A recent phenomenon I have noticed in the digg comment section is the use of “/sarcasm” at the end of a user submitted comment. This suffix is added by the author to indicate what should be obvious for any truly sarcastic statement.  Like a terrible joke that require an explanation, a sarcastic comment that requires /sarcasm at the end is never funny. Has anyone on the planet ever said or thought the following: “Oh my, that comment was very rude… oh… wait.. he put /sarcasm on the end… he was being sarcastic! Dear lord, I get it now! That is HILARIOUS!” ? I ask you.

For a little bit of history, a forward slash is used to indicate the end of a tag in markup languages such as HTML. /sarcasm might be literally translated as “end of sarcastic statement.” A fully formed markup would also include an opening tag and could look like this: <sarcasm>I hate sarcastic comments</sarcasm>. Though I have no definitive proof of such, I believe the phenomenon was first used to indicate a frustrating “rant” for example: <rant>I hate the /sarcasm tag</rant>. In the early days of web based forums, this full (formal, if you will) syntax would was used. In these days of OMG and ROTFL, time is of the essence. The opening tag has fallen to the wayside in the name of progress.

Sarcasm, as with most forms of humor, is a subtle art. There are really only two exceptions to this rule: 1. Home videos of fathers and/or uncles getting kicked in the nuts and 2. Baboons with the bald, red asses. Those are rarely subtle, but always funny. The /sarcasm tag, I feel, has empowered a group of amateurs to attempt feats of sarcasm best left to professionals. The point of sarcasm is that it is funny - without further explanation needed. Like a great joke, it doesn’t need to be explained. Sarcasm is an inside joke for those who have transcended language as merely a means of crude communication. People who understand it are part of an elite club you might say - the We  Understand Simple Sarcasm Yes! club (WUSSY).

The point of this opinion piece… if you are writing a comment and notice that you are typing /sarcasm on the end, stop! Do you really *need* to tell us that? Is your post even funny in a sarcastic way? Drop the suffix. Put it out there on the line. No more safety net. Have a nice day.

/sarcasm /sarcasm

(the second /sarcasm is to indicate that the first /sarcasm is sarcastic. I am in fact *not* being sarcastic)

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Microsoft has been the 800lb Gorilla in the software business for some time now.  Like them or not MS produces the most popular operating system and office productivity software in the world.  There are plenty of alternatives, but I’ve seen figures that 90-95% of all desktop PCs are running some version of Windows.

It might seem odd to think of MS as an underdog since they have such an overwhelming lead in the desktop market.  However, anybody in the IT business (especially if you visit sites like Digg and slashdot) know that Microsoft is villified in the IT community.  If you claim to run Windows or, God forbid actually *like* it, you can expect to be insulted in public forums.  The technical elite running *nix will blast you for running on an insecure platform.  The open source zealots will blast you for supporting proprietary software and vendor lock-in.  The creative types using Apple will blast you because Microsoft products are tacky looking.

I tend to ride the fence, supporting and bashing Microsoft as it pleases me (and/or annoys others).  But I have to admit that in technical forums, there is a general perception of Windows as being a newbie OS - for those that don’t know any better.  It sometimes feels like those who praise Microsoft’s occasional good deeds are in the minority.  It feels like, in some ways, Microsoft is the underdog.

If you believe everything you read on these tech forums, it would seem that Microsoft is all dried up and their old, proprietary system will be wiped from the face of the earth in a few years.  Perhaps this is the way it’s always been with the big company on the block?  Perhaps the times really are a’changing?

Am I just focusing on the vocal minority?  Feel free to leave comments with your thoughts.

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I’d like to propose that a .awesome TLD (top level domain) be added. The .awesome TLD will help to certify that the site you are visiting is at least 90% awesome. For example, your website could be something like www.radical.awesome. Your email could be something like jason@is.awesome. There’s probably at least a hundred more really cool ways this TLD could be used.

Of course for this TLD to effectively work there would need to be some pretty strict regulations as far as who is allowed to register a .awesome domain name. I think the only way to be sure the applicants are worthy is that I will have to approve them all personally.

The judging criteria would probably get complicated pretty quickly as everyone would of course want a .awesome domain name. I can imagine the “gold rush” effect would be pretty similar to when the .info name became available. Some automation would surely be required to help with the process. With that in mind, I feel sites with the following topics would be automatically approved:

• Robots
• Ninjas
• Home videos of guys getting kicked in the groin

A few things would obviously not qualify for the .awesome domain automatically. Those subject would include:

• Domain squatting
• V1agra
• Any movie with Sandra Bullock

If you’d like to pre-register for a .awesome domain, please post a comment below with your suggested name.

Awesome!

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