The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #48879 Message #736268
Posted By: Haruo
25-Jun-02 - 12:40 AM
Thread Name: BS: Please consider how you title threads
Subject: RE: BS: Please consider how you title threads
(perpetuating the thread drift) Also in informal letter writing of the sort one did preInternet with one's friends and relations, one is generally writing to a single person whom one knows well; occasionally, as with the annual Christmas Letter, to a large number of people most of whom one knows fairly well. In Internet posting, on the other hand, one is writing to an indeterminate number (potentially thousands) of people, most of whom one knows not at all nor they one, natively speaking a variety of languages and dialects, sharing much less common culture than one can assume among one's family members, coworkers, etc., let alone knowledge of one's personal idiosyncrasies that allow intimate acquaintances to tell (usually) when a sentence is ironic, or facetious, or sarcastic, or serious, or meant as encouragement, or whatever. The less common ground can be assumed, the more need there is for emoticons and the like.
BTW I agree with Ian, and with MMario. (to return to the original post's topics)