I've been noticing on message boards lately that people will put an "@" before someone's name to imply they're referring specifically to that peron's previous comment.
For example:
Sh1tSt0rm said: I think Britney it hott with no hair. Also, I'm a total tool.
N0w0rryz84 said: @Shitstorm: She needs help. I'm a tool, too.
Now, while I agree with Britney's decision to shave her head (wicked hardcore, Britney!--to quote what my friend Bruce said to me when I showed up to work in 1998 with a shaved head after having had long hair for a decade), I can't stand by and watch people use this ridiculous "@" system. First of all, I've had enough of "@" in general. Second, and more importantly, AJM invented the correct way of speaking directly to someone in a comments section or message board, albeit accidentally--"jf." Meaning "just for."
Example:
bsmemorial: Terrible job by me for not commenting on Jere's blog anymore. I am missed.
michael leggett: jfbsmemorial: It is, indeed, a "TJ" by you. You haven't gone over to, Big Stein's, "dark side," have you? Or have the Fox Sports, gestapo, aka McCarver and co, abducted you?
peter n: jfEveryone: I love you all!
Jere,
ReplyDeleteAre you not stuck in the past or something? C'mon .. EVERYONE knows that the @myusernameiscoolerthanyours is a holdover when people talked on real messaging systems, like IRC .. :-p
Jere, thanks for the mention, although I'm still SO disappointed with the job the UCONN women did last night..I was there in the HTFD. CC, and I, like everyone, walked out muted, muzzled, and sad. The Sox right now are on NESN, with Paps in relief of Wakes. Hi to your Mom, as it is tip-off time!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs always, I wish you (and Chan) the best.
And I do mss the Lost updates, and the baseball stuff, and just everything about BSM. Is it just me????
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard about this "@" stuff. I'm guilty of not having adequately promoted use of the jf since its accidental creation. I'll have to start using it more, lest jf end up being this generation's Betamax to @'@'s inferior but universally adopted VHS.
ReplyDeleteOooh, somebody's playin' hardball in this Beta-VHS war! "I heard that!"--VHS.
ReplyDeleteAbout IRC: Yeah, I guess I coulda asked Chan and he woulda told me. I always used to ask him to explain IRC to me back in the day, and I'd be like "wait, what?" Chan was Al Gore before Al Gore. (Inventing the internet-wise, not environment-wise. But anti-flashiness-wise, too.)
I would totally op Al Gore.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I looked it up:
ReplyDelete"to op someone is to make them a channel operator by giving them a user mode of +o: /mode #chan +o simon"
They said Chan, huh huh.