I must confess I don’t get the hatred for “This”. It seems like a logical extension of an everyday use of the word to an electronic format.
Q: What are you wearing to the party?
A: [Holds up suit] “This.”
Q: What will you be eating for lunch?
A: [Points at hamburger] “This.”
Q: What do you think about the issue?
A:
[Quotes poster with whom he agrees]
“This.”
Sure, “me-too” posts aren’t the most useful things in the world, but most of the anti-This folks seem to agree that such posts are fine as long as they don’t include the hated T-word, so that can’t be it. Is it just the word itself? Would a post that included no quotes and said “I fully agree with Poster Bob’s comment and have nothing further to add” be acceptable?
As for my contribution, there are really only three things I’d add to this list, and two of them are essentially the same thing.
#1 is starting a post with “Um, you do know…”, and #2 is pretty much any use of the :rolleyes: smiley at all. Both of these fall under the general heading of “making sure your audience is aware that you’re not just stating your point or making an argument, you’re being a smug dickbag about it.” They’re far from the only two ways to express this wholly unnecessary sentiment, but they’re easily the most common.
#3 is making the obvious joke. A perfect example would be to reply to this post by quoting the above paragraph and saying “Um, you do know that [whatever the fuck], right? :rolleyes:”, or quoting this part and saying “The obvious joke!” Nigh-inevitably, there’ll be something thrown in to let you know that the poster is reveling in just how terribly clever they are, be it a :D, a ;), or a “You HAD to know someone was going to do that!”. It’s not clever, it’s not funny, and unlike board-specific inside jokes it doesn’t even have any claim to being endearing.
I have to think that that last is what I’ve come to term an Escort Mission; ie, something that even though no one on Earth actually likes it (and the evidence bears this out), everyone continues to do for no discernible reason beyond a general sense that it’s expected. Am I wrong about this? Does anybody out there think genuinely find this practice amusing?