Tone of voice online
The fact that most network interactions are limited to written words can
be the source of misunderstandings. Fortunately, clever network users
have had years to deal with this. They've created a shorthand to help
communicate the tone that you'd otherwise get from the other person's
voice, facial expressions, and gestures. These shorthand expressions are
known as
smileys or
emoticons. They're easy to figure out once you get
the hang of it. Just remember that they're all sideways faces.
See Table 1 for a list of the most commonly used emoticons. There are
whole books about smileys for those who are interested, including the
enjoyable Smiley Dictionary
by Seth Godin.
People also use
abbreviations to express emotional states or to qualify
what they're saying. See Table 2 for a list of common abbreviations.
When you really want to run off at the keyboard -- but you want your
readers to know that you know that you're not expressing yourself in
your usual measured, reasoned manner -- you need to let them know
that you know that you're flaming. So before you begin your rant, simply enter the words FLAME ON. Then rant away. When you're done,
write FLAME OFF and resume normal discourse. See "The Art of
Flaming" on
page 71 for more details.
One of the neat things about computers is that they let us use all kinds
of special effects in our documents that we didn't even dream of back
in the days of typewriters (if you're old enough to remember those
days). But when you're communicating online, in most cases it's back
to the typewriter as far as effects go. Even if your mail system lets you
use boldface, italics, and tabs, there's no guarantee that your correspondent's system will understand them. At worst, your communication will
turn into unreadable gibberish.
The "FLAME ON/FLAME OFF" notifier
Looking good online
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