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ArchivesRe: my name is not on the list
in reply to a message by Cleveland Kent Evans
I'm sorry, but "tone" is something which is read into written communications by the reader. You can't be sure of the "tone" unless the writer tells you directly.
There is research showing that people are very poor judges of whether or not an email or discussion board post is meant to be sarcastic by the sender, even when they know the person sending the email in the "real world" outside of cyberspace. If people can't do this accurately when they know the person, they are not likely to be accurate at all when judging a communication from someone they don't know.
This person is from Jamaica. Are you familiar with Jamaican culture? Do you know how people of any age normally address strangers in that culture? If you have no experience with that, you have no way to judge whether or not addressing someone as "Madam" is meant to be sarcastic or not.
It is not good practice to accuse someone of this on a discussion board unless one has had a lot of experience with the particular person making "trolling" type posts. In my personal experience, more "flame wars" are started by people misinterpreting someone else's "tone" than by deliberate acts of "trolling".
There is research showing that people are very poor judges of whether or not an email or discussion board post is meant to be sarcastic by the sender, even when they know the person sending the email in the "real world" outside of cyberspace. If people can't do this accurately when they know the person, they are not likely to be accurate at all when judging a communication from someone they don't know.
This person is from Jamaica. Are you familiar with Jamaican culture? Do you know how people of any age normally address strangers in that culture? If you have no experience with that, you have no way to judge whether or not addressing someone as "Madam" is meant to be sarcastic or not.
It is not good practice to accuse someone of this on a discussion board unless one has had a lot of experience with the particular person making "trolling" type posts. In my personal experience, more "flame wars" are started by people misinterpreting someone else's "tone" than by deliberate acts of "trolling".
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