Exclamation mark spaces

[DrFoxtrot]

Why do people do this ?

Leaving a space before the ?.

With both question and exclamation marks !!

I always imagine the poster being extra stunned/ surprised/ confused. Like there's a pause for effect then the shock!

Do they think the rest of us are doing it wrong when we put no space? Or do they not notice?

Lighthearted but pedantic at the same time !!

I hate it !

I haven't seen this in English, but in French it's actually the correct grammatical usage. Could they be... French?

I know that the people who do this in my world are not French.

I do that I did my A-levels in Maths, Sciences x 2 and French, so pretty much the only 'proper' writing I typed for two years was in French and I got into the habit to the point that it still just looks neater / nicer / right. I sometimes think that I probably shouldn't, but I continue to do it anyway !

I didn't realise it was correct in French! Maybe in other languages the usage is correct too.

I'm guilty of this. I never do it in Pedants' Corner though, because posters might comment, which would detract from the subject matter of the thread.

It's just to do with style, I prefer it, been doing it since my late teens which were so many years ago!

It's not only exclamation marks and question marks . Full stops, commas and square brackets are fair game too! I don't think it really matters.

This drives me crazy actually. On a forum, fair enough. You do you. But I have a colleague who does it on presentations and official documents and it's just not acceptable. He is not French.

I agree, should have added I don't use it on anything professional.

extra stunned/ surprised/ confused
neater / nicer / right

These should be:
extra-stunned/surprised/confused
neater/nicer/right