to think the strikethrough font is used far too often by some people on Mumsnet?

[bibbitybobbityyhat]

It's beginning to get on my giddy goat.

Doing this is not the same as writing something in brackets

I also see people using it for no discernable reason whatsoever. Someone typing a normal paragraph suddenly starts crossing bits out at random.

It is for using when you say something that you know in your heart of hearts you really shouldn't but you want to say it anyway. Or for comic effect as in "I had half a packet of a couple of biscuits with my cup of tea".

IANBU so don't even talk to me.

YABU Bibbers, IMO it's under used You're right of course, some people don't know how to use it. Me f'rinstance

I don't know how to use it...... devastated

I'm dying to know which poster over-uses the strike-through.

(I hope it isn't me)

It is you
it's me
It's not me
probably me

My lips are sealed but it's neither of you (as far as I know).

Yes.

I clicked on this thread hoping for a lot of strikethrough comments and I was not disappointed!

It is irritating as all hell but right-thinking people like us are, unfortunately, in the minority.

How much of a different does it make:

It's not quite the same as brackets, though I think there's a certain level of crossover; such a subtle difference seems daft to care.

It's not quite the same as brackets, though I think there's a certain level of crossover; such a subtle difference (seems daft to care).

It's not quite the same as brackets, though I think there's a certain level of crossover; such a subtle difference seems daft to care.

They don't bother me if used correctly and not excessively but it is irritating when people don't understand basic grammar in general. Like when people don't grasp the point of quotation marks and add them in for emphasis. For example I used to work with a guy who would send out group emails saying stuff like - 'This must be done "today". ' It was quite funny as then it just comes off as the 'today' being in sarky air quotes.

It's true you hardly ever see this. Let's campaign for more underlining

What do we want?
Underlining
When do we want it?
Now

ITS NOT A FONT.

It gives me the rage when people who have been here for years strike through individual words don't they know you can strike through a whole bloody sentence

ITS NOT A FONT.

It's

Yabu.

It's not a patch on a 2 dot or a 4 dot ellipsis in the irritating stakes. it's 3 dots and only 3 dots

I DID THAT DELIBERATELY.

Of course you did, SUNFLOWER...

.

The extra dot is for you aubergine

Thanks neep, I'll store it up for the next time I see only two dots. Always useful to have a spare

Underlining isn't a thing in its own right though!
It's a handwritten instruction tto a printer to put it in italics

I likes the occasional strikethrough, I does, and I think I use them properly. I am also fond of the creepy wee brackets. They stand in for asterisks since the asterisk makes bold type on MN. Trust this site to be weird.

Brackets though: loads of people don't use brackets properly. OK, I do over-use them somewhat, but the point is, the text within the bracket should be able to be taken out without changing the sense of the sentence. Many users seem to start the bracket in the right place but finish it randomly some time later (I don't mean forgetting to close 'em, that's just a typo, could happen to anyone). Thus:

I was waking my son up (he is quite hard to wake of a morning) when I noticed something unusual on the windowsill.

But what they put is

I was waking my son up (he is quite hard to wake of a morning when I noticed something unusual on the windowsill).

Alters the sense completely.

Am I a pedant? No, I can't be, I start sentences with prepositions, often split infinitives, and commit hosts of similar crimes. I also mostly manage not to pull people up on theirs unless they asked me to critique their grammar, or are picking at someone else, or otherwise had it comin'.

Question is Anniegetyourgun why use brackets when a couple of commas will do, couple of commas adide by the same rule:

I was waking my son up (he is quite hard to wake up in the morning) when I noticed something unusual on the windowsill.
or
I was waking my son up, he is quite hard to wake in the morning, when I noticed something unusual on the windowsill.

Obvious strikethrough is pointless in this situation!! Unless

I was waking my son up, he is quite hard to wake in the morning a right pain in the arse, when I noticed something unusual on the windowsill).