Before downvoting, check the community.
If you fail to use the /s tag or specifically call out that your comment is sarcastic, I’m going to treat it as being earnest. I might ask if you’re being sarcastic, but I will downvote as though you are being earnest.
The /s tag not only clarifies, but it also confirms that you’re being sarcastic. A thing you cannot ordinarily convey via written text unless you specifically call it out. You can hint at it, readers can infer it, but you cannot convey it. To convey it, sans directly stating it, you would need to include a recording of you speaking the comment, which defeats the whole point of text chats.
“It definitely reads as sarcasm, you’re just missing it” So what? I’m neurodivergent. I barely get this shit in its normal, spoken context. Why should I be expected to understand the implied sarcasm in your text comment?
“Telling someone you’re being sarcastic ruins it” Unless your definition of sarcasm is just lying to someone’s face, you do indicate sarcasm when speaking. Via the exaggerated, deadpan tone you use. Something you can’t convey in written text unless you specifically call it out.
“I made it very clear via hyperbole that it was sarcasm” Have you talked to people? Your obvious, over-the-top, hyperbolic sarcasm could just be someone’s opinion taken whole cloth. In fact, you probably modeled your exaggeration AFTER a person. Can you see why, if I don’t know you, there’s no way to tell?
“I forgot the tag” cool, if I see the edit adding it back in, I’ll revert my downvote. Consider it the opportunity cost of forgetting.
“It doesn’t hurt anyone” Yes, it does. You give credence to your exaggerated position that you would never take because the people who think like that exaggerated position will point to your comment as proof that they have support. It’s why 4chan rebirthed nazism.
“I still won’t do it”. Then have fun with the downvote. You want to make the internet worse? I’ll be sure that you don’t get the internet points your brain craves.
God I’d hate to have such poor reading comprehension. You’d last about a minute in UK based communities lol
Kalama ate my dog it’s true I saw it on the internet /s
One of those cases where the post deserves an upvote for being !c appropriate, but strictly speaking we are never going to see eye to eye. If my sarcasm doesn’t land, I don’t deserve the stupid little doots.
Okay.
Oh no a downvote, how will we ever live without your approval?
Oh no! Using sarcasm to create a strawman out of what I’m saying? Whatever shall I do? I suppose I must die, now and forever. Bleh! /s
Yeah, it’s all the ammo I got, but it’s better than endlessly arguing the need for the tag with an ever-changing cast of opposition. Cause that’s exhausting
Cool, so just shut up and do it?
Must suck ass never being able to tell when someone is being sarcastic through context.
What a fucking psycho. /s
I honestly didn’t think this would be as unpopular as the responses make it seem. I used to be against using /s because “it makes it less fun” but way too many people get the wrong message. I decided to start using it because I want people to understand me correctly. It’s that the point of communicating with people?
IRL I try to be more over the top, but even then (like OP and others pointed out) if the person doesn’t know your baseline then they might think you are being serious. It has happened to me countless times.
Maybe don’t take the internet or “upvotes/downvotes” so seriously. This whole screed comes across as rather silly. People have rendered voting on comments completely useless as they’ll do it to completely noninflammattory, on-topic comments they simply don’t like for reasons only clear to them. Additionally, the idea that anyone cares about a particular individuals criterion for voting on comments is a rather self-important view.
Definitely an unpopular opinion, but it’s one that’s catching on for sure. Great post, no sarcasm.
OP: *Posts an unpopular opinion on the unpopular community
Gets downvoted
You didn’t know, but without your singular up vote the whole internet would have finally completed its evil plans and the entire world would have shattered and crumbled to dust.
For the record, there is actually no necessarily discernable difference between sarcasm and lying to someone’s face. People that are very sarcastic will often not adjust their delivery whatsoever. The whole point of sarcasm is to be somewhat plausible and convincing, after all.
The only real difference is in the motive to be humorous, which is just not necessarily discernable. This is why sarcasm is usually not used with complete strangers irl, since they won’t know the person well enough to necessarily detect it, unless you grossly exaggerate it. Which is basically the same as an irl /s, where you deliver it in either an exaggerated deadpan or an almost singsong fashion to make it very blatant. Even in these cases, the person will often offer a polite apology for using sarcasm with a stranger, since it’s kinda broadly felt that that’s just not a great idea.
Ultimately sarcasm is predicated on the idea that people’s casual words should not be trusted though, which is just generally good advice anyway. Trust systems, not people, unless you know them well. Words are simply too cheap, they’re as often a toy as they are some serious information transfer mechanism.
I’ve felt this on both sides. It’s no fun “giving up the joke” by tagging it, but the simple truth is sarcasm comes across poorly in text, especially when the audience is made up of strangers.
You almost always need to use the /s tag when using sarcasm in online discussions.
My preferred way around this is to spoiler the tag, since there’s a few other tags of this sort floating around: /j (joking), /hj (half-joking), /srs (serious) for a few examples. Doing that still gives you a moment of not giving up the joke, but it’s still ultimately there for anyone that wants or needs it
Two days ago I wrote an overly sarcastic comment but it was late at night and apparently I both made it sound too realistic and didn’t put an /s - I didn’t think anyone would think anyone could be that stupid.
Turns out a lot of people assumed I seriously thought that my fictional dog’s vets were more likely to suggest euthanasia if they are Asian because I believed they used the corpses for meat and handed me fake ashes. I’ll definitely make sure to use /s in the future now. To both avoid looking like a racist conspiracy theorist and a dog owner.
I didn’t know one could be so based.
