Wondering if anyone else has noticed that, not only do we have different etiquette in terms of "On computer and/or cell" vs "Roaming around chatting to people IRL", but also some different etiquette online/text in terms of "now" vs "10/15/etc years ago" Throwaway one: Text talk got insanely popular because unlimited texting wasn't a big thing and we only had, what, 160 characters to play with. It was more polite to try to fit all things into one text message, or to call. But also interested in: etiquette on facebook vs twitter, tumblr variations, how you can tell someone with no familiarity of comp/cell is contacting you vs someone with familiarity. I figured that since we are all nerds here with weird levels of "how do people react to me", it would be an interesting topic.
I've noticed that one of my friends who isn't familiar with tumblr culture puts her commentary directly in the post when she reblogs, rather than in the tags, and it actually legit bothers me now. (She's very straightforward and I'm pretty sure she's also a sperg, so.)
I did that a lot, the putting commentary into reblogs, and I am allistic. You're not supposed to? Er, why? I was on tumblr for like 2 years at least and no one told me off for it. Otherwise I have noticed that I have trouble talking to new people on skype or im because I have the conversation style of a machine gun (ratatatatatatat), and new people might be weirded. And I am not sure whether I should use legit punctuation and capitals or not, because the person I talk to most accepts me being a no punctuation/no capital machine gun person, so typing properly is a struggle in chat. I am mostly okay in forums, but it's weird in chat. A pet peeve: when people write you for paragraphs and only hit enter once they are done, rather than hitting enter and sending it off in small pieces. Does anyone else hate it too?
It's kind of hard to explain. Note also that I'm not talking about like, debate-style posts such as the conversations seebs and co regularly reblog; I'm talking about like, adding comments to fanart below the author's. But basically on tumblr, actually putting your comments in the post is kind of like standing up in class to say them, because everyone who reblogs that from you will see those comments. Putting things in tags is more like, sitting in the audience and saying something to the person next to you. It's a way to comment that doesn't take away from the metaphorical-volume of what the original poster is saying by putting yourself on par with that. So it's not quite rude but it's in that grey area where the polite thing is to not do it, if that makes any sense.
commentary in posts vs tags: I saw something over in the Warehouse 13 fandom along the lines of "feels go in the tags", and that seems to be pretty solid for a lot of areas. There seem to be rules about "unnecessary commentary" on reblog, where people will get public censure for saying "Hahah I know right!??" in response to a post. In cases where people copy your tags into the reblog chain, it feels like a sort of honor, like when you get gold on reddit for something. writing to other people on skype/fb chat: I like doing toss-away sentences a lot. In cases of passion/strong feeling, I'll strip away punctuation and capital letters until I sound like dave from homestuck. I write bigger paragraphs only when texting, because the writing ellipses don't show up then. (I hate the writing ellipses) roommate: text-speak seems to be used now in a semi-sarcastic/self-deprecating tone - "lol"
I actually didn't know you are peeved by paragraphing until now. This is interesting. Personally, I paragraph because I don't feel comfortable just throwing out whatever. The message must be checked for inconsistencies and then have its inelegant edges sanded off. I think it's more noticeable if I'm Transmitting Data (eg telling someone about worldbuilding or some story that happened) and lessens if the chat is being conversational (eg more responding to what other people said). I am kind of bad at modifying my writing style for different mediums. I have to be really excited to lose caps or punctuation naturally, but I sometimes do it as a kind of performative "I am so tired/sad, woe is upon me, even my typing quirk fell off". I guess it's similar to intense typoing in tumblr to convey emotional extremes. I also tend towards putting my commentary in tumblr straight in the post. If people don't want it, they can reblog upchain from me. If I put all commentary in tags always I'd have a bunch of useless tags floating around. I'll note that I am also bad at unwritten rules. If they ain't telling me to do it in a specific way, I'll do it how I like it.
Just noticing that there's a lot more capitalization and punctuation here than on tumblr. fakeedit: i almost always use caps except for marginal comments like this
Tumblr posts that are SrsBsns are properly capitalized and punctuated. tumblr posts that aren't as serious don't get capitalized and aren't punctuated at the end of the paragraph, but can be punctuated in the middle Tumblr posts that are writing posts get Title: Title [?/?] (not needed if oneshot) [n/sfw, pairing] Body: contains [x, y, and a whole lotta z] (ao3) ---------- body Skype, unless it's RP (sent multi-paragraph), gets done in micro-messages. Typos are not corrected with the up-arrow. I could probably be mistaken for angry even though I'm actually just really happy/having A Lot Of Feelings because THERE IS A LOT OF YELLING OH MY GOD THO YES THIS and then i ask for relevant parts of the hamsteak opd9 (legitimate "upd8" typo that I made, it stuck) if chat is dead? then just post . to bring to top of list and if it's something longer than screen length it's usually not copypasted in chat it's sent as an attachment User attached example.docx Forum posts are done like forum posts used to be circa idk 2008, with like proper grammar and spelling and punctuation and shit. Spoiler They also tend to get better organized, and anything rambly goes under a cut that works from both directions, unlike Tumblr. That being said, all my status updates in the sidebar? lowercase because i don't care and it's microform I think it's awesome that people here put fake-o tags in 2-point font at the bottom of their posts for their feels. At the same time, I don't understand why you would clutter the things you use to organize your blog with your feelings. I just tend not to commentate on what I reblog. And tracking down posts to read the tags for feedback on my work is HARD, even though it's totally worth it and I still do it anyway. Just much more annoying. I'd prefer a reblog where you're screaming in the body of the post, because then I can follow that link straight to your full entry where you're like "OH MY GOD IT'S X AND IT MADE ME FEEL Y." I don't text a whole lot. Usually it's picture messages with commentary, or Snapchat. My phone autocorrects for capitalization etc. If I'm on my iPad I type however comes naturally, which might be either nocaps or propercaps depending on how I feel. # my overly long two cents # now with two hundred percent more gratuitous examples
That is honestly my favorite kintsugi-specific communication thign that's cropped up so far. Another cool forum-specific communication thing I've seen is the use of emoticon as a kind of universal sarcasm/joking mark, to the point where some people occasionally get pissy if you make an insincere comment without it. (which is dumb, but goes to show how thoroughly it's been adopted) I actually really miss having it in other places.
Personally, I generally type with proper capitalization on forums and emails and default to lowercase most everyplace else, including text (unless I am texting my grandmother.) However, if a discussion is Serious I will move back to proper capitalization, and I also sometimes do so when chatting to someone unfamiliar (say, on FB chat or something) (because my default attitude when I am mildly uncomfortable and/or annoyed is Stoic Intellectual, and when typing that translates for me as proper capitalization, if that makes sense.)
The first thing I typed on. Now take your rickety-rackety rock and roll music and get the hell off my lawn.
this is fascinating and man, i have so many thoughts @pixels yep. i particularly like how you demonstrated what you were talking about with your own formatting.very clever, though it took me a few seconds to actually get it. @Starcrossedsky a few people i know do that too. far as i know, they are all allistics, though. and yeah, it's weird, them absolutely never using their tags, for anything. which yeah, i think is only weird for me 'cause i'm pretty good at picking up the communication style of a place or a person and chameleoning myself into it. also, i generally like using all-lowercase 'cause it can be a way for me to send a signal to my brain, to relax, to say weird things and be informal. that i won't be judged if i find that i can't grammar something i want to say, that if i find myself using fandom terms, slang and memes a lot it is okay. it's my Hey Brain It's Chill signal. there also is the Capitalizing Words For Emphasis Or Irony Or Humour thing, which gets used by me and other people, i think, here and on tumblr. like, this thing is so different from the rest of the sentence that it Actually Has Caps. btw, kintsugi is particularly fascinating 'cause we are essentially making the culture right now. which, i think, is pretty new for me, since all the other cultures i've entered were well-established before i came in. and yeah, sometimes i wonder if i'll end up leaving a legacy here, in the very fabric of what kintsugi is. if it'll be the offspring of all our souls, including mine. just.. feels... that and it's also interesting how kintsugi seems to be made up of all people all from one site, tumblr, who went here 'cause tumblr was rubbing them the wrong way. like, you couldn't explain kintsugi without @seebs but you couldn't explain it without tumblr either. and yeah, this site isn't just People Who Dislike Tumblr either. it's a certain type of People Who Dislike Tumblr, People Who Are Receptive to @seebs, @jacktrash and/or @vastderp's way of doing things. i mean, they might be intimidated by them or bothered by @seebs' lack of empathy, say, but they are willing to hear the Seebsclan out. yeah...
also i feel freer to be honest on kintsugi. like, i can say shit that might seem egoistical, that stuff about me leaving a legacy and influencing things being an example of that. anywhere else? no way! who am i to think i'm anywhere near as important as @seebs? but here, it's okay. it's okay.
@rigorist I looked at that, went "cool, an old-timey keyboard and a printer all in one," until my brain tapped me on the shoulder and went because that's what a typewriter fucking is. Although now I have a question for you: Have you found your typing... I guess style, to be different now than it used to be? Not the stylistic elements of it, but the way you actually move your fingers. Because IIRC, it used to be that certain models or even typewriters as a class would jam if you typed too fast, which is why QWERTY was invented, to make sure it was both ergonomic and that the hammers for keys used in some sort of proximity wouldn't jam so frequently. Do you find yourself still slowing down like there are still hammers involved? Or have you evolved into Gatling gun hands (as my family calls my typing)? That's a question for everyone else, too. Do you find that your physical typing changes from keyboard to keyboard? Also does anyone else do what I do and actually physically hold down the SHIFT key for allcaps instead of using the CAPS LOCK button?
Mine doesn't from keyboard to keyboard. It does from website to website, thought. Here and on Facebook (and while texting) I generally type Very Correct English with the occasional word or phrase capitalised-for-effect like @unknownanonymous was talking about. On Tumblr it varies (and this actually bugs me a lot, because I like to be consistent, but changing the capitalisation or whatever is part of Correct Tumblr English so...). In the couple of chatrooms I frequent I go all lowercase because ... I don't know, it's a more casual setting? This is very frustrating when I'm on my Kindle because it auto-corrects and I haven't gotten around to turning that off yet. If I can. The thought that we're creating Kintsugi culture as I type is pretty cool.
@Elaienar thanks! it seemed pretty obvious to me, since well, this site has only been up for a few months and i've been here since the second (?) day. also, i look at my status on the notable members thing a lot, and wonder how that thing correlates to actual influence. stuff like that.
also Capitalization For Effect is in a thing in many old books, i recall, and i thought it was weird till the internet brought it back and i was like, "yes! this is what it's about! i get it now!"
also i love how on here 'cause is the only emote we have here, we've developed several different uses for it. like, i've used it a few times and i'm not even sure that i used it the same way each time. it's like can mean anything to do with something being mysterious or confusing or wtf.
I almost always type accurately, in proper sentences, properly punctuated, and I'm not much for commentary tags. But then I learned my online style on Usenet, which did not have tags and where typing was Important. I also sometimes Capitalize Phrases because it looks like it's meant to be a Wiki entry or somehow else Special.
Yeah, see, fanart and opinion posts are two completely different animals at least for me. Since I rarely reblogged fanart with much of an opinion, this wasn't an issue for me. I think I just am peeved because I don't like such rules? Like, no one ever fucking told me this is a convention anyway, and I as a fan artist would probably want to read every little opinion someone has about my art. So I suppose I get that it is/was a rule, but as I am no longer on tumblr, it doesn't matter that much to me. I also had periods where I pretty much tagged nothing, and the sitewide shaming of people who don't tag just kept pissing me off, but due to tumblr's hivemind, acknowledging I was just pissed off was quite hard until I got out of there.
