Comments on: Proposal for a new punctuation mark

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:11:00 +0000

++good

By: Their feldspars

Their feldspars — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 16:48:00 +0000

So that’s who removed those keys. They should be drawn and ¼ed ½!

By: userw014

userw014 — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:22:00 +0000

We are stuck with design decisions made by the Digital Equipment Corp made for the DECWRITER series of printing terminals (LA-30, LA-120, etc) and the VT100/VT102 display terminals.

Does your keyboard have a US cents sign? Yes, I’m sure it’s in Unicode, but it isn’t accessible. What about 1/2, 1/4, etc. symbols? Those are available in various ways too – but not on a conventional QWERTY keyboard. I believe these symbols were on IBM 3270 terminals – but not on DEC terminals.

Want to go really strange? APL had an enormous number of symbols and required special displays and keyboards. The American Library Association had a design for online library catalogs that required special keyboards and displays.

Special displays aren’t a problem these days – but there is limited space on a keyboard, and unless a symbol can find a standard location on a keyboard (some combination of FN/SHIFT/CONTROL/OPTION/COMMAND/WINDOWS LATIN, then it won’t be used by the masses.

By: Chris Jacques

Chris Jacques — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:37:00 +0000

Though I don’t know why this page is showing it at the top and not the middle of letters.

By: Chris Jacques

Chris Jacques — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:35:00 +0000

This is a seriously unnecessary idea.

I use ~. It works great. More enthusiastic than period, less screamtastic than an exclamation point.

Wow cool~

By: Kenmrph

Kenmrph — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 03:54:00 +0000

I think what you’re looking for is the “mehxclamation point”

By: noah django

noah django — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 02:46:00 +0000

I see the wisdom of it. I do find it irksome that sometimes a period used correctly/meant benignly can connote a deadpan delivery. perhaps a “deadpan” mark over the period is more to the point (ha.) though I’m heavily in favor of discarding the whole concept now.

By: VibroCount

VibroCount — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:42:00 +0000

A composition professor referred to exclamation points as “dumbshiats.” (without the a)

He believed that if the exclamation worked well when the word dumbshiat was used in the place of the punctuation, then the exclamation point was usuable.

“Really, dumbshiat?” works. “Ouch, dumbshiat” works. “Thanks, dumbshiat” does, on occasion, work.

By: petsounds

petsounds — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:11:00 +0000

I don’t think it communicates the concept well. How about an exclamation point on its side?

I’m so excited to go to Jeff’s party on Friday._

By: Their feldspars

Their feldspars — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 01:06:00 +0000

Actually, I’m more subdued than that, though I can imagine that some might want to go that way. However, it’s easy to add more exclamation points…fewer than one, but more than zero, is the challenge. A very excited person could make the entire sentence factorial! Wait…that won’t work.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:47:00 +0000

So if you’re really excited, you use !², and if you’re peeing yourself with enthusiasm, !³ ?

By: Rod Sullivan

Rod Sullivan — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 00:40:00 +0000

What would help us out of this morass would be a punctuation mark which expresses the profound apathy we feel when reading much of what’s on the web.

A pithy name for the i-don’t-give-a-shit mark.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:31:00 +0000

That’s why I’m hooked on demon porn; they just make new ones.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 23:10:00 +0000

THANKS OBAMA!!!!!

By: Rob Beschizza

Rob Beschizza — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:34:00 +0000

▲ is pleased

By: Ernest Valdemar

Ernest Valdemar — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:18:00 +0000

Oh, yeah — spot on. An irony mark would be so perfect. I’m serious! I don’t how I’ve managed so long without one.

By: TheOven

TheOven — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:08:00 +0000

There will never be any new punctuation in the English language.

By: Their feldspars

Their feldspars — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:01:00 +0000

It occurred to me that there was a need for a less excitedly frantic mark in 1978, so I started using “½!”–back then, there was a ½ key on the keyboard. Perhaps now its day has arrived ½!

By: Nagurski

Nagurski — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:00:00 +0000

A designer punctuation skit seems like a natural for Portlandia.

By: robotnik

robotnik — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:56:00 +0000

InterestingKS

By: Jellodyne

Jellodyne — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:25:00 +0000

I never!

By: hymenopterid

hymenopterid — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:13:00 +0000

If there was a punctuation mark that denoted a lack of sarcasm I’m pretty sure all the sarcastic people would start using it ironically.

Which retort seems more scathing?

–I just got a new Bosch oven!
–I’m so happy for you!
Or
–I just got a new Bosch oven!
–I’m so happy for you (sincerity mark)

By: Bill Banks

Bill Banks — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 21:06:00 +0000

My colleague and I have taken to capitalizing the last two letters in a word to accomplish the same tone.

ThanKS. sits right between Thanks. and Thanks!

By: Lupus_Yonderboy

Lupus_Yonderboy — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:17:00 +0000

Dodgammit. That’s brilliant.

By: Kennric

Kennric — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:13:00 +0000

I think you have stumbled across something profound here. In the days of longhand writing, punctuation and letter forms were up to the writer, who could freehand a new mark if they wanted. If their correspondents liked it and picked it up, it could spread, but keyboards (and UTF) have locked us into a immutable set of marks and letter forms.

Unlike words, new punctuation is a matter of international standards bodies, computer manufactures and software developers rather than casual usage and adoption.

By: Peter Brülls

Peter Brülls — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 20:02:00 +0000

I think the real solution would be to give low electrical shocks whenever the sign-which-shall-not-be-named gets typed.

By: Snowlark

Snowlark — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:56:00 +0000

Anyone who writes like this needs a dose of Raymond Carver, two hours a day, stat.

By: awjt

awjt — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:53:00 +0000

your dots need kerning.

By: noah django

noah django — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:52:00 +0000

>You like it‽

well, no. at first I didn’t understand the application, but after reading the link, I realized that I have also used an exclamation point unnecessarily to avoid making a statement seem deadpan or sarcastic. there is a need for a mark that says “sincerity and goodwill” without “unbridled enthusiasm.”

I do not think the glyph proposed by Susan is the solution, though. it is visually *more* ostentatious than an exclamation point and therefore suggests even more excitement. naming it “the king” in Spanish gives the same impression.

if a period sits on the baseline of the text, and the exclamation rises to the top of the text, shouldn’t this proposed glyph lie somewhere in the middle? what if it was bent over to suggest a muting of the exclamation? “¬.” but bent the other way? i dunno. IANAtypographer, but the elrey ain’t working for me.

punctuating with a smile works pretty well, too, come to think of it :)

By: awjt

awjt — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 19:51:00 +0000

^this.

I hate all punctuation. I use it, well, well, not well, because I was trained to: but I hate it. Ever try writing code in javascript, java or vb? Or, any of a dozen other (shitty) languages. Most of the time, your shit just doesn’t WORK because you have a single quote in the wrong place or a semicolon, not to mention all the parenteticals for flow control… I mean, MOST of my time is spent fixing punctuation for the stupid, ridiculous inflexible conventions of the language I’m using. It’s a huge waste of time. In short, my life SUCKS because of punctuation.