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by emmet 660 days ago
Honestly explicit sarcasm indication should just die out entirely. Might as well be writing it longhand as "Just in case you missed it, this is a joke haha." every time you tell a joke.
2 comments

I’m not sure if you’re being serious or not. I’ve never met you and tone isn’t conveyed over text.

I’m assuming you’re joking, but maybe that’s exactly why we need explicit sarcasm demarcation.

Exactly right, and what I would add is that this is a Poe's Law thing.

I might even offer a corollary to that law, which is that the more unclear a statement is, the more inscrutable a it's intent, the more likely the original author will insist that it was 'obvious' sarcasm.

This reasoning is nonsensical.

There is nothing to refute in it, but, just to prove it wrong: sarcasm is commonly denoted in spoken English by intonation.

And as we all know, it is impossible to imply tone in written text.
Exactly, it is the illusion of transparency. Have someone read something you've written out loud, you'd be surprised how often they use a different tone than you had in mind. Add to that a variety of cultures and backgrounds.
The comment you're replying to was being sarcastic. (I'm not sure about you!)
Ironically, proving the (wrong) point
Yes, I read it that way too. Which meant that they were under the impression that it is easy to infer tone, so I replied with a serious explanation why it may not be.
It is possible to do that, but sarcasm in written text uses a different notation: /s, which you just proposed to abolish above.

I don't like your replies, so I stop this conversation with you.