What does “RO” mean? I keep seeing it on threads. Like…“My dog ate my suitcase (RO).”*
- Completely made up. My dog did not eat my suitcase, and as far as I know, nobody else’s did either.
Recreational Outrage
Recreational Outrage - it’ll accompany a story where one doesn’t actually have a vested interest in the outcome but is incensed at the event nevertheless. You’ll see it with animal abuse stories, baby left in car while mother shops, etc.
Ahhh, I see now. Thanks guys!
There was a bit of a kerfuffle about a year ago in the Pit, where some people were getting annoyed about the seemingly daily straight-from-the-newspaper RO OP. The phrase has since entered the general lexicon, and the instances of RO has lessened–though seems to be climbing again. Now they’re marked as such, though.
For other such bizarre terms that have come to have meaning on the Straight Dope Message Boards, see: Glossary
I thought it stood for Roy Orbison
Now, of course, if you posted an OP about your dog eating your suitcase, it wouldn’t be RO, since it affects you directly.
Why bother making such a designation? What function does it serve?
“Dog eats suitcase”
or
“Dog eats suitcase (RO)”
The latter thread title makes it clear that the OP’s suitcase was not eaten, but who cares? If the OP used the former thread title instead of the latter, would people be upset by opening the thread only to find the suitcase did not actually belong to the OP?
“Dog eats suitcase (RO), (RO)” = The dog ate Roy Orbison’s suitcase, not mine, but I am still outraged.
A lot of people, myself included, are intensely annoyed by people who get themselves worked up over incidents that have nothing to do with them. There are even people who deliberately sift through the news looking for random things to be pissed off about in order to justify starting a thread. The RO designation is win-win: It allows people like me to steer clear, and the recreational outragers can have their little party without worrying about threadshitters telling them how stupid the whole thing is.
I’m going to sligtly hijack this and ask mine. It wasn’t listed in the above linked thread or the netlingo page that that thread linked to, and furthermore, I’ve never seen it on this MB. SOAP. It’s only used in titles and tt seems to mean something along the lines of “off topic.”
Can you point us to an example Joey P?
I’ve not seen that one around.
tivocommunity.com I think is the place I see it most often. And while there are some hits searching in titles for SOAP, what I must have meant was SOAK.
http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/search.php?searchid=4036576
Found an answer Here
Which makes SOAP what? Source of all puppies?
From that same board
SOAK = source of all knowledge
Seems to be a popular term there on that board
On Edit: essell beat me to it…
Well in that case, I don’t like the way it’s used, doesn’t seem grammatically correct to me.
Snakes On A Plane? 