some folks here work extra hard to *be* understood, some just hammer out words in a row with little thought about the 'tone' they convey.
It takes effort in Cyberspace to convey the inflections and nuances they we do easily with voice, facial expression and body language. It can never be as good as RT, but you can manage to avoid the worst mis-understandings...if you want to.

For Pete's sake folks...use :>) smilies, or *smiles* or do like Bobert and say 'jes funnin' when you aren't sure your remark will go over!

...and if you just want to be offensive, nasty, critical, petulant, snide, etc....I can point to few role models....*grin*

that's :>))