Writing was invented in approximately 4000 BC. Since then people have been able to write to each other quite successfully without needing emoticons, smilies, 'mark-up' and other non-standard orthography. I really don't know why people have suddenly decided to resort to privately-defined systems of non-communication.
The secret of making your meaning clear is to write clearly and simply. If you're not writing in your first language then you have to take a bit of extra care and stick to the standard variety & register of the language, avoiding archaic, precious or excessively formal or informal language. If you are using your first language then you have to remember that many of your readers are not, so take a bit of extra care and stick to the standard variety & register of the language, avoiding archaic, precious or excessively formal or informal language. Bob > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > Boris Liberman > Sent: 23 February 2011 09:02 > To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List > Subject: Off Topic: emoticons, smileys, etc > > Hello there, PDML. > > As Cotty recently teased/mocked me and as Larry pointed out off-list, I > am using things like /grin/, /smile/, /evil wink/ etc. I'd like to take > a step back and have a bit of discussion thereof. > > You see, I find it useful and important to be able to attach some > minimal emotional context or extra-textual context to my messages. > Smileys (such as :-), ;-), 8-), etc) don't cut it IMO, as they are > cryptic and even not always interpreted in the same way by different > people. > > OTOH, if I were to describe my emotional state directly in plain words, > that would be easier to read. In order to mark apart the actual text > and > the extra-textual context, I use slashes. Why slashes? Because in > Thunderbird (and I thought it was standard, whereas I am probably > wrong) > the following applies: _underline_, *bold*, /italics/. Since > _underline_ > is for links and *bold* is for emphasis thus what remains is /italics/ > for emotions. > > Now, question is - am I being abusive in this or is this whole idea > wrong from the start? Surely I can stop using any extra-textual mark up > whatsoever, but then I am afraid, the likelihood of being misunderstood > or misunderstanding the other person on my own will be greater. > > Have your say. You can be brutal and honest or you can even do it off > the list. > > Boris > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
