Sarcasm Delimiters

From Barbelith

acacracerge Sarcasm delimiters are a pair of percent signs used to denote a phrase or sentence as sarcastic.

%Is that so? Oh, really%

%That's so very interesting.%

%What conspiracy?%

They are an attempt to replace tone-of-voice, raised-eyebrow cues in an online, text-only environment.

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Barbelith old-timer grant (not Grant Morrison, but the other one) thinks they were invented by a sysop at a South Florida BBS called "Praxis" sometime around 1994. Any information about other possible origins is welcome here.

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Back to A Guide To Barbelith Language or A guide to Barbelith Posting Etiquette