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Old 2008.08.26, 10:28 PM   #23
Glathannus
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 2,423
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Ringo Jihen had a lot more activity from non-native English speakers than Electric Mole. But as the years have passed by, the native English speakers have become more comfortable with various levels of sarcasm (at least within the atmosphere of our collective fanbase), and many of them can take it and dish it out. You might say our community embodies "Pleasure spiked with pain", but it's like building up a tolerance to poison, and when a new member shows up, they are offered the same 150-proof mugs of it that have been passed around to everyone else.

Anyway, all I'm saying here is, be very mindful of when and how you use sarcasm around here. I'm certainly not saying to never use it, but always try to contemplate the worst that someone might conclude from your remark, if they didn't completely understand it. Sarcasm and hyperbole seem to be the #1 thing that alienates non-native English speakers from becoming/remaining active posters, because it permeates far beyond the Off-Topic boards, and even if non-native English speakers figure that it must be happening to at least some degree, they don't necessarily know the full extent of it, or get a more genuine sense of our social atmosphere. Even some native English speakers are having problems embracing the way we've already 'evolved'. I would like to dismiss it as "That's their problem and we never needed them anyway", but that's looking at no more than half the truth.
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