To hate hate hate the passive-aggressive question mark??

[OhForFoxAche]

This.

Urgh, I hate it so much. A friend emailed me to tell me off for not having contacted them: "was thinking we could meet up and talk??" "I think it might be weird seeing you next week as we haven't spoken??"

Gives me the rage

Try living in France, where SHOUTY CAPS are standard when typing surnames and locations, and where the average question mark usage is "???" (if not ???????????????????).

crapbag
My friend commented asking why she hadn't been tagged with 5 question marks after!

Similar happened to my sister after her wedding. She tagged lots of friends who had helped out with e.g. flowers, food, dress-making, the car (it was a very crowd-sourced affair!) Another friend commented "Oh no mention of us then" - he and his wife owned the pub where the reception had been held, but had charged for the function room and had made plenty of profit out of everyone attending (no free bar.) They had also not even cleaned the function room from the previous event, so we had to spend a frantic hour removing shitty mess before we could even get the tables out, set out food etc. They were also thoroughly arrogant and unwelcoming to our relatives.

So my sister said "I haven't tagged you because this wedding made me realise what a couple of self-serving twats you are". Friendship ended pretty quickly after that

The ?? do come across as the equivalent of someone going 'eh? eh?' in a prodding kind of way.

I also hate it when people end sentences with ominous dot dot dots...

Violet, yes! They are ominous!

I once received an apology by text from someone saying "Sorry I hurt you..." with dot dot dots, basically making it sound like a massive FU, and as if the person didn't give two shits

This thread is like therapy

pocket I think I might love your sister! Self serving twats!

I have an ancient mobile that doesn't do images in any form. If somebody sends me a message with any kind of emojiconwhatsit at the end, my phone transcribes it as ??? It usually turns out to be some kind of pictorial equivalent of lol, but my gut reaction is always to feel offended at the PA, what-the-fuck message if they're responding to something I sent them.

Oh the PA sorry. It's a MN staple.

Sorry but you're behaving like an entitled twat.

Sorry to disagree with the others, but your new haircut is shit.

These people aren't sorry at all.

Haha mermaid, you're so right!

I bloody hate two dots, that's not even correct - what is it? It means nothing!!

Agree that the ellipsis is used unnecessarily to make things sound threatening.

We need to start an MN "Responsible Punctuation" campaign - use it wisely and only use it if you know how to use it

I really don't know why this is such a big deal!

Would someone enlightened me as to why enthusiasm or excitement is interpreted as passive aggression???

Its just inform and friendly in my book!!!

My current pet hate is when people write things like "I'm trying to log in but it's not working?"
Is that a question or a statement? If it's a statement you don't need a fecking question mark.
I suppose it's ghastly Australian question intonation in written form.

Pedants' Corner awaits us.

Squishee you've nailed it, that's exactly what I'm getting at: the unnecessary question mark.

It really pisses me off no end. Urgh.

Ah I see, I wasn't sure we were talking about the same abomination thing OhForFoxAche. It's good to find some like-minded pedants purists.

It really really annoys me when people type/say the word much at the end of a sentence. 'Jealous, much?' Arrgghhhh.

Sorry Squishee, but we can't help being born in Australia? It's not our fault? We just happened to be born there? Okay?

I quite like a bit of over punctuation, for emphasis.

very fond of an ellipsis too, it adds a little something... no??

I also find myself doing a very forceful full stop and then a question mark if I am cross and texting dh. He also does the "?" thing if I do not respond in his timeframe. That's when the PA truly comes out, double ??, heavy full stops and everything.

I saw a buzzfeed-ish thing a while back with some new made up punctuation marks, some of them were acers! There was a sarcasm mark.

squishee yes! I get that exact email at work and I reply "it's not working?" that's the bait...if they reply "no?" I say "sorry I don't know if it's working or not. Let me know when you're sure." (Anything to pass the time.) These are English people, there is no excuse.

pocket your sister is ace!

OP- YANBU.

I love reading posts from fellow pedants. It makes me feel so normal. And happy. And like I'm not all alone in silently gnashing my teeth about this stuff.

NK that is a fab response, I agree that the best way to deal with grammar renegades is to play them at their own game. I refuse to pander to their grammatical whimsies

I really think lots of people have no idea how "suggestive punctuation" works, so they just fling all the punctuation at sentences and don't realise they're making dark implications.

YES! I know someone like this. They add multiple punctuation marks after every 3 or 4 words of a text. I suppose they think it makes their texts dynamic and expressive, but it actually turns them into total gibberish. I never know if they're asking me something, telling me something, making a joke, are frantic and hysterical, or are pissed off.

Or maybe they just have no idea how to punctuate so throw all of the punctuation they know at a sentence on the assumption that at least one of them must be right.

I'm with Terry Pratchett, that multiple exclamation marks are generally the sign of a disturbed mind. I do occasionally use ?! to imply surprise and confusion, but ?? or !! just seems unnecessary to me.

I do love a good ellipsis though...

Life's too short?

Life's too short...

My current pet hate is when people write things like "I'm trying to log in but it's not working?"

I'd have added ????? to the end of that
I'm a grammar pedant but had no idea I am being secretly judged by my fellow acquaintances with my over zealous use of punctuation! so tempted to put more than one exclamation mark.
I'm off to sit in the corner of shame
(Not going to change though!!!!!!)

This is my spiritual home. I love a good ellipsis...

You see, I don't mind "I'm trying to log in but it's not working?" because I probably do that as well. To me, the question mark is the equivalent of this . And it's making a statement and asking a question at the same time so is very efficient. Though, obviously not if you answer with "It's not working?" The French make questions out of statements so...