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Comment by Zyst | Hacker News Reader

I also got the same idea.

I do dislike forums like ArsTechnica where "/s" is prominent, I believe that if you need to write a sarcasm tag to get that across, you likely should not be writing sarcasm at all.

Then again there's people like parent which will miss what I believe to be obvious sarcasm, and I wonder all over again if there's a point to it all.

Sometimes I think we should just not write sarcasm at all on written communications.

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There are no verbal or visual elements in written form. We are strangers across continents and cultures. Usually English is not our first language. People reading may be in a different mood or mindset. Etc etc. The Elders of the Internet were right to give us smilies :)

I tend to find typical instances of sarcasm(especially in written form) so unfunny that I don't even recognize them.

That being said I had no problem seeing sarcasm in this example, chiefly because the language was obviously different(how often does one use the word "worthless" to describe people?). I guess it makes for a useful rule of thumb regarding what could be reasonably considered sarcasm.

It's just Poe's Law coming into play. It can't be avoided really.

Hell, people can't decide if The Prince is a satire or not.

The Prince is easy once you've read Discourses on Livy.

Sarcasm and satire are very effective ways of communicating a point. The above comment added only 2 words to draw attention to the absurdity of that statement.

Sure, but look what we have here? A number of people who clearly can't pick up on quite obvious sarcasm.

Unless you hold up a sarcasm sign here you will downvoted into oblivion.

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