BC Furries

It sort of upsets me when I'm talking to people, and they don't understand me.
I mean, I like to type and talk in certain ways, using lots of added drama in my speech, but that's just to keep things interesting, and a little funny!
For example: "We're out of rice?! N..N..NOOO!!!Ohwellletsgobuymore."

Apparently, this confuses people, and prompts them to get impatient, short, and a little bit rude towards me.
I don't understand why some people, ESPECIALLY furries don't understand that when I speak in this way, I am only adding a bit of spice to my speech, and It's a a form of short bursts of roleplay.

I'm REALLY tired of having people become angry with me for doing this. I've had people act as if I'm stupid for doing this. Why?!
I just don't get how some people, especially after being on the internet, do not understand this! It's really infuriating!
The most common replies I get are "o.o", "lol", "wtf?", or just no reply at all.
How can people be so uneducated to the ways of having fun with your speech?

Talking isn't all about going by the book, y'know? Why can't we all have a bit of fun?!
So.. just.. Gaaahhh!! I'm just really sick of people treating me like an idiot for doing this..
Maybe I sound stupid, even now. Do you guys ever experience this? Do you ever try to have fun with your speech/try to be funny, and people just act like you're some sort of freak?
Please, don't let me be the only one!

Honestly, its life.

I know people who spice up their speech and those who don't. Provided you arent making comments that i find rude then i'm alright with it.
I'd be honest and let you know if something bothered me anyways.

But some personalities are more out there then most people can handle.
When you are a bit more out there, you have to get used to people not understanding you.
Never in your whole life, will every person in your life, understand you or accept what you do. Never. There will always be a few who dont understand. At least.
-you- are going to have to learn to deal with that and handle it.
There will always people a person or people who dislike you or things that you do. You are going to have to come to terms with that.
What you are dealing with there, is no different then what our fandom deals with from the outside. But guess what? We are all people. We are human. We are no different from them and they are no different from us other then -we like anthropomorphic animals* (whoopdido. lol.)
This is a normal process of finding friends and people who you mesh with.
You are still very young and trust me, you will encounter more people who both like you and dislike you.
Again, thats life and you will have to deal with that.
Weather you deal with it in a positive way or negative way is up to you. But it definitely will reflect on accordingly.

Just keep in mind that life isnt meant to be easy :3
But the cool people who you do mesh with in life, will make dealing with all those people who dont, worth it.
So hang in there and stay positive ^^

I'd only ever type/text marginally as such as you've mentioned with really close friends probably. Otherwise I can see it becoming annoying, and easily misunderstood.

*agrees with Weremagnus*

Mmmh..
Maybe you guys are right.
It's just.. bothersome, y'know?
I dunno, Maybe I'm just overreacting.

: weremagnus  August 23, 2012, 07:27:12 -06:00
I'd only ever type/text marginally as such as you've mentioned with really close friends probably. Otherwise I can see it becoming annoying, and easily misunderstood.

Hrmm. It's not as bad as I made it seem up above, but I do understand where you're coming from.
I dunno.. I just don't type normally? It's not like "OMGOMGOHSDKJHFDSJKFHSHFJDSMLPPUMPKINSRANDOMISFUNNY", Like, nonono, I'm not THAT bad, I'm just a little bit.. flighty? Exciting? Ohh I don't know! I suppose I'll just have to watch how I type towards certain people.

I tend to sometimes do that with family (I assume as I am comfortable), maybe bit of manic energy and often get a response "...okay?" resulting in me saying "nevermind". I do not find it all that weird though. Feels natural sometimes.

In text it is a lot harder to represent something - speaking with energy may be seen significantly different to you than them, others may just not know how to respond to it (lack physical signs and stuff too)

I personally like seeing people who express themselves in conversation. Words are just jumbles of text - if you have to combine them and use caps or something that's just another form of expression and I am all for that - some people are weird to not get that. :-)

(and odd...I'd think furries are the people who mostly are energetic, using plenty of emoticons, and whatnot. just haven't hit home with the ones you've met yet, but how people act and how it goes changes every day - that makes life life!)

Tiger.

: TigerKindred  August 23, 2012, 08:12:52 -06:00
I tend to sometimes do that with family (I assume as I am comfortable), maybe bit of manic energy and often get a response "...okay?" resulting in me saying "nevermind". I do not find it all that weird though. Feels natural sometimes.

In text it is a lot harder to represent something - speaking with energy may be seen significantly different to you than them, others may just not know how to respond to it (lack physical signs and stuff too)

I personally like seeing people who express themselves in conversation. Words are just jumbles of text - if you have to combine them and use caps or something that's just another form of expression and I am all for that - some people are weird to not get that. :-)

(and odd...I'd think furries are the people who mostly are energetic, using plenty of emoticons, and whatnot. just haven't hit home with the ones you've met yet, but how people act and how it goes changes every day - that makes life life!)

Tiger.

Haha! Yay! I'm not alone!
I always love your input, Tiger. You're always so insightful.
Thanks. ^^

I think the main reason that people are jumping on you has less to do with what you mean, and more to do with personal perception, Fleurette.

In verbal conversations or real life discussions, inflection, sarcasm, dry wit, etc, are all easily recognizable to both parties involved. On the net, though, it doesn't matter what you type, everyone views it slightly differently. Some will look at what you've typed and be amused, some will look at it and be baffled, and others will read it and get irritated. It could be taken as sarcasm, over exuberance, or immaturity, it all depends on who's reading it.

That's one of the reasons I don't bother to do a lot of posting on forums anymore. I was up to my neck in a forum for another community for a couple of years, on average making a hundred posts or more each day. I swear, in most cases I spent more time clarifying what I said than in making the initial post. And there are times that, no matter how hard you try to make yourself understood or try to explain what you were saying, there are always going to be some people that will not get it.

Believe me, I know it's frustrating as hell. Chin up love, don't take it personally. ^.^

My take on this is some people type or read as if they are talking, thus the perceive it in that way. Others seem only to read the letters to make words and take them black and white as it were.

Often our brains are wired that way and only that way. We can get confused by communicating in any other way but the way they themselves type or write or talk and act.

Be yourself, but give people especially those you are not as familiar with some space and time on both sides of a conversation online or off.

Ok... so many points here, and I'm trying to figure out which order I want to type them out...

To start out, I'd like to remark on how funny and ironic it is that you use the word "uneducated" to describe people who frown upon what would normally be called "misuse" of the English language.  It's typically someone of a higher standard of linguistics that values well-articulated writing, typing, etc, and these people usually spend/spent a lot of time actually educating themselves on how to speak proper English (or French, or Russian, or whatever language it is you're typing).  I'm not saying that I'm offended, but there would be a lot of people who have actually HAD a high level of education in English who would be fuming right now. =P

What you seem to be forgetting, is that yes, the internet has seen to the bastardization of language, but not everyone chooses to use that form of speech.  It takes longer to type something than it does to actually say it, so people have found ways around it by shortening words, creating abbreviations, and crafting ridiculous acronyms.  That's fine, for those who wish to talk this way online.  I PERSONALLY like to limit the number of "lol's," "brb's," and "omfg's," I use, simply because I find it to be more reflective of my own personal image that I want people to see through my text.  I want the people I chat with to think, "This Neox guy, he sure has good linguistic skills, he must not be as dumb as he looks."  But that's just me.

You claim that using proper English in a chat is bland and boring, but it really isn't.  It all depends on your use of the text and how well you know to select the right words and phrases to convey the meaning to the reader.

I will admit: when I am chatting with someone new for the first time, and their vocabulary consists of: "How r u," "lol," "nm," "wb," and "wbu," I get a little annoyed because, to me, that's like, "I just met you, and rather than respectfully give you the pleasure of reading real English, I'm going to make you try and guess the meanings of these numerous internet chat-speak acronyms because I'm too lazy to type a real sentence."  I'm not saying that's what people are really trying to say, but from the receiving end, that's kinda what it looks like to someone like me.  If we start off well, and we get to know each other a bit more, THEN I have no problem with someone regressing to the chat-speak lingo because it becomes a bit more casual after that.

You simply cannot generalize everyone on the internet as being savvy with "internet language."  You also can't generalize all people in the furry community as users of this language.  I know plenty of furs who despise using lesser English in a chat.  This issue has a sort of pendulum effect: you want everyone to understand your "fun" use of chat-speak; people like me want YOU to understand our distaste for it.  Complaining about your side of it will only launch counter-complaints, since this is a two-sided issue.

Again, however, I do not personally become upset when someone uses chat-speak on me; I'm just trying to explain to you why some people do.

: Temrin  August 23, 2012, 07:26:12 -06:00
Never in your whole life, will every person in your life, understand you or accept what you do. Never. There will always be a few who dont understand. At least.
-you- are going to have to learn to deal with that and handle it.
There will always people a person or people who dislike you or things that you do. You are going to have to come to terms with that.

Damn, just realized that Temrin already nailed it.  Oh well.  My wall of text can at least stand there and look pretty.

I second and agree to every word you said Neox.

I do regress to chat speak when using my phone because i have fumble fingers when it comes to that darned thing. I will use Lols, brbs, omfgs, etc. But unless i am in an utter hurry or have already typed and deleted what i was going to say a few times due to my fumble fingers, i dislike using or seeing How r u, c u l8er, and silly things like that. (A lot of the time, there is at least one smiley face in every sentence, almost. it seems without them, people think i'm super serious and a kill joy! XD) When i can see a person use proper English, grammar included, it restores a little bit of faith in humanity that there still are people who care to use the language the way it is meant to be used. Thank you very much for your input, because you said it better then i could ever have. :3

When it is in an IM program or on a cell phone, I am a little more relaxed about spelling/grammar/smiley faces. However, when it is on a forum, you have a chance to take your time and look over what you've written and present yourself in the best way you can.

I hate to judge... but I can't help but do it based on how someone writes. And personally, I want to present myself accurately through text. It kills me to use shorthand in text messages, but I have to do it 'cause I don't have a keyboard phone so messages takes ages.

I'll be honest with you, if you typed that sort of continual play 'drama' a lot in conversation with me, I think I might get a little frustrated eventually.  Just because it takes mundane things and puts added emotion where it's not neccesarily needed.  Least that's my take on it.  It would become draining really.

Like I am trying to imagine this coming up a lot in everyday conversation with someone.

Also the more I think on it, and the reasons why it might bother me, the more I can't get a good answer, so I'm going to just leave it there for now.

: bloodredruby  August 23, 2012, 11:06:38 -06:00
I think the main reason that people are jumping on you has less to do with what you mean, and more to do with personal perception, Fleurette.

In verbal conversations or real life discussions, inflection, sarcasm, dry wit, etc, are all easily recognizable to both parties involved. On the net, though, it doesn't matter what you type, everyone views it slightly differently. Some will look at what you've typed and be amused, some will look at it and be baffled, and others will read it and get irritated. It could be taken as sarcasm, over exuberance, or immaturity, it all depends on who's reading it.

That's one of the reasons I don't bother to do a lot of posting on forums anymore. I was up to my neck in a forum for another community for a couple of years, on average making a hundred posts or more each day. I swear, in most cases I spent more time clarifying what I said than in making the initial post. And there are times that, no matter how hard you try to make yourself understood or try to explain what you were saying, there are always going to be some people that will not get it.

Believe me, I know it's frustrating as hell. Chin up love, don't take it personally. ^.^

You're right... v.v
Thanks! You've made me feel a lot better about the whole thing.

Yeah I do the same thing and know what you mean. The main rule to using "speech enhancers" is you have to know your audience. One person will find it funny and will understand what you're doing, while others will take it the wrong way (they may even be offended). The same goes for "chirping" (teasing them)

It looks you recently registered to the board Fleurette, welcome. One challenge when joining a new community is to act and react in a way and see how the other members respond. Based on this information you realize what you may want to change or adjust. At the beginning always follow standard rules and guidelines of human communication. Once members get to know you you can show your personality more.

In a forum it is more efficient to use proper English, for here indeed we are not in a hurry to write messages, and we can give some thought. What also helps is to see how other members are writing and if almost no one is using abbreviation or words that are common in texting you know that and act accordingly.

Perceiving the emotion behind a text is not always clear. Especially when there is little context around it. Some people may also see your text as how you would act in person, and if you were hanging out in public and all of a sudden started screaming "N...N...NOOOOO" they may get put off so they do not want to feed your outcry by humoring you. Keep doing what you're doing if it makes you feel more connected with your writing. Not everything needs to be written out as an essay. Create a scene, a play to express yourself.

Surprisingly with the way I type in convo, nobody ever gives me crap for it. And I say some pretty weird and/or offensive things.

You are right Kohl to see how one person feels when writing can be a challenge. In most instances I try to think over a certain topic before responding to it.

Interesting aspect on caps lock which elaborates the issue:

I do have several irks beyond caps locks.

1. Run-on sentences, as well as total disregard for punctuation. "Let's drink furries!" gives out a totally different meaning from "Let's drink, furries!"

2. Spelling errors and simple grammatical mistakes.

I am not expecting eloquency, but seriously, I can't really give you an initial-level respect if you half-arse your post.

: Tef  August 31, 2012, 11:46:01 -06:00
I do have several irks beyond caps locks.

1. Run-on sentences, as well as total disregard for punctuation. "Let's drink furries!" gives out a totally different meaning from "Let's drink, furries!"

2. Spelling errors and simple grammatical mistakes.

I am not expecting eloquency, but seriously, I can't really give you an initial-level respect if you half-arse your post.

So much this. I mean, I'm not perfect. I spell mistake and do a lot of stupid stuff when typing. But i at least try to have periods and do my best to spell correctly.  (and i know you aren't supposed to start sentences with And/But. It happens :P )
But yeah. run on sentances. I get that from my mother in emails all the time and its like trying to figure out one of these" OMGIAMSOHAPPYRIGHTNOWBECAUSEIMTYPINGSOITSHARDFOREVERYONETOUNDERSTANDERMAGERD."

>. >

There's my trouble, when writing, that I use, sometimes, more commas then should probably be used in a sentence. I don't like going back and editing all the time and sometimes it's just hard or really long to explain everything with proper grammar.

Temrin misspelled pillow.

I know. :P Its been like that since i joined BCFurries. It stuck after the original misspelling and now is meant to be that way :P