what is your experience using tone tags?

[wyzrd]

Personally, in text format, I try to be as direct as I can, so maybe it never occurred to me that someone would need tags to clarify intent.

thanks for sharing this, because honestly now that it's pointed out to me, i think i subconsciously do this too. i sometimes find myself editing and rewriting messages to try and sound the most natural/capture the right vibe ? it's interesting, finding the balance between being clear and direct via text while also being expressive, casual and natural

I prefer putting intent in parentheses rather than using tone indicators. they are clearer and more helpful in my experience, and part of that is because, as others have mentioned, there is no "standard" meaning for tone indicators.

i think this technique could be especially useful as well because obviously you can provide whatever clarification or context you want, not just preset indications. you know, like "i hate ppl who work at the bank (i work at the bank)" lol


also not sure if i made this very clear in my original post, but i wasn't under the impression that incorrect, "sarcastic" use of tone tags was very common, just that it was something that occasionally happens that a few people have encountered. most ppl seem to understand why that would suck and don't do it

[hillary764]

Personally, in text format, I try to be as direct as I can, so maybe it never occurred to me that someone would need tags to clarify intent.

thanks for sharing this, because honestly now that it's pointed out to me, i think i subconsciously do this too. i sometimes find myself editing and rewriting messages to try and sound the most natural/capture the right vibe ? it's interesting, finding the balance between being clear and direct via text while also being expressive, casual and natural

I prefer putting intent in parentheses rather than using tone indicators. they are clearer and more helpful in my experience, and part of that is because, as others have mentioned, there is no "standard" meaning for tone indicators.

i think this technique could be especially useful as well because obviously you can provide whatever clarification or context you want, not just preset indications. you know, like "i hate ppl who work at the bank (i work at the bank)" lol


also not sure if i made this very clear in my original post, but i wasn't under the impression that incorrect, "sarcastic" use of tone tags was very common, just that it was something that occasionally happens that a few people have encountered. most ppl seem to understand why that would suck and don't do it

I agree it's hard to get the right balance in tone in text! I don't want to be unclear, but it's true I also don't want to sound super formal or serious about everything. You both also have a good point about parentheses. I like the bank example lol, the parentheses definitely change the tone there

[mountaindragon]

I'm autistic and they're pretty helpful for me, though i usually only use /j, /s, /gen, and /pos. They're good for clearing up what I mean by something or what someone else means. I thing using "pos" to mean positive was a bit short-sighted, though.

[Cosmonaught]

i like tone tags, but i often un-abbreviate them :) like /joking (though i prefer to use /silly) instead of /j or /platonic instead of /p

[cuddle]

as an autistic person tonetags help me greatly; seeing some of the replies to this thread are really upsetting. people on this thread openly admitting you misuse them to "mess" with people is just kind of weird and honestly in my opinion a little ableist ! ;_; you don't have to use them or need them, but please be respectful of those who do need them! they help a lot

[Jarex]

they're pretty helpful for me; I don't need them but they help to clarify intention behind a message, especially if I'm talking to someone I don't know that well (because I don't know what their sense of humour is like). I do get super confused when people use them as a joke because I assume they're using it seriously. in my opinion it's pretty scummy to use them sarcastically

[blurryface]

as an autistic person .. a few of these resposes are coming off as being abelist and its honestly really disrespectful. some people have difficulty picking up on tone. communicating through text only makes this harder due to lack of audio and physical clues (voice inflection, body language, facial expressions, etc.) tagging what tone you are using can be very helpful for others understanding of what you're saying, clarification, avoiding miscommunications, etc. misusing tone tags “as a joke” is entirely pointless and erases the use of these indicators altogether. using these tags just serves as an aid to those who need it (like neurodivergent people!!!!)

[Iwein]

as an autistic person tonetags help me greatly; seeing some of the replies to this thread are really upsetting. people on this thread openly admitting you misuse them to "mess" with people is just kind of weird and honestly in my opinion a little ableist ! ;_;

as an autistic person .. a few of these resposes are coming off as being abelist and its honestly really disrespectful. [...] misusing tone tags “as a joke” is entirely pointless and erases the use of these indicators altogether. using these tags just serves as an aid to those who need it (like neurodivergent people!!!!)

No one on this thread said they use tone tags as a joke or to mess with others. I was under the impression that everyone agreed using them that way defeats the entire purpose and shouldn't be done.
Someone here did say that they don't like tone tags because *they* feel that the *person using them* is being dishonest, which is a different thing.

EDIT:
thank you wyzrd (post below) for the clarification! I hadn't seen that post, so i was missing the context. Sometimes i wish there was an indication that a post was deleted (i dont need to know what it said or who made the post, just that something was there)

[wyzrd]

as an autistic person tonetags help me greatly; seeing some of the replies to this thread are really upsetting. people on this thread openly admitting you misuse them to "mess" with people is just kind of weird and honestly in my opinion a little ableist ! ;_;

as an autistic person .. a few of these resposes are coming off as being abelist and its honestly really disrespectful. [...] misusing tone tags “as a joke” is entirely pointless and erases the use of these indicators altogether. using these tags just serves as an aid to those who need it (like neurodivergent people!!!!)

No one on this thread said they use tone tags as a joke or to mess with others. I was under the impression that everyone agreed using them that way defeats the entire purpose and shouldn't be done.
Someone here did say that they don't like tone tags because *they* feel that the *person using them* is being dishonest, which is a different thing.

just for clarification, someone did make a post here that seems to have been deleted since, where they implied that they were using tone tags incorrectly on purpose to mess with people, i think that's mainly what these posts were responding to

[VESSEL_mp4]

I feel really strongly about tone tags actually !!/pos
I don't quite understand how I fall on the spectrum yet but all I do know is that all my life I've struggled so heavily with tone. ESPECIALLY online. It's caused me to become so upset over thinking someone is mad or upset at me when really it wasn't the case and I misread the situation. Me and my best friend started to use tone tags to see if it'd help and I now use them nearly every day. It helps to clarify so much and its been so helpful !
Sometimes I do fear that people will use them to mislead me, but at the end of the day, people who use them to purposefully mislead people (imo) are just bullies, in my head it isn't much different to picking on someone.

Reading this thread has been super interesting :D it's been interesting to read up on everyone's opinions and feelings towards the use of them!! I'll be sure to stalk this thread more to read more about peoples experiences >:3/gen