POV-Ray : Newsgroups : povray.general : Editor behavior Win 3.6.1 : Re: Editor behavior Win 3.6.1 Server Time
2 Aug 2024 12:18:03 EDT (-0400)
  Re: Editor behavior Win 3.6.1  
From: Daniel Hulme
Date: 18 Oct 2004 20:07:51
Message: <20041019010751.78e4a509@dh286.pem.cam.ac.uk>
> Well.. As soon as you manage to find a way to convey an intent to be 
> humorous through plain text....
Well, I thought that making such a plainly nonsensical comment was a bit
of a clue. If you've been paying sufficient attention, you know I'm a
Computer Science student, thus unlikely to really believe that what I
said is true.

I used to have a problem making jokes like that, because I didn't like
people believing that I'm stupid. I suppose I must have mellowed a bit,
because I make the 'how stupid is this opinion' joke quite frequently
now. I still find it hard to get the proper balance between plausibility
and jokiness, but I think in this case I got it exactly right. I wasn't
meaning to take the mick out of you, but if one person takes it
seriously and everyone else realises it's a joke, I think that means the
joke had the right amount of subtlety. I suppose it's a bit like a
well-constructed troll, which will be subtle enough that everybody but
one will realise that it's not a serious opinion, and the one who is so
outraged they feel they need to comment ends up with egg on their face
(in the case of a troll, probably looking as if they don't know what
they're talking about as well).

Perhaps it is a bad sign that there are still enough stupid (or
non-computer-literate) people that one might accept that someone
actually believes something so stupid; maybe it is a good sign that the
so-called experts are expert enough to realise implausibility when they
see it. In either case, any interpretation is after the fact and my
little joke was always intended to be just that.

Grinning to himself,
Daniel

-- 
A most peculiar man    With the windows closed      And Mrs Reardon says
He died last Saturday  So he'd never wake up  He has a brother somewhere
He turned on the gas   To his silent world   Who should be notified soon
And he went to sleep   And his tiny room    .oO( http://sad.istic.org/ )


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