# Nitpick your fellow Dopers **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 15, 2023, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583 "2023-06-15T20:49:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/81 "2023-06-16T18:10:17Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Oh, and one vote against “y’all.” It’s nails on a chalkboard for me. Well, bless your heart! ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/82 "2023-06-16T19:05:54Z")
Ooooooh, I’ve got one. I dislike posters whose usernames are hard to spell or confusing. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/83 "2023-06-16T19:14:47Z")
Harpo, you beautiful crazy man. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/84 "2023-06-16T20:33:46Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > > [@TroutMan](#): > > > > I could do without the posters who add cutesy things like “and additional words for Discourse” at the end of their brief post. > > While it’s something to consider, I actually don’t mind it a bit when people do this. Discourse has no business dictating the length of our posts. I agree. But since this thread is about nitpicking, I’ll nitpick by saying that we’ve been on Discourse long enough that many of us have learned to pad short posts with HTML tags that satisfy Discourse’s minimum character count but are invisible. It’s a very small point, but it creates clean posts that are subtly more courteous because they don’t force the reader to read and then mentally discard redundant words. One common invisible padding is the string “ ”, but almost any formatting tags will work. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/85 "2023-06-16T21:16:16Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I’ll nitpick by saying that we’ve been on Discourse long enough that many of us have learned to pad short posts with HTML tags that satisfy Discourse’s minimum character count but are invisible. It’s a very small point, but it creates clean posts that are subtly more courteous because they don’t force the reader to read and then mentally discard redundant words. I think you’re asking a lot of posters who may have a more basic level of familiarity with HTML tags and who haven’t dealt with the post length limitation themselves often. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/86 "2023-06-16T21:25:51Z")
Speaking of quotes, _why why why_ quote the entire post just above yours?? We just read it, we don’t need to read it again, dammit! If you want to respond to a specific comment, you can just quote that part. Sheesh! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/87 "2023-06-16T21:30:19Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > I could do without the posters who add cutesy things like “and additional words for Discourse” at the end of their brief post. It’s not meant to be cutesy. It’s not meant to be funny. It’s meant to be: 1. enough letters 2. unambiguous. No, you don’t have to wonder what i meant here. 3. not something i need to think about. If you want to suggest something shorter that no one will take as potentially having meaning, go for it. No, I’m not adding formatting tags, because I’m not memorizing a meaningless-to-me string, or worse, mistyping it and having something bizarre show up. But if you have a suggestion for 4-10 characters that are easy to type, easy to remember, and are unambiguously meaningless, please share. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/88 "2023-06-16T21:34:58Z")
OK. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/89 "2023-06-16T21:36:45Z")
Smiles all have meaning. I want something that doesn’t have meaning. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/90 "2023-06-16T21:46:42Z")
There are hundreds of emojis, I’m sure one fits. The minimum length is 5 characters. Really, what are the circumstances where you can’t think of something useful that’s 5+ characters? Give me a specific example and I’m sure I can come up with something. And to be clear, I think the minimum length is dumb too. But as a reader, it’s jarring (and annoying) to have to skip over that. Whatever emoji or additional word you choose, I can guarantee you that it’s more appropriate and less disruptive than a misguided complaint about Discourse. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/91 "2023-06-16T21:47:48Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > But if you have a suggestion for 4-10 characters that are easy to type, easy to remember, and are unambiguously meaningless, please share. I don’t think ` ` is hard to remember – it’s just 6 characters, and “nbsp” is mnemonic for “non-breaking space”. But maybe that’s just me, although I’ve never done any HTML coding Alternatively, one or two break tags (`
`) after the text will harmlessly do the same thing. It means “break to a new line”, but if there’s nothing there to break, it does nothing, but keeps Discourse happy. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/92 "2023-06-16T21:53:04Z")
? ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/93 "2023-06-16T21:53:35Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > > [@TroutMan](#): > > > > I could do without the posters who add cutesy things like “and additional words for Discourse” at the end of their brief post. > > It’s not meant to be cutesy. It’s not meant to be funny. It’s meant to be: Put \ at the end of your post. Don’t forget the angle brackets. The board won’t complain and the words won’t be visible to bother anyone. Like so: ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/94 "2023-06-16T21:54:22Z")
^^^^ As per my last post above, since the minimum post length is 5 characters, a single-character post followed by a single `
` will suffice. That’s not hard to remember! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2023, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/95 "2023-06-16T22:20:01Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > `
` will suffice. That’s not hard to remember! For you. It is for others. Including me. Anyway, i type that, and don’t intend it as a complaint. Just as a self-explanatory reason to pad the letters. And yes, Ed could change the default minimum, but it’s kinda a nuisance. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/96 "2023-06-17T00:25:56Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Smiles all have meaning. I want something that doesn’t have meaning. There are 8 seasons of Jim Belushi’s _According To Jim_. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/97 "2023-06-17T02:04:49Z")
Fix and/or use your fucking Shift Key! ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/98 "2023-06-17T03:48:24Z")
I’ll tell you a secret. You can make a pretty good guess when I’m posting from my laptop and when I’m posting from my phone. I swype on my phone. I don’t actually use keys, i just glide my finger around the letters and trust the algorithm to figure out what word I’m typing. That’s why i often don’t capitalize. And (what annoys me a hell of a lot more) why i often have “your” as a typo for “you”. If I’m using an actually keyboard i have fewer bizarre typos, better capitalization, and worse spelling. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/99 "2023-06-17T03:49:56Z")
That wasn’t about you. I hit the quote thing on your post, then deleted it. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2023, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583/100 "2023-06-17T04:10:58Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > Speaking of quotes, _why why why_ quote the entire post just above yours?? We just read it, we don’t need to read it again, dammit! If you want to respond to a specific comment, you can just quote that part. Sheesh! ⁢ Because sometimes the whole post is relevant to my reply. I generally do NOT like it when people reply without any indication of who they are replying to. By default I read posts without any quotes as replies to the OP. It always throws me for a loop if that’s not what it is, and I have to go back and reread the previous post. And, on mobile, it’s far more tedious to do a partial reply. Sometimes I’ll wind up leaving parts I would have edited out on desktop. (Yes, I know you can highlight part of the post and then reply. But that’s also tedious on mobile.) If what I need to reply to is really long, or I’m just making a quick joke, I may instead just use the @notation. But I do not like it at all if a post doesn’t tell you who it is replying to. So I try not to do it myself. If I write a naked post, it should work as a reply to the OP. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nitpick-your-fellow-dopers/985583.md?page=6)