tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post2602589173996546899..comments2024-03-17T05:03:46.056-07:00Comments on xkcd sucks: Comic 812: Physical DeformitiesCarlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01074589998141327538noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-38415133782886021692010-11-06T13:30:59.515-07:002010-11-06T13:30:59.515-07:00"except people do understand me. you and Eiki..."except people do understand me. you and Eikinfucker are unique in finding it confusing."<br /><br />:D<br /><br />"for a while he was all like "oh my bad ESL" but then he rescinded"<br /><br />Actually, no, I was consistently unapologetic about your reliance on Ebonics and implicit assumption that the standard form of the language of England is the one used in African-America and adjacencies. I answered the question on how can someone has "never heard the word editor" as if it meant "how can someone not seen the abbreviation -Ed enough so as not to promptly read it as editor" with "ESL" meaning "easily when someone doesn't have badly edited comic books as their linguistic background while all proper English media won't use that kind of authorship attribution".Eikinklosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06224032606695416367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-81613590986503595292010-11-06T00:17:14.217-07:002010-11-06T00:17:14.217-07:00"
People don't understand you. Therefore..."<br /><br />People don't understand you. Therefore you are not communicating properly. This is not our fault, this is yours. You can take responsibility for your actions or you can keep repeating yourself until I inevitably give up and start doing things worth my time. But my inevitable forfeit doesn't make you any better a communicator, it just means you're annoying and dishonest. "<br /><br />except people do understand me. you and Eikinfucker are unique in finding it confusing.<br /><br />this is what happened: I used an incredibly common abbreviation, and you didn't know what it meant. while I'm sure you think that it's my responsibility to use only words that everyone reading will know, the fact is that it is perfectly reasonable to assume that people know the definitions of common words. it's not my fault if you don't know what "reasonable" means, for instance, or "abbreviation." and it's not my fault if you like to create unnecessary fictional entities to explain your confusion. you can, of course, continue to believe what you want to believe. I mean, I'll judge you, but I already think pretty low of you so it's not like you're damaging relations or anything.<br /><br />but here's the thing. lots of people skim posts and don't notice authorship. it frequently happened before that when I was posting people assumed it was Carl, or when Carl was posting that it was me, or whatever. and usually we make fun of them for it and then move on.<br /><br />it takes a special breed of idiot to, when he is corrected on his assumption that person X wrote the post, go back and read the post again and then say "nuh-uh, person X clearly wrote it."<br /><br />worse, this is saying it to the person who allegedly wrote it. when I said "I didn't write this post," Eikinfucker responded with, effectively, "yes you did."<br /><br />for a while he was all like "oh my bad ESL" but then he rescinded and apparently decided that, yes, despite the fact that its grasp of the English language is about on par with Obama's ability to get Republican cooperation in the Senate, he knows that it is totally unreasonable to expect all of the people who had absolutely no problem understanding who wrote the post to understand who wrote the post.<br /><br />but I'll strike you a deal. find a dozen or so people, and have them read this post, but not the comment thread. tell them nothing about the post--just say, and use these exact words: "here, read this post but not the comments, I have a question to ask you." then ask them, and use these exact words: "did Rob write this post?" if they say no, ask them, and use these exact words: "who wrote this post?" if they say yes, ask them, and use these exact words: "then who is Ed. and who is shufti?" <br /><br />try not to use words beyond the ones I've given you, because otherwise, intellectually dishonest as you are, you will no doubt poison the well before you start. you may use additional words as necessary, however--for instance, if they ask why you're doing this just say something like "I just want to settle a bet--I'm trying not to color your impression of it." when you're done, send me a transcript of the conversation.<br /><br />you won't do this, of course. I'm sure you think it's a foregone conclusion, or perhaps you're more honest with yourself and you actually realize that this experiment would turn up a lot more "no, Rob didn't write this, shufti did" than you would like, and the ones who said yes would respond to "who is ed and who is shufti?" with "oh, Ed. is clearly the editor and shufti wrote the post. my bad."rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-23751648715989165082010-11-05T20:43:47.798-07:002010-11-05T20:43:47.798-07:00It's also funny how I am checking gawker.com a...It's also funny how I am checking gawker.com and all articles have a clear and standard indication of authorship: They have a title, such as<br />"Comment of the Day: Some Advice for MSNBC" and to the right of the title they have the author, in this example "By Richard Lawson". They finally end with "Send an email to Richard Lawson, the author of this post, at richardl@gawker.com.".<br /><br />So, Rob, would you mind finding one article in any site belonging to Gawker Media in which the author is indicated in a in note signed with "-Ed"?<br /><br />My point is, I seem to be literate enough to get the article of any article in this particular Gawker Media site, and yet, I find your authorship identification confusing. Who is to know that when "-Ed" publishes "shufti"'s article, the article will not show as posted by shufti's blogspot name, but by -Ed's blogspot name? Who is to say that failure to know that is English illiteracy? Because up to now, lack of that knowledge has apparently prevented me from properly understanding only one blog entry, in about 15 years of reading more in English than in Portuguese, and reading a lot.Eikinklosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06224032606695416367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-79459454657059793672010-11-05T10:58:20.906-07:002010-11-05T10:58:20.906-07:00It's your job to communicate properly. If peo...It's your job to communicate properly. If people don't understand you, you are not communicating properly.<br /><br />People don't understand you. Therefore you are not communicating properly. This is not our fault, this is yours. You can take responsibility for your actions or you can keep repeating yourself until I inevitably give up and start doing things worth my time. But my inevitable forfeit doesn't make you any better a communicator, it just means you're annoying and dishonest.Mr Pitchforknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-13485510367352815402010-11-05T10:37:22.079-07:002010-11-05T10:37:22.079-07:00it's funny how the illiterate always think tha...it's funny how the illiterate always think that their inability to grasp the english language is somehow someone else's fault, despite the fact that they are pretty much completely alone in their poor grasp of words.rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-17804814661894595892010-11-05T10:29:04.089-07:002010-11-05T10:29:04.089-07:00Also, to be fair, I'm not sure what's goin...Also, to be fair, I'm not sure what's going on with the publishment in this article either. Is Ed an editor or a writer? Nothing you think is implicit in the article is actually implicit without a strong and detailed background of xkcdsucks writers, which I don't have and which most people in the entire world don't have.Mr Pitchforknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-70175834441019350302010-11-05T10:19:35.689-07:002010-11-05T10:19:35.689-07:00Ugh. In typical xkcdsucks style you utterly fail ...Ugh. In typical xkcdsucks style you utterly fail to miss the point, grasping at straws and pulling /some/ straws out your ass, until you have at least a page of text so you can grudgingly hit the "submit" button and hope that your target audience (read: the creepily obsessed) doesn't abandon your disheartening attempt at fame-grabbing by leeching onto the success of content that's actually readable.Mr Pitchforknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-3817410326629494712010-11-02T22:56:30.512-07:002010-11-02T22:56:30.512-07:00people take offense to freetard? seriously?people take offense to freetard? seriously?rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-47391544913461752332010-11-02T22:52:56.005-07:002010-11-02T22:52:56.005-07:00Freetard? Why not throw in some other slurs while ...Freetard? Why not throw in some other slurs while your at it.<br /><br />"Stupid autistic kids are so stupid for giving themselves autism."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-9163181522655777952010-11-02T20:34:18.154-07:002010-11-02T20:34:18.154-07:00it's actually more annoying when they get dele...it's actually more annoying when they get deleted because i still get them in my inbox for some reasonrshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-46693802794424352482010-11-02T20:27:41.548-07:002010-11-02T20:27:41.548-07:00Are you sure it's unhelpful if it deleted his ...Are you sure it's unhelpful if it deleted his post?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-15320894167837181702010-11-02T13:43:04.419-07:002010-11-02T13:43:04.419-07:00the post got eaten by blogger's entirely unhel...the post got eaten by blogger's entirely unhelpful spam feature, apparently.rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-36601689623500350382010-11-02T06:51:05.066-07:002010-11-02T06:51:05.066-07:00Did he delete his post, or is Rob just predicting ...Did he delete his post, or is Rob just predicting what he'll come up with next?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-27803225207317974782010-11-01T23:52:33.796-07:002010-11-01T23:52:33.796-07:00"If the reader didn't grow up reading Ame..."If the reader didn't grow up reading American comic books,"<br /><br />I've never read a comic book in my life.<br /><br />"he can easily skim read the notes inserted by the annyoying Edward and assume the authorship by the guy who posted."<br /><br />so what you're saying is you didn't even read the full text of the post--not even the introductory text, at the beginning of the article, which clearly explains who the post was by? it is hardly the editor's responsibility if you're too lazy to even read the text he puts in the post.<br /><br />"You see, I do this for a living."<br /><br />you must really suck at it if you routinely ignore introductory text! though I get the feeling you do not routinely have to identify the actual author of an email, so you really have no expertise in the field. but congratulations on being the first one to claim special knowledge that makes you right!<br /><br />"When you do this for, say half of your life, everybody ends up giving up on the whole "this is my language and that is yours" and start seeing English as just this unfortunate common medium we have to communicate."<br /><br />see, that's really an attitude problem. see, if you don't like doing something and see it as an unfortunate chore you really have no drive to be any good at it.<br /><br />"You are probably at High School, so English is the language of your buddies and you can afford being smug about outsiders."<br /><br />no, I've been out of high school for a long time. and let's recall that I'm not the one who's being ignorant and then acting smug about it. you're the one who completely ignored some text which clearly said "someone sent me this review, so I published it," and then when you were corrected, acted as if--and this despite you being the only one who was having difficulty understanding--it was somebody else's fault that you didn't understand.<br /><br />the text is perfectly clear. <br /><br />"I am telling you the authorship of the text wasn't clear."<br /><br />and I am telling you you are wrong. something which is explicitly stated at the very beginning of the post is not "unclear." sorry that you chose not to read that section though.<br /><br />"You don't need to agree or disagree. Unconsciously, you've already taken a mental note about it. In the near future, when you see yourself being managed by a Mandarin speaker, this experience with me might come in handy."<br /><br />you're about as good at human psychology as you are at understanding the English language, apparently! having a negative interaction with a member of an outgroup (ESLs, in this case) does not, in fact, make the individual more likely to change his behavior to avoid that negative interaction in the future. rather, they will blame the member of the outgroup for it, probably attribute it to the fact that they are part of an outgroup, and then, the next time they interact with a member of the same outgroup, go into it with negative preconceptions about members of that outgroup.<br /><br />the way to break this cycle is to actually have positive and helpful interactions. it goes like this: you apologize for the confusion/inconvenience/whatever, you explain what happened, and, rather than externalizing the blame for it (ie "this is your fault"), you internalize it (ie "this was my bad"). you show the individual that members of your particular outgroup are capable of being polite, understanding, and apologetic. it won't undo years of bad experiences, but it might help break their perception of all members of the outgroup being the same.rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-30505572504145238512010-11-01T23:26:30.316-07:002010-11-01T23:26:30.316-07:00"I do like that you still think that it's..."I do like that you still think that it's unreasonable to expect someone to understand that when there's a bit at the start that says "someone sent me this and asked me to post it, so I did" that it is probably not written by the original author, though!"<br /><br />If the reader didn't grow up reading American comic books, he can easily skim read the notes inserted by the annyoying Edward and assume the authorship by the guy who posted. What I would do, for the sake of clarity, is to follow the title by the expression "by Shufti".<br /><br />You see, I do this for a living. I manage complicated technical email threads in which many engineers discuss things none of them individually fully understand (that's why many engineers end up involved). Most of them are Americans. When you do this for, say half of your life, everybody ends up giving up on the whole "this is my language and that is yours" and start seeing English as just this unfortunate common medium we have to communicate. You are probably at High School, so English is the language of your buddies and you can afford being smug about outsiders. I am telling you the authorship of the text wasn't clear. You don't need to agree or disagree. Unconsciously, you've already taken a mental note about it. In the near future, when you see yourself being managed by a Mandarin speaker, this experience with me might come in handy. "It's not that my manager is illiterate, it is that he didn't grew up reading comic books and gawker media... so when I write informally and he doesn't understand, instead of throwing a fit I'll just write it like an adult and he'll probably understand".<br /><br />"you get people from any European country and they'll be perfectly polite and respectful"<br /><br />This is a comment thread in a blog called XKCD sucks. The whole concept is a flame bait, and you expect me to believe people come here to be perfectly polite and respectful? I'm a big supporter of what you are doing. Someone had to flame Randall. Someone should flame you too. Being flamed builds character.Eikinklosternoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-69489000780111595412010-11-01T23:18:01.400-07:002010-11-01T23:18:01.400-07:00"I do like that you still think that it's..."I do like that you still think that it's unreasonable to expect someone to understand that when there's a bit at the start that says "someone sent me this and asked me to post it, so I did" that it is probably not written by the original author, though!"<br /><br />If the reader didn't grow up reading American comic books, he can easily skim read the notes inserted by the annyoying Edward and assume the authorship by the guy who posted. What I would do, for the sake of clarity, is to follow the title by the expression "by Shufti".<br /><br />You see, I do this for a living. I manage complicated technical email threads in which many engineers discuss things none of them individually fully understand (that's why many engineers end up involved). Most of them are Americans. When you do this for, say half of your life, everybody ends up giving up on the whole "this is my language and that is yours" and start seeing English as just this unfortunate common medium we have to communicate. You are probably at High School, so English is the language of your buddies and you can afford being smug about outsiders. I am telling you the authorship of the text wasn't clear. You don't need to agree or disagree. Unconsciously, you've already taken a mental note about it. In the near future, when you see yourself being managed by a Mandarin speaker, this experience with me might come in handy. "It's not that my manager is illiterate, it is that he didn't grew up reading comic books and gawker media... so when I write informally and he doesn't understand, instead of throwing a fit I'll just write it like an adult and he'll probably understand".<br /><br />"you get people from any European country and they'll be perfectly polite and respectful"<br /><br />This is a comment thread in a blog called XKCD sucks. The whole concept is a flame bait, and you expect me to believe people come here to be perfectly polite and respectful? I'm a big supporter of what you are doing. Someone had to flame Randall. Someone should flame you too. Being flamed builds character.Eikinklosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06224032606695416367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-55974640991301603582010-11-01T23:16:50.084-07:002010-11-01T23:16:50.084-07:00"I do like that you still think that it's..."I do like that you still think that it's unreasonable to expect someone to understand that when there's a bit at the start that says "someone sent me this and asked me to post it, so I did" that it is probably not written by the original author, though!"<br /><br />If the reader didn't grow up reading American comic books, he can easily skim read the notes inserted by the annyoying Edward and assume the authorship by the guy who posted. What I would do, for the sake of clarity, is to follow the title by the expression "by Shufti".<br /><br />You see, I do this for a living. I manage complicated technical email threads in which many engineers discuss things none of them individually fully understand (that's why many engineers end up involved). Most of them are Americans. When you do this for, say half of your life, everybody ends up giving up on the whole "this is my language and that is yours" and start seeing English as just this unfortunate common medium we have to communicate. You are probably at High School, so English is the language of your buddies and you can afford being smug about outsiders. I am telling you the authorship of the text wasn't clear. You don't need to agree or disagree. Unconsciously, you've already taken a mental note about it. In the near future, when you see yourself being managed by a Mandarin speaker, this experience with me might come in handy. "It's not that my manager is illiterate, it is that he didn't grew up reading comic books and gawker media... so when I write informally and he doesn't understand, instead of throwing a fit I'll just write it like an adult and he'll probably understand".<br /><br />"you get people from any European country and they'll be perfectly polite and respectful"<br /><br />This is a comment thread in a blog called XKCD sucks. The whole concept is a flame bait, and you expect me to believe people come here to be perfectly polite and respectful? I'm a big supporter of what you are doing. Someone had to flame Randall. Someone should flame you too. Being flamed builds character.Eikinklosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06224032606695416367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-13331724757714924792010-11-01T20:57:58.535-07:002010-11-01T20:57:58.535-07:00"So should I assume it would be very easy for..."So should I assume it would be very easy for you to locate an online magazine with an unsigned text posted by someone that we'd know is not the author because there is an -Ed note saying so?"<br /><br />yeah, I can think of several off the top of my head, actually. pretty much any Gawker Media site has one you could find without too much difficulty. I do like that you still think that it's unreasonable to expect someone to understand that when there's a bit at the start that says "someone sent me this and asked me to post it, so I did" that it is probably not written by the original author, though!<br /><br />"Yep. I'm blaming your post for being a mess of clutter. I'm blaming the emitter, you're blaming the receptor. But you feel you're entitled to the language because you are a native. I feel I'm entitled to it because it's the unfortunate Lingua Franca of the age and I couldn't care less about natives per se, specially Americans."<br /><br />and ESLs wonder why they don't get any respect. thank you for exemplifying the reason! it is because the most obvious and memorable ones online are all assholes about it.<br /><br />especially the Brazilian ones. christ, man. you get people from any European country and they'll be perfectly polite and respectful and recognize that they are not always as good at understanding as others. but the Brazilians are just dicks, all "I don't speak your language and it's your fault! it's also your fault that I'm incapable of piecing together meaning from context!"rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-51799805860910857392010-11-01T20:50:24.970-07:002010-11-01T20:50:24.970-07:00" it's an incredibly common use in magazi..." it's an incredibly common use in magazines, blogs, and other things with editors that leave editorial notes."<br /><br />So should I assume it would be very easy for you to locate an online magazine with an unsigned text posted by someone that we'd know is not the author because there is an -Ed note saying so?<br /> <br />"you're aggressively blaming your inability to understand on other people"<br /><br />Yep. I'm blaming your post for being a mess of clutter. I'm blaming the emitter, you're blaming the receptor. But you feel you're entitled to the language because you are a native. I feel I'm entitled to it because it's the unfortunate Lingua Franca of the age and I couldn't care less about natives per se, specially Americans.Eikinklosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06224032606695416367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-90659333353292066182010-11-01T20:36:27.264-07:002010-11-01T20:36:27.264-07:00not really! actually I'm going to continue ope...not really! actually I'm going to continue operating by my rule that someone who is aggressively illiterate, as in your case, deserves to be mocked, and I will continue mocking them. you have access to google and you presumably are able to piece things together by context.<br /><br />well, I guess you, specifically, don't appear to have that ability, but it's not so unreasonable to expect.<br /><br />it's not really a quirk use by natives, either. it's an incredibly common use in magazines, blogs, and other things with editors that leave editorial notes.<br /><br />and you should probably know that it's not /annoying/ that you're an idiot. you aren't quietly pulling one over on native speakers by not understanding the language. it's mostly just amusing, and makes people think less of you (because rather than gracefully acknowledging your deficiencies you're aggressively blaming your inability to understand on other people, and you're also coming off as a dumbass in the process).rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-48236318578937570632010-11-01T20:11:27.008-07:002010-11-01T20:11:27.008-07:00@Rob "when you get all sarcastic and act like...@Rob "when you get all sarcastic and act like it's totally unreasonable for someone to understand it, instead of just saying "oh hey my bad English isn't my first language,"<br /><br />It seemed at first totally unreasonable to expect people got that the text wasn't yours. Then I realized I had been had by one of those quirk uses of language by natives. My rule with native speakers is that if they are going to be assholes about the fact that most people who speak English nowadays aren't native speakers is to go on pestering them. Next time at least you are less likely to go all "ZOMG, how can someone NOT KNOW that -Ed isn't a note by an Edward, but by the Editor, who is the guy who posted, who is Rob?"Eikinklosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06224032606695416367noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-16016073812770703432010-11-01T14:20:12.877-07:002010-11-01T14:20:12.877-07:00those were good times.those were good times.rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-21004175481982970832010-11-01T14:17:23.884-07:002010-11-01T14:17:23.884-07:00yeh Rob remember wen ferney was bein a doosh cause...yeh Rob remember wen ferney was bein a doosh cause he thot "cute netbook" ment date rape?Aloria's catnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-63625898894665273042010-11-01T12:18:32.938-07:002010-11-01T12:18:32.938-07:00I have this rule for dealing with ESLs. if you'...I have this rule for dealing with ESLs. if you're going to be an asshole about how you don't speak the language, you don't get a pass. when you get all sarcastic and act like it's totally unreasonable for someone to understand it, instead of just saying "oh hey my bad English isn't my first language," you deserve all of the forthcoming abuse.rshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15828938843801425383noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6714810984552499396.post-59927969567453338522010-11-01T10:20:21.108-07:002010-11-01T10:20:21.108-07:00Oh no, uh-uh. You aren't getting off scot-free...Oh no, uh-uh. You aren't getting off scot-free just by being foreign. That would be too easy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com