Formatting in Posts

bnt

It just occurred to me, while writing on another thread, that I seem to be about the only poster here who uses any formatting on posts. For example, I used Italics (the I button) to place a slight stress on the word "any" in the last sentence. If I want to really emphasise something, then I go Bold (the B button) like I just did. Woot!

Italics are useful if you want to mark something as "a bit different", such as handy foreign phrases or bons mots. I also tend to use them when referring to titles of things. I imagine Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory would approve. We even have the Strikethrough (A), for correcting yourself in pubic public.

Underlining, on the other hand, has fallen out of favour, and not just online. You never see it on printed letters, either. But the others really help to make a post easier to read, if only as a bit of eye candy. Go on ... live a little. :cool:

Temptamperu

I hate people like you.

Get a life

Frosty McSnowballs

And?

Ruu

Banned.

Mod.

bnt

Temptamperu wrote: »

I hate people like you.

Fixed that for you.

Seaneh

Only thing people on boards do that I find stupid is signing off posts.

We know it was you, your name is directly to the left of your post.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Speak for yourself! I'll format posts, emails, letters or documents when appropriate but it is often overdone and unnecessary if proper grammar and punctuation is used.

Antar Bolaeisk

I hate that we can't use formatting in the thread titles.

dxhound2005

I found it necessary just today to included infra dig and per se in two different posts. I felt that it was proper to italicise both.

4zn76tysfajdxp

bnt wrote: »

I imagine Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory would approve.

That show is shit.

Seaneh

I really do hate that show.

beauf

Its not that easy from a phone

Arthur Beesley

Do you like apples, OP?

131spanner

The only thing that bothers me about post formatting is paragraphs. If you have a long post then the only chance of people actually making sense of it is to chop it up into more manageable pieces using paragraphs.

When did strike through go out of fashion..? :pac:

Antar Bolaeisk

131spanner wrote: »

The only thing that bothers me about post formatting is paragraphs. If you have a long post then the only chance of people actually making sense of it is to chop it up into more manageable pieces using paragraphs.

When did strike through go out of fashion..? :pac:

Where are you going with paragraphs, you generally need to split posts into sentences or you get the TLDR treatment.

Arthur Beesley

131spanner wrote: »

The only thing that bothers me about post formatting is paragraphs. If you have a long post then the only chance of people actually making sense of it is to chop it up into more manageable pieces using paragraphs.

When did strike through go out of fashion..? :pac:

What's the point of strike through though? Do you not have a delete or backspace key?

The Backwards Man

~`|•√π÷׶∆€¥$¢^°={}\©®™℅[]¡¿

131spanner

Arthur Beesley wrote: »

What's the point of strike through though? Do you not have a delete or backspace key?

I honestly have no idea of the point of it. It can be useful, but nowhere near as purposeful as bold or italics.

Karl Stein

The beluga whale is a small, toothed whale that is white as an adult. The beluga's body is stout and has a small, blunt head with a small beak, tiny eyes, thick layers of blubber, and a rounded melon. They have one blowhole. Beluga means "white one" in Russian. Its genus, Delphinapterus, means "whale without fins", and the species, leucas, means white. The beluga is also called the white whale, the white porpoise, the sea canary (because of its songs), and the squid hound (due to its diet). Unlike most other cetaceans, the beluga's seven neck vertebrae are not fused, giving it a flexible, well-defined neck.Beluga whales grow to be about 15 feet (4.6 m) long on average, weighing up to about 3,300 pounds (1500 kg). Males are slightly larger than females. The beluga whale is white as an adult and molts seasonally. The beluga's body is stout and has a small, blunt head with a beak, a well-defined neck, and a rounded melon. It has no dorsal fin, which makes swimming under Arctic ice sheets easier. The flippers are short, rounded, and wide. The flukes (tail) are wide and deeply notched.Belugas are also known as "sea canaries" because of their songs and chatter, which can even be heard above the water. Belugas use echolocation to locate their bottom-dwelling prey, to find breathing holes in the Arctic ice sheet, and to navigate in deep, dark waters. Their songs are also used in communication with other belugas. Belugas produce many different sounds, ranging from clicks, squeals, whistles, etc. The fatty melon of the beluga changes shape as the beluga makes sounds.The gestation period of the beluga is about 14-15 months and the calf is born tail or head first and near the surface in warm, shallow waters. They breed in warm, shallow waters or estuaries (where rivers meet seas). The newborn instinctively swims to the surface within 10 seconds for its first breath; it is helped by its mother, using her flippers. The newborn calf is about 4-5 feet (1.2-1.5 m) long and weighs over 100-140 lbs (45-64 kg). Single births are the norm; twins are very rare. Calves are not white like the adults; they are blue to brownish-red for the first year of life. During the second year they are gray to blue. Their pigment (melanin) fades slowly, and by 6 years old, they are white. The baby is nurtured with its mother's fat-laden milk (it is 28% fat) and is weaned in about 12-24 months. Beluga whales reach maturity at 7-9 years.It is estimated that there are about 40,000 to 80,000 beluga whales world wide. St. Lawrence, Cook Inlet, and Alaskan belugas are classified as endangered. Other pods are also threatened. Belugas are threatened by pollution (DDT, PCB's, etc.) in estuary waters that they frequent and breed in.

bnt

Arthur Beesley wrote: »

What's the point of strike through though? Do you not have a delete or backspace key?

It's just a bit of old school fun, imagining you're on a typewriter. A typewriter's "backspace" key literally moves you back one space, but it doesn't delete what you just typed - hence the strikethrough.

It beats what I sometimes see on geek sites like Slashdot: people emulating the old Control+H function, as on early computers that had no dedicated backspace key. Example: "these kids today, they have no idea what the hell^H^H^H^Hheck they're doing." :eek:

PS: if anyone quotes that whole Beluga Whale paragraph, I'll thcweam and I'll thcweam until I'm blue in the fathe.

Arthur Beesley

bnt wrote: »

It's just a bit of old school fun, imagining you're on a typewriter. A typewriter's "backspace" key literally moves you back one space, but it doesn't delete what you just typed - hence the strikethrough.

It beats what I sometimes see on geek sites like Slashdot: people emulating the old Control+H function, as on early computers that had no dedicated backspace key. Example: "these kids today, they have no idea what the hell^H^H^H^Hheck they're doing." :eek:

PS: if anyone quotes that whole Beluga Whale paragraph, I'll thcweam and I'll thcweam until I'm blue in the fathe.

I'm well aware of how it originated and indeed why we use the QWERTY keyboard, but it is no longer relevant in the 'computer age'.

kneemos

If your writing a novel maybe.All the posts here need to be is quickly legible,half of them are skimmed over anyway.
For all intensive purposes I wouldn't be bothering with the fancy stuff.

bnt

kneemos wrote: »

If your writing a novel maybe.All the posts here need to be is quickly legible,half of them are skimmed over anyway.
For all intensive purposes I wouldn't be bothering with the fancy stuff.

Yes, I have been reading the other thread too ...

I prefer to use the old radio Luxembourg format where the signal used to fade in and out all the time. It was a real pain in the arse when listening to the top 20 charts and worse when listening to the competitions and hearing the questions

Shakespeare's Sister

I don't think you're about the only poster who uses formatting, bnt!

But I think Sheldon's hilarious. I don't understand the hate TBBT engenders. It's definitely not great, but neither are numerous other sitcoms, and they don't have Sheldon!

biko

Hi guys I'm kinda new here and just wanted to say hello lol :rolleyes:

Paddy Cow

bnt wrote: »

It just occurred to me, while writing on another thread, that I seem to be about the only poster here who uses any formatting on posts. For example, I used Italics (the I button) to place a slight stress on the word "any" in the last sentence. If I want to really emphasise something, then I go Bold (the B button) like I just did. Woot!

Italics are useful if you want to mark something as "a bit different", such as handy foreign phrases or bons mots. I also tend to use them when referring to titles of things. I imagine Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory would approve. We even have the Strikethrough (A), for correcting yourself in pubic public.

Underlining, on the other hand, has fallen out of favour, and not just online. You never see it on printed letters, either. But the others really help to make a post easier to read, if only as a bit of eye candy. Go on ... live a little. :cool:

Why do you think that people don't use formatting enough on boards? Personally I don't think there is much need for it myself and while sometimes it is helpful to bold a portion of a post to highlight a point, if it's over used, it just makes the whole post unreadable.

Sometimes if I want to emphasise a point I'll bold it but mostly I won't use formatting will post like a "normal person" and if you managed to read all of this you probably are proficient in word art and are fantasizing about posting here in unnecessary colours and caveman art :P Well done you, banana on it's way in the post.

Paddy Cow

In all seriousness though, I was on another forum and there was one member who over formatted every post. He had italics, bold and underline in every sentence and even though he was quite an intelligent poster with interesting things to say, I simply got sick of trying to read his posts and ended up ignoring him. The only thing worse than reading a post full of grammar and punctuation mistakes, is a perfectly well formatted post full of unnecessary Bold, Italics and Underlining. Both makes the post very hard to read.

bnt

Well, as you can see from my OP, I'm not advocating formatting just for the sake of it, just a little when appropriate. I was using examples to illustrate formatting, not telling folks "do it this way". I don't use formatting in every post I write, but there are times when it does help.

Why does every discussion of this sort always go to the extremes? Yes, too much formatting looks horrible. That applies to most things in the world. "Too much of <whatever> is bad, so we should never do <whatever> at all"? Does no-one understand the concept of moderation? Do all questions have to be answered "yes" or "no"?

kneemos

bnt wrote: »

Well, as you can see from my OP, I'm not advocating formatting just for the sake of it, just a little when appropriate. I was using examples to illustrate formatting, not telling folks "do it this way". I don't use formatting in every post I write, but there are times when it does help.

Why does every discussion of this sort always go to the extremes? Yes, too much formatting looks horrible. That applies to most things in the world. "Too much of <whatever> is bad, so we should never do <whatever> at all"? Does no-one understand the concept of moderation? Do all questions have to be answered "yes" or "no"?

Should've used this as your op