h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, why do people feel the need to tell the (HooToo) world when they unsubscribe to a thread? Some sort of misguided notion of self-importance? To make a point?

Does this strike anyone else as being very similar to throwing a tantrum and taking your ball home?

Granted "I'm unsubscribing, can we talk in another thread?" may be useful.

And while we're at it, why tell people if you bookmark a thread?

Common courtesy that you're being/no-longer being lurked?

Particularly if you've stepped into something 'personal' and uninvited. It's a polite way of saying "Sorry, I'll leave you be"

I say that I am unsubscribing from threads for two reasons, one a matter of courtesey, the other is to make a point about the tone or content of the thread.

It's a courtesey, imho, if you have been a contentious or vociferous participant in a thread (unlike me!) to say that you are no longer either participating or lurking.

Regarding the matters of pique - well they are specific to each thread, and I usually give them in the thread concerned when I unsubscribe, as I did when I unsubbed today from the two threads which I decided were too painful (in once case) or about to degenerate into tedious trolling (in the other).

If - as in both these cases - a specific post or poster has caused me not to want to continue in the conversation, unsubbing and giving my reasons, is a step between simply ignoring the conversation, and actively yikesing offensive posts. I prefer not to yikes.

So there you are. A courtesey and / or a protest.

Next question?

B

what about the post coital unlurkink ,(freudian spelling) ettique,
those threads where you just have to add comment to every so often,
whats the ettekette (pretty arty smarty poetic spelling) there then.
perhaps yo can point the way to the AGAG entry sure ive lurked on one
some where

I agree, it's a courtesy because people may be replying to something you have said and it's polite to let them and others in the thread know that you won't be responding.

I bookmark sometimes in fast moving big post threads because it's the easiest way to keep track of where I am up to. It annoys me when people do it alot in slow threads though, as it seems pointless.

I've always viewed as a euphemism for "I think this thread is crap, goodbye".

Unsubscribe

Liar

>> Next question? <<

Yes B, you pretty much covered it all dint ya.


~jwf~

Nobody kills a thread like ~jwf~.





~jwf~

Welllllll. I know of several people here who unsubscribed numerous times only to reapear out of nowhere. A pugilistic simian and several non analog cubic spacers come to mind. It was just their way of saying *This is cr^p!!* Hey, we all have trouble saying what we really mean with just smileys and a querty keyboard! Anyway, to L with all of you. (Except those who agree with me, of course)

But on to more important business. Why do you Brits not put a comma before *and*???

Because there is a national comma shortage. Didn't you know?

The problem is that when we first realised that there was going to be a shortage some punctilious people started hoarding them, and now there are stationary cupboards up and down the land with boxes and boxes of commas tucked away behind the 73,000 staples which don't fit the stapler you've actually got, and the 102,000 paperclips which you think would be used since all the staples are the wrong size, and the stacks of coloured 3x5 index cards ordered by the alienly retentive bloke down the corridor who eventually left Under A Cloud.

What these folks don't realise is that, although commas keep perfectly well in storage, using too many in a sentance, as tends to be thir wont, makes your writing hard to digest.

Because of the national comma shortage, other folks here have started using dashes - which makes their writing look a little breathless - but does break up the sentence on the page more than commas do - in fact the dash can get used instead of the full stop - or just about any other punctuation mark.

What Really Bugs Me is that people have started importing unused Capital Letters from the US and Germany. They litter them all over their Sentences, in an Attempt to Emphasise particular Words, and the whole thing gets bitty again.

The Worst is the growing habit from the Marketing Industry of stringing together two words and putting an UpperCase word in the middle of the IllicitCouple.

By the way CL, and not many people know this, the comma you are describing is known as 'The Oxford Comma'. Dunno why you guys have them, and we don't, other than the National Comma Shortage, as previously described.

By the way, I inherited a stockpile from my Grandmother, and I am desperately trying to use them up.

B

What's the point of a comma next to "and". "And" is a conjunction, which means it joins two words or expressions of equal value. A comma does the same.

It's like using a colon and a full stop next to each other, or a semicolon and a dash. Or saying "also as well". If you ask me. Or have I got it wrong.

This is not meant to be an indignant "we do it this way and this way is right!" sort of protest - I would genuinely like to know in what circumstances an "and" needs to be next to a comma. (except as in Ben's example above, where it divides off a relative clause, and the word next to the comma just happens, by chance, to be an "and".

Whoops! Just did it myself.

Not having any idea what the American rule referred to actually is, I assume the "and" in question is one which is used to finish a list.

American: The cake was made using flour, butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder, and ground almonds.

British: The cake was made using flour, butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder and ground almonds.

*thinks: if I bookmark this thread at this point, as I was tempted to do, am I clogging up a slow-moving thread, inadvertently making some sort of point, or just showing my general interest in the topic?*

Mol

I don't know how its supposed to be, but I put it in lists sometimes for grouping purposes, usually an indicator that I'm writing a really dodgy run-on sentence.

B, we have great heaps of commas here in various colours, which we have made in Taiwan, for cheap. Now you see? My point exactly. In Canananananada we are taught *colour* and *centre* but are contrarily taught to use a comma before *and*!

I believe the most common use of the Oxford comma (which is also called the Harvard comma, which is awfully generous of you lot) is to link groups. *That jackhammer comes in red and white, red and blue, and pink.*

As to run-on sentences, Capitalisation, hyphens and dashes, and other such things, I really don't know of what you are speaking unless you are refering to something in particular, in which case surely you should be more specific, or perhaps satlantic since that's the pond you're on (and I know you don't mind me calling you Shirley).

This not being at work thing is making me overly verbose, odd, and antipedantic. (Have you met Auntie Pedantic, she's down for the holidays but we expect her to get up soon?)

>> ..she's down ... but we expect her to get up..<<

Sounds like my Auntie Podean. She's from south of the equator where bathtubs drain counter-clockwise.

Or maybe one of them anti-podiums. Though I've never understood what people can have against podiums to make join the ranks of the Auntie-podiums. Take 'em or leave 'em I say.


~jwf~

You remind me of my Greek relative, Auntie Disestablishmentarianism.

Don't we have too many of the ' commas?Mainly because most of us aren't quite sure how and where to use them.

I have never put a comma before the word and.I would have been strangled by Mr and Mrs Smith who both taught me English as it is spoken and written in England.

Incog.