII code (hex-23).

What this meant was that when Americans read British documents, hex-23 appeared to them as a hash symbol, even though it was typed as pound sign in Britain. The Americans learned to call # a pound sign because that was how it was being used, even though it's completely wrong to call it that.

.

Btw. looking around wikipedia I just found my new favourite punctuation mark, the interrobang.

Always liked that one, and would use it if my keyboard had it.

I thought the purpose of was to make the reader want to smack you upside the head.

It really can be infuriating, can't it?

Although Count Zero (IIRC) once posted a giant rolleyes emoticon that vomited smaller rolleyes emoticons, until they filled up the screen. That was pretty cool.

That would be this one, or one similar to it.

 

[Goliath]

That's the one.

 

[trekkiedane]

I mean, seriously--when was the last time you used the #? I'm not even sure what the # is called. The pound sign?

Around here most people call it "Garden Gate" -But then, no one here had ever seen it before it suddenly appeared on a button on phones that came out in the nineteen-seventies?

What do you all think? Should we bring back the percontation point?

Yep -and about time too! -but not as a requirement in written language, only as a suggested mark!

ETA:

But I still have a love for my 'tilde', even if I use it incorrectly ~ I'm just a punctuation Maverick

I'm loving the interrobang though RW and when I follow Jadzia's instructions I will start using new and more exciting punctuation marks

As if your posts needed more to be exiting reads

 

[Trekker4747]

If we're going to bring it back we need to re-brand it, make it hip for the new Internet Generation, something the kids can latch onto.

"Percontation point" does quite fit that bill.

I suggest "Sarcasm Mark" or "Ironmark."

 

[Goliath]

This website suggests a different punctuation, consisting of a tilde and a period, and calls it the "snark".

 

[lurok]

^Yuck. 'Snide' even worse than sarcasm. Reeks of something nasty and fetid that crawls under rocks. Much prefer the interrobang or a new 'Izzard' (irony) symbol.

 

[Eyes]

This website suggests a different punctuation, consisting of a tilde and a period, and calls it the "snark".

I really like that one.~

 

[Goliath]

^Yuck. 'Snide' even worse than sarcasm. Reeks of something nasty and fetid that crawls under rocks. Much prefer the interrobang or a new 'Izzard' (irony) symbol.

You do know that "izzard" is another word for "z," right?

I like the word, but it's already got a boyfriend.

 

[Trekker4747]

I'm not sure I'm sold on "snark" as a name for it. I sort-of like it but at the same time I'd think any such punctuation mark should follow in the naming conventions as other punctuation marks. Exclamation Point, Question Mark, Period, Snark?

Doesn't fit.

How about a asterisk? We can call it a "Not!Mark"!

 

[lurok]

You do know that "izzard" is another word for "z," right?

I never did, but I do now Thank you. And still my (second) favorite thread in short time been here.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Really? *sad* I view quite the opposite. Sarcasm is aggressive and lazy; irony is gentle and playful, reliant on shared commonalities of wit and artistic/cultural/literary references. The worse thing I think one can say of irony is that it could be considered cultural snobbery.

I think irony and sarcasm may both be viewed as aggresive in some circumstances ~ unless said drolly with one arm draped over a sumptuous couch and the other holding a martini. One must also accompany these comments with a slight eyebrow raise and a slight but charming smile

Hard to convey without apposite emoticon Wish there was one. But I still maintain sarcasm is different to irony. Maybe because raised to believe 'sarcasm lowest form of wit'. And always found sarcasm sneering in tone so inherently more aggresive. Still, what do I know? Hardly lived a life yet...

Was talking this over with Man tonight ~ apparently sarcasm can be defined as malicious irony.
I still think the difference can be decided by your body language and facial expressions ~ the odd toss of the hair helps too

But I still have a love for my 'tilde', even if I use it incorrectly ~ I'm just a punctuation Maverick

I'm loving the interrobang though RW and when I follow Jadzia's instructions I will start using new and more exciting punctuation marks

As if your posts needed more to be exiting reads

I do hope that the use of 'exiting' rather that 'exciting' was ironic *back at ya*

This website suggests a different punctuation, consisting of a tilde and a period, and calls it the "snark".

I love it ~ I want one! It sums up exactly what I want to express when I'm replying sardonically.
Will someone clever make it happen please! My photobucket keeps sending me to mobilebucket upload and I don't even have a mobile that can take a picture

If we're going to bring it back we need to re-brand it, make it hip for the new Internet Generation, something the kids can latch onto.

"Percontation point" does quite fit that bill.

I suggest "Sarcasm Mark" or "Ironmark."

I vote "snark"

 

[Jadzia]

I vote "quip".

It's got a qu like question mark, but effectively conveys a sense of clever sarcasm.

 

[Holdfast]

Some point, I'm going to attempt going an entire week on the internet without using a single smilie. I expect some kind of spatial rift will open up and swallow up a good chunk of the planet.

 

[Amaris]

When I'm indicating sarcasm or irony, I like to use this smiley:

from my own board.

Some point, I'm going to attempt going an entire week on the internet without using a single smilie. I expect some kind of spatial rift will open up and swallow up a good chunk of the planet.

When I first joined TBBS, I never used smilies. I didn't like them taking the place of actual words or dumbing down the context. Now, though, due to innumerable miscommunications by others, it is far simpler for me to use a smiley and save the time and trouble of going back and explaining what I meant.

 

[lurok]

When I'm indicating sarcasm or irony, I like to use this smiley:

from my own board.

Some point, I'm going to attempt going an entire week on the internet without using a single smilie. I expect some kind of spatial rift will open up and swallow up a good chunk of the planet.

When I first joined TBBS, I never used smilies. I didn't like them taking the place of actual words or dumbing down the context. Now, though, due to innumerable miscommunications by others, it is far simpler for me to use a smiley and save the time and trouble of going back and explaining what I meant.

Couldn't agree more. But sadly have increasingly found them a useful shorthand...

 

[iguana_tonante]

No, it totally defeats the point when you label sarcasm, it's like having to explain the punchline of a joke.

I kind of agree with this. I understand that clearness is one of the most important part of communication, but can you really compare it with the sheer pleasure of looking down on people who didn't understand you were being ironic and/or sarcastic? No, no way I could live without it.