# What's the intended use of the strike-out feature **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 3, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179 "2009-08-03T16:49:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/1 "2009-08-03T16:49:10Z")
It appears to me this board seems to think that snark, in general, is a bad thing. Yet thats about all I see the strike-out function used for (well, that and humor). Not complaining just curious, why is this feature enabled? ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/2 "2009-08-03T18:09:14Z")
It can be useful for lists and games sometimes. I also think it’s a default, board tag, like bold or italic, in which case, it can’t be turned off. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/3 "2009-08-04T15:34:37Z")
If the use is humour, ain’t that sufficient? Heaven knows, it’s got more potential for amusement than do smiley faces. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/4 "2009-08-04T15:38:34Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > If the use is humour, ain’t that sufficient? Heaven knows, it’s got more potential for amusement than do smiley faces. I’ve always said, if you have to use a smiley face, then something’s wrong. What we really need is a smiley face that you can strike-out. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/5 "2009-08-04T16:00:29Z")
[del]smiley[/del] [del]:)[/del] [del] 🙂 [/del] (padded with spaces) [del]test 🙂 test[/del] [del]test:)test[/del] [del]test 🙂 [/del] So the smiley itself can’t be struck out with DEL tags, but when there’s text, it can be. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/6 "2009-08-04T16:06:31Z")
> [@Scuba\_Ben](#): > > [del]smiley[/del] > [del]:)[/del] > [del] 🙂 [/del] (padded with spaces) > [del]test 🙂 test[/del] > [del]test:)test[/del] > [del]test 🙂 [/del] > So the smiley itself can’t be struck out with DEL tags, but when there’s text, it can be. On the contrary, your smilies are not struck out regardless of whether they are stand alone, or are surrounded by text (at least not on my IE8 window). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/7 "2009-08-04T16:07:01Z")
It would be a hack to remove the strikeout function. We probably have better things for our technical staff (just one guy) to work on. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/8 "2009-08-04T16:10:13Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > On the contrary, your smilies are not struck out regardless of whether they are stand alone, or are surrounded by text (at least not on my IE8 window). They are struck out on Firefox. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/9 "2009-08-04T16:11:25Z")
> [@PlainJain](#): > > It appears to me this board seems to think that snark, in general, is a bad thing. Yet thats about all I see the strike-out function used for (well, that and humor). Not complaining just curious, why is this feature enabled? It can also be used for stress (as in stressing a point). For example: The pole he used was [del]big[/del] huge! Although, I prefer the m-dash: The pole he used was huge — _huge_! ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/10 "2009-08-04T17:02:34Z")
It’s useful in being tongue-in-cheek… “I just got another call from a [del]complete idiot[/del] user in Accounting…” “Graybeards” may also recognize a related treatment from the days when your terminal had a limited keyboard - the Control-H to represent backspace: “This idiot^H^H^H^H^H user in Accounting…” ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/11 "2009-08-04T17:08:00Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > They are struck out on Firefox. And Chrome. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/12 "2009-08-04T20:51:40Z")
Moral: Firefox \> IE8. Chrome \> IE8. Upgrade at once. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/13 "2009-08-04T21:05:26Z")
> [@Scuba\_Ben](#): > > Moral: Firefox \> IE8. Chrome \> IE8. Upgrade at once. False premise. Why is it preferable for a graphic to be treated as text? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/14 "2009-08-04T21:09:29Z")
It’s preferable for things to look as the poster intended. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2009, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/15 "2009-08-04T21:10:56Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > False premise. Why is it preferable for a graphic to be treated as text? Firefox and Chrome have a tendency of following web standards while IE is just starting with version 8 (and most places I know of still recomend you use 7). Thus, it makes the most sense that IE is gonna be the one that’s wrong. Oh, and, even though it is in an image, a smiley is really text, anyways, in that it is actually a part of the conversation. If other conversation aspects can be struck out, why not the smiley? ETA:hajaro’s got a point. If I typed \\\, it’s obvious I want the image to be struck out. I shouldn’t have to go through special formatting (like putting a text layer on top the image) in order to achieve that. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2009, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/16 "2009-08-04T23:35:07Z")
A smiley isn’t text. It’s a gif file. ---
**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:** [August 5, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/17 "2009-08-05T02:34:18Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > I’ve always said, if you have to use a smiley face, then something’s wrong. What we really need is a smiley face that you can strike-out. I’m a professional writer and I think I’m pretty good at expressing myself. Yet I regularly use smilies, and I think that people need to use far more smilies than they do. You cannot tell tone from plain text. Context helps, but most posts are far too short to establish context. We use to hear this plaint more often, but the requirement for some type of instant context generator is so obvious and so powerful that I thought even the last holdouts had been beaten down by reality. ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/18 "2009-08-05T03:51:54Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > It would be a hack to remove the strikeout function. We probably have better things for our technical staff (just one guy) to work on. This is probably the answer I guess. Knowing nothing about such things I assumed you could just uncheck a preference. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/19 "2009-08-05T04:04:57Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > It would be a hack to remove the strikeout function. We probably have better things for our technical staff (just one guy) to work on. Actually this is incorrect; we could remove this function if there was great public outcry against it. But there isn’t. So why would we want to do this? ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2009, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179/20 "2009-08-05T04:58:30Z")
Nice. You have a more updated board than mine. The tags we have are all default. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-intended-use-of-the-strike-out-feature/505179.md?page=2)