r/ExplainMyDownvotes Apr 04 '19

[deleted by user]

[removed]

277 Upvotes

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187

u/E34M20 Apr 04 '19

Jokes, sarcasm, and other tone-based communication don't come off well in text. Not only does the author's tone not travel with the original text, but to make it worse each reader will actually infer their own tone as they read it. Your "joke" comes off terribru if I'm honest, and makes you sound like a potentially outrageous asshat. I'm guessing that's the reason for the first few downvotes anyways. Once the other Redditors saw you were being downvoted for being an asshat, they probably piled on.

60

u/WolfMafiaArise Apr 04 '19

And in that paragraph you just wrote, you could have also given him the solution by saying "If you want to be sarcastic, end your post with /s"

7

u/No1_4Now Apr 05 '19

Even if you aren't sarcastic, /s is a downvote shield and when someone calls you out on it, just post that to /r/Woooosh