A note on sarcasm and excitement.

As you know, Bob, the online cultures of the late Holocene are swept by fads both curious and trivial. The fertile memetic arena gives rise to distinct subcultures of varying lifespan. In the same manner as viruses performing transspecific genetic interchange, meme-complexes cross boundaries and infest large regions easily.

Consider the exclamation mark, "!". A single "bang" is taken in the orthodox fashion to indicate an excited state. The use of three is an occasionally forgivable lapse of protocol. Overuse of the exclamation makr is a sure sign of a diseased mind, or a sarcastic commentary on the idea in question.

A long string of !!!!!!! thus suggests a fanatical devotion to the pope, or whatever other cause is being espoused.

On the standard US keyboard, ! is produced by holding down SHIFT while tapping the '1' key. If the shift finger were to slip, but the frenzied dance continue, '!!!11!!! might result.

Obviously the next stage of sarcastic commentary is to spell out the digits:
'!!!11one!".

Worse: '!!!eleven!!'.

But only overtired hackers say '(2^n-1)'.

A note on sarcasm and excitement.

As you know, Bob, the online cultures of the late Holocene are swept by fads both curious and trivial. The fertile memetic arena gives rise to distinct subcultures of varying lifespan. In the same manner as viruses performing transspecific genetic interchange, meme-complexes cross boundaries and infest large regions easily.

Consider the exclamation mark, "!". A single "bang" is taken in the orthodox fashion to indicate an excited state. The use of three is an occasionally forgivable lapse of protocol. Overuse of the exclamation makr is a sure sign of a diseased mind, or a sarcastic commentary on the idea in question.

A long string of !!!!!!! thus suggests a fanatical devotion to the pope, or whatever other cause is being espoused.

On the standard US keyboard, ! is produced by holding down SHIFT while tapping the '1' key. If the shift finger were to slip, but the frenzied dance continue, '!!!11!!! might result.

Obviously the next stage of sarcastic commentary is to spell out the digits:
'!!!11one!".

Worse: '!!!eleven!!'.

But only overtired hackers say '(2^n-1)'.