It’s really a nice feeling when strangers on the internet can read your comment and get what you’d written in the right context - even if that context is an obscure in-joke. But there are a lot of people on the internet and a lot of real assholes that might non-sarcastically say whatever crazy thing you’re joking at…
Especially when it comes to neuro-divergent folks, I think the /s is quite helpful. People want to be in on your joke. It’s fun to connect with humor on the internet… and omitting a /s makes it extremely unlikely that some folks, especially those on the autism spectrum, will be able to share that moment with you… instead, it’s more likely to be read as an attack or at least yet another disappointing failure of humanity and compassion playing out over the web.
So if people don’t seem to get your joke when you omit the /s, please do realize that you’ve made your speech less accessible and some people are getting offended by your speech and it isn’t their fault - it’s yours. That said, if you enjoy having more arcane jokes and occasionally being downvoted into oblivion, then nobody is going to force you to /s.
If you’re explaining every single joke in the same sentence as the joke (which is what /s is), it’s not funny. Humour is not, nor has it ever been, about inclusion. It is about being funny. Not universally funny; just funny to people who understand and appreciate the joke.
It’s really a nice feeling when strangers on the internet can read your comment and get what you’d written in the right context - even if that context is an obscure in-joke. But there are a lot of people on the internet and a lot of real assholes that might non-sarcastically say whatever crazy thing you’re joking at…
Especially when it comes to neuro-divergent folks, I think the /s is quite helpful. People want to be in on your joke. It’s fun to connect with humor on the internet… and omitting a /s makes it extremely unlikely that some folks, especially those on the autism spectrum, will be able to share that moment with you… instead, it’s more likely to be read as an attack or at least yet another disappointing failure of humanity and compassion playing out over the web.
So if people don’t seem to get your joke when you omit the /s, please do realize that you’ve made your speech less accessible and some people are getting offended by your speech and it isn’t their fault - it’s yours. That said, if you enjoy having more arcane jokes and occasionally being downvoted into oblivion, then nobody is going to force you to /s.
If you’re explaining every single joke in the same sentence as the joke (which is what /s is), it’s not funny. Humour is not, nor has it ever been, about inclusion. It is about being funny. Not universally funny; just funny to people who understand and appreciate the joke.