22/01/09 Don't get it

[Lizzegirle]

What would help? I don't want to sound like a self-important jerk when sharing my opinions.

The irony here is that I actually have some serious self esteem and confidence issues, which is probably one of the reasons I come off as pretentious sometimes. I'm overly concerned with being as precise with my statements as possible and wind up being very wordy with lots of clarifications like "maybe", "sometimes", "in my opinion"... ^^;

I only called you a douche because you came off as one. Your first post in here was criticizing the fact that Greg shouldn't have made a joke that might not have been known to many of his readers. Yes, you are a cartoonist, but what right do you have to make that? None. You can think it, or even tell your friends about it, but to passively-aggressively post it in a forum atmosphere is just wrong.

Next, you go on and on about how the notion of tl;dr is dumb and how net speak shouldn't be used. Well, I agree with you on that point, but the internet is filled with stupid crap like that. Like Rick Rolling, that ended up in the Thanksgiving Day parade! You can't tell me that the Rick Rolling humor is any different than the lolcats or net speak, yet it's melting into mainstream culture. We both have to deal with that. The point is, whether you disagree with it or not, there is a way of discussing it (and preferably not attached to a comic that JUST used it) where you're not sitting on your high horse with your nose up in the air.

I don't know of one person who doesn't have self esteem or confidence issues - its part of being human. So it's not an excuse for acting the way you did (read: douche) but I can see that you are sorry and perhaps will read more into future posts on any type of forum.

Oh, and I also take art classes where we have to critique people. Some members of this forum might think that I critique them, but the truth is that I have to learn when is appropriate to voice my opinion and when its better to maybe say nothing at all. Perhaps you are still learning, but Greg has nearly 10 years of comicking under his belt, and his readership only keeps growing - I think that qualifies him to be above criticism like the ones you gave in this thread.

[stator]

Thank you for the replies, I hate it when I don't 'get' a comic. I have seen "Too long, didn't read" plenty of times before, but never in the format of tl;dr. I guess it just depends on exactly where on the internet you hang out. At 5 pages long I must admit that this thread has become too long, and no I didn't read it all, which may qualify as irony.

[DanShive]

No one is above criticism. Nonetheless, I was rude in my initial posting.

I found the comic confusing in a way that annoyed me due to it being similar to problems I've had during private conversations online where people would repeatedly use acronyms I had never heard of. I was already in a bad mood to begin with, and looking back, I shouldn't have made that post. I am sorry.

[Lizzegirle]

No one is above criticism, but there is a point where a person has no right to criticize another person - that's what I was talking about.

As far as getting upset because people don't let you play in their reindeer games, well there is something called Google. You can use it to type in whatever acronym or bullshit that you want and it magically will find websites that will tell what you want to know. (I'm only telling you this because you're apparently new to the internet, and it might be useful.) When I first saw tl;dr, I wasn't sure what it meant, so I used "the Google" to find out what it meant, and now I can laugh when I see people use it. "The Google" is a wonderful thing.

You can give me as many excuses as you like, but the truth is that you were butt-hurt about not getting the joke, and then you jumped on your high horse to say that you shouldn't have to get the joke because it's below you. Anything other than that is just bullshit.

Anyways, thank you for your apology - I just hope that you might have learned something from all of this and go on to be a better netizen.

[stator]

It isn't actually obvious that tl;dr is an acronym. If it was I would have googled it myself. To someone like me it actually looks more like garbage, a few random key presses, or some sort of escape sequence akin to HTML or similar. Most acronyms are usually done in uppercase and don't contain punctuation eg TLDR.

[Lizzegirle]

Oh well, you didn't get it then.

[Deacon]

It isn't actually obvious that tl;dr is an acronym.

Yeah, and "lol" is just someone mistyping "lil" as in "Lil' Wayne".

[DanShive]

I'm a netizen? I feel all patriotic all of a sudden!

[mistergrister]

Wasn't the first one I "didn't get" ... won't be the last one either, I reckon. I file those things into the "stuff I might understand one day, but aren't really important right now" part of my brain, and move on.

There are cultural and knowledge contexts that can increase understanding in individual circumstances. I don't view NPR, don't "get" various chunks of American cultural references, nor understand a heap of internet shorthand - I thought tl;dr was just a junk string. Doesn't worry me. I don't understand string theory either ... well, not as it applies to quantum physics, anyway.

The funny, amusing, weird and ironic stuff that Greg Dean draws that I DO actually "get" far outweighs the stuff I "don't get".

Oops - Reality is calling me. Time to go and play in the Big Blue Room.

[surge]

I kind of agree that the joke wasn't all that funny, even after I got it, then again it loses some of its comedic ability when I am not familiar with the phrase. Kind of like when someone has to explain the joke to you. But to those who fault him for it let me say this:

Greg puts out a comic fairly reliably every day. They can't all be winners, and this for me is one of the few that I found totally unfunny. Overall, he does a great job coming up with original content mostly on his own. I read several web comics as part of my daily routine, just move on and come back for the next comic. For someone who has been doing this for years and still be fairly original, in that he doesn't just rehash the same old jokes, I commend him. Part of being original is not everyone is going to find everything you try funny or good all the time.

A small suggestion though, for some things, a footnote or news post explaining inside joke might help some of us if the punchline is dependent on it. I guess this is left up to the writers judgment to know if something is fairly well known or not. I've been on message boards for years, admittedly less recently, but I don't remember the use of tl;dr. Then again, it took me 5 seconds to come to the message board to get the meaning so its not that big a deal.

[Deacon]

[quote="surge]then again it loses some of its comedic ability when I am not familiar with the phrase. Kind of like when someone has to explain the joke to you.[/quote]
No, it's EXACTLY like that because it IS that.

Then again, I don't expect you to really "get" that kind of thing based on everything else you've posted so far.

[collegestudent22]

Somebody forgot to use the preview button....

[teddy]

oh the hilarity, I actually couldn't be bothered to read most of this thread.

[JermCool]

tl;rd, Teddy?

[surge]

Then again, I don't expect you to really "get" that kind of thing based on everything else you've posted so far.

Riiiight, except for the small detail that its a web comic and someone isn't actually standing in front of me verbally telling me a joke, so it is only "kind of" similar to the situation stated above.

Looks like I stepped on someone's e-peen0r and they need to assert themselves.