# What's your unique posting quirk? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447 "2005-04-15T06:05:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/1 "2005-04-15T06:05:50Z")
Say you were banned and decided to come back (Gasp!). What unique feature of your posting would be the dead give away as to who you were? Mine would probably be that I use quite a few parentheticals (I noticed while writing [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=312020).)That and I go days with just lurking, then go on a posting spree, starting two or three new threads, and commenting on others in one day. Then, back to lurking. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/2 "2005-04-15T12:18:27Z")
Omniscience. ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/3 "2005-04-15T12:52:04Z")
I have none. If I were ever reincarnated as a sock, the only way you could tell it was me is if I posted in a clothing, handbag, shoe or gourmand thread. Even then, only two, maybe three people would recognize me, and even that would be a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/4 "2005-04-15T13:19:17Z")
Witty reparte`. ---
**Author:** ![davenportavenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@davenportavenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davenportavenger)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/5 "2005-04-15T14:43:18Z")
–underlining for emphasis (though I could stop that easily) –overuse of parenthetical statements (much harder to stop) –run on sentences with lots of semicolons –complicated sentence construction in general I’d be discovered in five seconds flat. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/6 "2005-04-15T15:00:55Z")
I do “this” and (this)…this. I aplogise for those but at least you know I’m me. ---
**Author:** ![Phatlewt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a698b9/32.png) [@Phatlewt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phatlewt)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/7 "2005-04-15T15:06:42Z")
My quirk is only posting an average of once per week 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/8 "2005-04-15T15:07:18Z")
I didn’t think I had one, but I post on another board under another name and **Jervoise** - the cunning little vixen that he is - posts there too and he unmasked me. He read me on here and over there and outed me because of the way I use the return key. The return key!! :eek: I was shocked and stunned to say the least and it made me very wary of exceedingly clever Australians I’d never met, let me tell you!! ---
**Author:** ![mailman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@mailman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mailman)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/9 "2005-04-15T15:12:05Z")
It would be my inability to sopt typos. ---
**Author:** ![Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bites_when_provoked/32/18073_2.png) [@Bites\_When\_Provoked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bites_When_Provoked)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/10 "2005-04-15T15:21:59Z")
The ellipses, the brackets (but can I help it if my thoughts overlap and I have to run off on a tangent mid-sentence?), and the dash-breaks - like this - throughout. Also a tendency to pair up words by joining them with hyphens - I suspect it’s probably grammatically acceptable, but I probably over-use it. I tend to create very short paragraphs. The final clue, of course, would be the big-grin bitey smiley. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/11 "2005-04-15T15:27:32Z")
I don’t think the parentheticals would give any of you away (since enough of us(ab)use them (although I suppose that would only apply if several of us got banned (and decided to return) at the same time(which seems unlikely, not that I mention it)). I would be given away by my gourmandism and my passion for lost and abandoned gloves. (Hey, when are you guys going to send me some pictures of lost gloves _you’ve_ found, anyway?) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/12 "2005-04-15T15:28:07Z")
**Quirks? Quirks? I have no quirks. Who told you I have quirks?** ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/13 "2005-04-15T15:30:01Z")
Like **BWP** , I tend to end my post with a big grin. That, and my appearance in any thread that even remotely involves beer would give me away in a heartbeat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/14 "2005-04-15T15:56:53Z")
I use diereses and accent marks, à la the _New Yorker_. Some have denounced it as a pretention, but I don’t give a rat’s ass. I don’t get ridiculous about it, though. I insist on _coöperate, reïnstatement_ and _reëlection_, though I’ll still write _going_ instead of _goïng_. That would be ridiculous. Likewise, while I’ll insist on _blasé_ and _façade_, I’ll let them drop when it comes to words that have been more anglicized, like _debacle_ (as opposed to _débâcle_, which I saw in a first-edition British publication as recent as 2003.) When it comes to place names, I’ll go with the anglicized spellings and versions (_Cologne_ instead of _Köln_, _Lisbon_ instead of _Lisboa_, _Warsaw_ instead of _Warszawa_, _Vladivostok_ instead of Владивосток. But if there isn’t a generally accepted English version of the place, I’ll keep the accent marks in, like in _São Paulo_ or _Besançon_. I do this on all message boards and in everything I write on, y’know, paper. I try to be anal about my grammar and spelling, too, but with a little effort I can fake bad spelling. I know the ASCII codes for all the accent marks and diereses by heart, so at this point, it’s more of an annoyance for me _not_ to use them than to do so. Maybe it’s inconsistent, but although I know how to type _Cæsar_, I’ll still write _Caesar_, when the occasion arises. I prefer to write _Œdipal_ but, being (not _beïng_) an American, I won’t write _fœtal_ (or _pædophile_, for that matter.) I’ve got my own style manual (subject to change,) and abandoning it for anything apart from official manuscripts is too unpleasant for me. So you’d know me, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/15 "2005-04-15T16:46:16Z")
My utter and completely adorable, wonderful sweet perfection. Serious answer: Overuse of smileys, smooching and snogging, and blatant displays of flirting. You guys would peg me in a second. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/16 "2005-04-15T16:49:34Z")
Ellipses…lots of ellipses… …and the small-font afterthought sentence. ---
**Author:** ![NE\_Texan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e99b99/32.png) [@NE\_Texan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NE_Texan)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/17 "2005-04-15T16:53:27Z")
Mine is not posting. Which I guess I’m ruining by responding to this thread. On the other hand, if I kept with it, it would make it very hard to detect me. ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/18 "2005-04-15T17:07:49Z")
> [@NE Texan](#): > > Mine is not posting. > > Which I guess I’m ruining by responding to this thread. > > On the other hand, if I kept with it, it would make it very hard to detect me. Pft, you post more than I. I was here almost a year before you and only have 89 more posts than you! ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/19 "2005-04-15T17:18:21Z")
For lord knows what reason, I seem to post to threads that **Lieu** has either already posted to or will in the near future. When I get banned, he’ll recognize me and report me to the mods. That bastard. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447/20 "2005-04-15T17:24:06Z")
My punctuation outside of parenthesis (just like this). My British/Canadian spelling. Overuse of 😃 Malapropisms. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-unique-posting-quirk/299447.md?page=2)