OpenSarcasm

Oh yeah, I can really see this campaign working.

No – really.

The first step is to BELIEVE in the revolution. If you’re not part of the punctuational solution, you’re part of the SarcMark problem.

Viva la revolución!

This is a brilliant idea

Hahahahahaha, very interesting. I might even use it¡ Although, seriously now, sometimes I think that sarcasm should speak for itself. Kudos anyhow =)

F— the revolution, bring on the apocalypse.

The time has come for literate proles to cease condescension and begin action.

“Lady Mercy won’t be home tonight.”

What ever you do, don’t tell the Ethiopians about this.

I have spoken.

Doesn’t work for us ¡ = exclamation apperture in spanish

Example:

¡oh, no!

We believe the semantic difference is clarified by the placement: “That was great¡” vs “¡That was great!”

But if not, we could call together an international committee to discuss a cross-cultural standard.

I propose that a typestyle be designed for sarcasm. It should have a back slant…the opposite of italic or oblique. This new posture for type can be called sarcic. The new SarcMark just doesn’t work for a whole paragraphs.

I’ve always seen “/s” in posts.
Means insert-sarcasm, or meant to sound sarcastic.

Comrade sueitty: A font would have to be installed and specially supported on all platforms. The ¡ is already part of unicode and requires no special installation to be used cross-platform.

So in Spanish would you say, for example “!que [expletive] bueno¡” ?

Yes, a fantastic suggestion Comrade Dave! We will update the usage guide shortly to reflect this.

I proclaim that we should just go to http://www.sarcmark.com and download it for free. The folks from Sarcasm, Inc. are giving away the SarcMark Software. I’m not sure where you get the idea it’s $1.99.

Uh, what made us think that, Comrade Bill, is that sarcmark.com says the free SarcMark is a limited time offer, with $1.99 crossed out all promotional-style: http://opensarcasm.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/os-prices.png. Not to mention the fact that it wasn’t crossed-out only a few days ago.

And, you know, all the articles from the initial release commenting on the price:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/20/rise-of-the-sarcmark
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6995354/Sarcasm-punctuation-mark-aims-to-put-an-end-to-email-confusion.html
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/01/sarcmark-for-when-youre-not-smart-enough-to-express-sarcasm-online/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/13/sarcmark-sarcasm-emoticon_n_421802.html
http://technologizer.com/2010/01/15/my-beef-with-sarcmark/

The revolution will not be televised. But it will be blogged about.

But you would agree it is now a free download?

Sure. For a *limited* time only.

But the price is only a fourth of the problem with the SarcMark as outlined in our manifesto. It still breaks from the historic precedence of the Temherte Slaqî, it still isn’t transmittable in plain text but relies on matching system configurations for all parties and is inaccessible for blind users, and it still is not typographically consistent with other punctuation marks.

All hail Bob Dobbs; spiritual godfather of Open Sarcasm.

I agree with the fact that there’s no way in hell we could make everyone’s platform compatible, as SarcMark is third party softwaare. However, the copypasta method seems to be the only way anyone will be able to use it, because the stanard keyboard is not equipped with said function. Moreso the case for mobile devices.

Comrade River, perhaps you have not seen our instructions on how to use Open Sarcasm.

On a PC, you type alt + 173. On a mac, alt + 1. On an iPhone or an Android (though Android is not yet listed), you hold down the ! key until an option for ¡ pops up.

No copy/paste required. No software required.

What BS – does anyone remember the interrobang?
this reminds me of that – why is it so difficult to learn to use the language as it is instead of mindlessly reinventing – or are they trying to be the modern Shakespeare?
Or should I simply say – “Awesome, now why didn’t I think of that.”
Also, The English have this already as well as the ethopians. Engligh is (!), I believe.
this is what happens when you smoke weed and then put condoms over your head for five minute or more in duration.

No problem in Spanish

1)
This phrase: ¡Oh, no, que miedo!
Look different to: ¡Oh, no, que miedo!¡

2)
It is also more convenient to use:
- Oh, no, que miedo[!]

No confusion, and it can also be used together with exclamation marks.
- ¡Oh, no, que miedo![!]

ie [!] ——> sarcasm

Advantages:
- Easy to remember
- Quick
- Work in all keyboard
- Work in all OS

PS 1: Afaik Karl Marx used this chars to symbolize the sarcasm in writing. Prophetic.
Also use his symbol is poetic, do not you think?

PS 2: This symbol ? (U+2E2E) is the “Irony mark”, but it is hard to do with the keyboard (the best would be quick) and annoying writing (try, and will change the order of writing, for right to left).

Thank you for this warning, Comrade Jhon.

Luckily the Revolution is a drug- and self-asphyxiation-free movement.

Comrade Ares, in Spanish sarcasm should be punctuated like “!Que bueno¡” as opposed to “¡Que bueno!” for sincere statements.

Comrade VagabondJim, sarcastic questions are punctuated like this: “How great is that?¡”

In an obscure chapter(!) from the Spanish grammar I found a norm that say we can use sometimes just the closed part of a composed sign (¡! ¿?). It has to be inside parentheses and wherever you need the ironic mark.

I proposed to use the Temherte Slaqî inside parentheses when used in a sentence in spanish.

¡La verdad no te lo puedo creer(¡)!
Eres tan(¡) inteligente.
¿Y es que mi plata no vale o qué(¡)?

If I had to guess, I would say the creator of this stupid movement is in his mid 40′s and still living in his parent’s basement.

Yeah, losers of the world unite in support of the open sarcasm movement.

Say “hi” to your Mom for me jackass.

About the sarc mark
the font in the linkbelow was released before the sarc mark, it is free and if you look carefully one of the letters is almost identical. It also integrates the percontation point. It is a less serious attempt and the author says it is more for highlighting letters than writing.
http://www.notascoolasitseems.com/review/sarcasm-font

BTW I typed 173 and alt in windows but I got a smiley face hmm now a musical note ? ??? hmmmm I can’t get it to work

What version of windows are you using? These have to be used on the numberpad, and windows xp is alt + 0161

FYI – In *nix you just hold down [Alt Gr] and press the 1-key (not on the numpad) to get ‘¡’.

As a free software user I must protest to the need to install a program just to use a symbol. And especially a proprietary software at that. Even if they do not charge you for it right now, the software is not free.

Why doesn’t this site contain an “About Us” or “Contact Us” like every other legitimate site?

Comrade David! Sorry for the confusion. Our about page is here and our email is jointherevolution AT opensarcasm DOT org.

What I was getting at was your company name. You’re accepting donations through PayPal. The IRS is interested in knowing where that money is being recorded. Are you a non-profit 501(c)(3)?

Never mind Comrade OpenSarcasm, I took the liberty of calling the IRS myself. You see, there is this thing called the Whistle Blower – Informant Act. It’s in the Internal Revenue Code under IRC Section 7623(b). As it turns out, I can get up to 30% of the taxes and penalties you failed to pay. I’ve done this before and it’s turned out pretty good for me. A word of advice: You may want to gather your records.

Fascinating, Comrade Dave. Will you also pay 30% of the wasted time the IRS spent investigating unreported income of $0?

We are not and do not claim to be a 501c3. It does not say anywhere on our site that donations are tax-deductible, and if people wish to donate of their own volition to support our website hosting fees and compensate our efforts for the crusade they are free to do so with post-tax funds.

If we receive reportable income from the donate button, we will certainly report it. So far, we haven’t received a penny. Have fun chatting with Uncle Sam.

Comrade OpenSarcasm. First off, I Love the crusade you’ve created. Down with the Sarc Mark!
I read the exchange between you and David. My advice would be to not take this too lightly. I understand that you have not explicitly sited that you are a 501(c)(3) or another form of Non-profit. However, intent is what the IRS looks at, not just stating it. I would like to direct your attention to a Tax Court Case from 2008 (UNITED STATES vs. GLO). The decision revolved around postings on various blogs that drove traffic back to a fake non-profit that ultimately made money on logo merchandise. This is a precedenting case that is almost identical to your situation. Your point about the fact nobody has actually sent in donations is irrelevant. The costs that go into creating a non-profit are substantial. They include application fees, re-application fees, compliance audits, etc… The IRS will be going after those fees and the substantial penalties (well into the thousands) for not setting up the non-profit correctly. Unfortunately, there are people like David out there trying to cash in on the 25% (David misstated it at 30%) for “ratting you out”. I would strongly recommend that you start now going through the process of creating the Non-Profit Entity.

What kind of LOSER would run a campaign like this??

L O S E R

Agreed, I think it is probably a 40 year old living in his parents basement.

I’m going to be monitoring this campaign 24/7, I’m going to spend all my waking hours keeping track of you losers.

Thanks for your thoughtful advice, Comrade Michael. We are not a non-profit, we have no intention to become one, and we have no intention to make people think we are a non-profit. We think the picture of a cat covered in $20 bills on our homepage should make it pretty clear to all visitors that we are not a charity. In case there was any confusion, we have also stated this explicitly in our site footer.

Any donations received will be duly reported to the IRS as gifts on our personal returns.

Ooh, yeah¡ Super great idea¡ Let’s join the bandwagon¡

Really, though, I think I’ll start trying it out, at least in my personal journals. It’s much more elegant and easy than my normal habit of indicating sarchasm by typing [eyeroll] at the end of a sentence.F

…And sorry for the typo up there. I guess my energetic mind and incredible typing speed is faster than my computer can handle¡

Then again, the SarcMark® is SO elegant and integrates PERFECTLY with ALL typefaces¡

How do you type the weird i? Can someone explain?

Comrade Meh, you can type the Open Sarcasm point by typing option + 1 on a Mac or alt + 173 on a PC.

As an ordained minister I see the evil that has been wrought upon mankind from the simple misunderstanding of the understood sarcastic tone¡ “Understood” by the speaker with all just intent, but the receiver lacking a clue¡ Upon seeing this punctuation and tracing its heritage back to the land of Sheba herself, I was moved to bless this idea because much good shall come of it¡

[BTW - Doing that on a laptop is a pain-in-the-ass. I'm sure it works better on a desktop]

there’s this mark that is existing:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_mark#Irony_mark

Awesome a trademark coup! No, really!

ok, go for the open source back slant type font.

But Comrade Cornball, the back slant font requires custom support on every application and device, just like the SarcMark. The Open Sarcasm point is plain-text and can be used anywhere!

Thanks for your comment, Comrade Gabriel! The Irony Mark is for irony in general, not sarcasm specifically, and it isn’t available in plain-text.

In 1966 Alan Sherman tried to copyright the Note C so that any time anybody played the Note C he would receive a royalty. Steve Allen went him one better by copyrighting the the Whole Note Rest. That way anytime you didn’t play you would have to pay him royalties.

Don’t let the RIAA hear about this or they will try to sue us every time we didn’t download anything.

Parafraseando a los Simpsons:
Un signo de sarcasmo, que invento tan útil¡

[Translation]
Paraphrasing the Simpsons:
A sarcasm mark, what an useful invention¡

Great idea… really bright one…

Oh, if only I had a punctuation mark to show what I meant…

Excellent idea, I can see this taking off in the near future for sure.

That said, this largely seems like a cop out for writing appropriately. The only type of discussion that benefits from a specific punctuation mark is that of which is brief to begin with, a la Facebook and Twitter posts. Any continuous communication past a couple of sentences render this punctuation unnecessary, as the frame of the sentence gives the reader clues as to the author’s intent.

Additionally, even sarcasm in the short, burst style communication of social websites can be made apparent by appropriate word choice with a touch of redundancy. But maybe it is too much to ask for MySpace users and co. to think about what they’re writing.

I really like the grammar and punctuation Google ads.

i’ve been using the following keystrokes for some time:

>!< as my version of the sarkmark, but i call it the "Garcia", in honor of my friend who thought of it.

Since sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, why would one want to mark it? Leave it up to receiver to discern whether or not the sarcasm is intended, and if they can’t figure it out for themselves, more fool them. And if you want to be easy on them, because you suspect they might be a few sandwiches short of a picnic, then try to be even more sarcastic.

There is a reason most languages don’t have a sarcasm mark: they don’t want one. Life is a big IQ test. A sarcasm mark just gives away one of the answers.

On the other hand, maybe we’re all taking this a WHOLE LOT too seriously. Go ahead Sarcasm Inc. See if anyone uses your brilliant upside-down Debian logo. Pure genius. Really.

(I bet nobody with an IQ over 90 pays them the $1.99.)

You guys are awesome. When I say that, I am talking to the haters in the comment stream, and it really should look like this:

Holy shit, are you guys ever effing awesome¡

Hooray for the interrobang! (Now, if only it were in my charset….)