6 ms·

100% agree about ending periods. I always read those messages as being irritated or overly firm. Potentially worse, though, are people who have a habit of abusi

100% agree about ending periods. I always read those messages as being irritated or overly firm. Potentially worse, though, are people who have a habit of abusing ellipses (...) in weird places. My boss does this in virtually every sentence, sometimes multiple times, and it always comes off like he can't believe you'd say something so stupid

necovek 6y ago
I am not sure why would you think that... If a period is to make a statement firmer, ellipsis does it triple... Like that, right? ;)
- lapetitejort 6y ago
  ...I have a coworker who starts nearly every sentence thus so, as if continuing from the last sentence, even if you haven't talked to him in a few days.
  - WhyCause 6y ago
    I use the ellipsis at the start of an IM sentence primarily when I've accidentally hit enter mid-thought.
  - djur 6y ago
    Someone I converse with regularly online has a tendency to do this in a way that strongly conveys "your idiocy has left me speechless" in contexts where he seems to (or at least claims to) only intend "your position is surprising".
iamdbtoo 6y ago
I find this odd because, to me, attributing malice because of the presence of a period is something you do in your own mind. You don't know the emotional state of the person who sent it, so you think of the worst possible outcome, but both are equally likely in the moment. You're just as free to give them the benefit of the doubt.
- musingsole 6y ago
  It's something people do in their own minds because experience generally proves out most people only use a period in a single statement message if they're emphasizing firmness. Those who do use the period and don't mean firmness are a minority and are generally demonstrating they aren't accustomed to chatting in text (or potentially have always been talking from a position of authority, so no one's mentioned how they're coming off).
  - iamdbtoo 6y ago
    I don't agree that putting a period in casual textual communication is inherently hostile. I also don't agree that those who do are just simply unaware of the chaos they are causing. At the end, though, you're still making a judgement about someone with very little information and you have a choice not to do that.
    - saurik 6y ago
      https://newrepublic.com/article/115726/period-our-simplest-punctuation-mark-has-become-sign-anger https://newrepublic.com/article/115726/period-our-simplest-p...
    - soggybutter 6y ago
      You're right and I do try not to do that. But as someone who's used text based communication every day for more than half my life, there's definitely some unconscious bias I've developed towards specific behaviors that I don't think is random. I've talked to plenty of folks who feel the same, and there are a lot of memes out there that support it. At the end of the day, it's up to you as the communicator to try and convey what you really mean, and text is notoriously easy to misunderstand.
      - iamdbtoo 6y ago
        I know it's a thing and I have felt it myself in the past. What I really have trouble with is that we all admit it's most likely a faulty interpretation, but we still expect the other person to manage it for us. If everyone gave each other the benefit of the doubt more, none of this would be necessary.
molszanski 6y ago
I often interpret ellipses at the end of a sentence as an inability to express oneself in a written form.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
vangelis 6y ago
What could he mean by that...? You're doing a great job...
gundmc 6y ago
I've noticed a quirk when communicating over IM with many of my Indian colleagues. They use two dots (..) really often and I'm not sure how to interpret it. If I view it as equivalent to a three for ellipsis, it often comes across as rude or passive aggressive which I can't believe to be the intention. Is anyone else familiar with this and can shed some light?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- sk0g 6y ago
  Not sure if it helps, but in Hindi, the punctuation, roughly, translates like this: | => , || => . Could this be the reason?
- oceliker 6y ago
  I'm not Indian, but I used to do this a lot when I was younger. My thought process was that a single dot would come across as serious or passive-aggressive (there's a discussion about this phenomenon somewhere in this thread) and ellipses would similarly be rude. Two dots somehow seemed like a nice way to come across as more friendly, and/or indicate a tiny pause between sentences. I used to do this in the times when we were separately charged for every text with our cellular service. I'd try to fit as many sentences as possible to each sent message. With the rise of internet based texting, it became unnecessary to use sentence separators, because I could just separate them by sending multiple messages (and not use any punctuation at the end of each sentence, which is the current accepted "friendly" way of communication).
Aeolun 6y ago
My BA’s often respond to messages with: ok.. And I’m left wondering if they just typed an extra period or whether they’re trailing off...
soggybutter 6y ago
I feel I need to come back and report that my manager just sent this in slack: "I Agree!!..."
bccdee 6y ago
I actually just posted about the ellipses elsewhere in this thread ... Much in the same way that carriage returns are used to signify new sentences instead of periods in certain internet environments, ellipses used to be common sentence-separators in other mediums during the mid-20th century ... Specifically, if you dig up old postcards from that time, you'll find them littered with ellipses

necovek 6y ago

I am not sure why would you think that... If a period is to make a statement firmer, ellipsis does it triple... Like that, right? ;)

lapetitejort 6y ago
...I have a coworker who starts nearly every sentence thus so, as if continuing from the last sentence, even if you haven't talked to him in a few days.
- WhyCause 6y ago
  I use the ellipsis at the start of an IM sentence primarily when I've accidentally hit enter mid-thought.
- djur 6y ago
  Someone I converse with regularly online has a tendency to do this in a way that strongly conveys "your idiocy has left me speechless" in contexts where he seems to (or at least claims to) only intend "your position is surprising".

iamdbtoo 6y ago

I find this odd because, to me, attributing malice because of the presence of a period is something you do in your own mind. You don't know the emotional state of the person who sent it, so you think of the worst possible outcome, but both are equally likely in the moment. You're just as free to give them the benefit of the doubt.

musingsole 6y ago
It's something people do in their own minds because experience generally proves out most people only use a period in a single statement message if they're emphasizing firmness. Those who do use the period and don't mean firmness are a minority and are generally demonstrating they aren't accustomed to chatting in text (or potentially have always been talking from a position of authority, so no one's mentioned how they're coming off).
- iamdbtoo 6y ago
  I don't agree that putting a period in casual textual communication is inherently hostile. I also don't agree that those who do are just simply unaware of the chaos they are causing. At the end, though, you're still making a judgement about someone with very little information and you have a choice not to do that.
  - saurik 6y ago
    https://newrepublic.com/article/115726/period-our-simplest-punctuation-mark-has-become-sign-anger https://newrepublic.com/article/115726/period-our-simplest-p...
  - soggybutter 6y ago
    You're right and I do try not to do that. But as someone who's used text based communication every day for more than half my life, there's definitely some unconscious bias I've developed towards specific behaviors that I don't think is random. I've talked to plenty of folks who feel the same, and there are a lot of memes out there that support it. At the end of the day, it's up to you as the communicator to try and convey what you really mean, and text is notoriously easy to misunderstand.
    - iamdbtoo 6y ago
      I know it's a thing and I have felt it myself in the past. What I really have trouble with is that we all admit it's most likely a faulty interpretation, but we still expect the other person to manage it for us. If everyone gave each other the benefit of the doubt more, none of this would be necessary.

molszanski 6y ago

I often interpret ellipses at the end of a sentence as an inability to express oneself in a written form.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

vangelis 6y ago

What could he mean by that...? You're doing a great job...

gundmc 6y ago

I've noticed a quirk when communicating over IM with many of my Indian colleagues. They use two dots (..) really often and I'm not sure how to interpret it. If I view it as equivalent to a three for ellipsis, it often comes across as rude or passive aggressive which I can't believe to be the intention. Is anyone else familiar with this and can shed some light?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
sk0g 6y ago
Not sure if it helps, but in Hindi, the punctuation, roughly, translates like this: | => , || => . Could this be the reason?
oceliker 6y ago
I'm not Indian, but I used to do this a lot when I was younger. My thought process was that a single dot would come across as serious or passive-aggressive (there's a discussion about this phenomenon somewhere in this thread) and ellipses would similarly be rude. Two dots somehow seemed like a nice way to come across as more friendly, and/or indicate a tiny pause between sentences. I used to do this in the times when we were separately charged for every text with our cellular service. I'd try to fit as many sentences as possible to each sent message. With the rise of internet based texting, it became unnecessary to use sentence separators, because I could just separate them by sending multiple messages (and not use any punctuation at the end of each sentence, which is the current accepted "friendly" way of communication).

Aeolun 6y ago

My BA’s often respond to messages with: ok.. And I’m left wondering if they just typed an extra period or whether they’re trailing off...

soggybutter 6y ago

I feel I need to come back and report that my manager just sent this in slack: "I Agree!!..."

bccdee 6y ago

I actually just posted about the ellipses elsewhere in this thread ... Much in the same way that carriage returns are used to signify new sentences instead of periods in certain internet environments, ellipses used to be common sentence-separators in other mediums during the mid-20th century ... Specifically, if you dig up old postcards from that time, you'll find them littered with ellipses