The exclamation marks are wrecking my head (!)

[tak1ngchances]

Why on earth do some posters insist on putting a flaming exclamation mark at the end of every sentence?
Gaaarrrrgh. I can't read their posts at all, it makes me want to gouge my own eyes out.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Multiple exclamation marks are the sign of an unbalanced mind.

Really Trills? Or are you just making that up so I feel sympathetic towards the perpetrators?

that's me then

Terry Pratchett said so.

You're right, he did. He tends to be spot on with regard to such matters.

I HATE exclamation marks. They are overused and a sign of an unimaginative mind, maybe unbalanced too. Try reading anything from the NCT... covered in them esp. the god awful birth stories.
I don't even like one, nevermind multiple.

What is their purpose? Are people being humerous? Sarcastic? Trying to be self-deprecating but actually having a stealth boast?

BTW I also hate 'love' at the end of emails and lots of kisses.

I'm a miserable pedant

Oh no! I think I have slipped into this bad habit recently!

I don't mind kisses. I can handle the kisses. It's the exclamation marks and occasional interrobangs that set me off .

imagine if we did it Spanish style with exclamation marks at the beginning and end of a sentence. I do like an exclamation mark personally

They irritate me too but not as much as lol.

A friend's husband puts it after everything he types, particularly on Facebook. I now think he's a moron.

There will be a notable lack of exclamation marks on this thread!

It strikes me that Dystopian's name suits her.

Occasionally you may come across someone for whom the (over)use of exclamation marks is simply so in keeping with their character that it may be acceptable. I write software and used to have a colleague - lovely chap, he was just so damned excited about the work we were doing that his comments and messages to users would have a liberal sprinkling of exclamation marks. He was neither unimaginative nor unbalanced, just a small Indian genius with a character akin to a Jack Russell puppy.

When reading aloud to DD, I've quite often wished we did punctuate the Spanish way - its annoying when you start a sentence in a neutral tone, and only find at the end that you should have been interrogative or excited, which can entirely change the meaning.

yes, that's true.

I like them at the end of a genuinely exclamatory sentence. Unfortunately, many people can not recognise one.