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[–] SelfReferenceParadox 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Voat's a horrible webste for horrible people

vs.

Voat's a horrible webste for horrible people /s

Without the /s, it would look completely serious.

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[–] CarlosShyamalan 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Theres too many different opinions on voat. This means that theres a huge difference between

Man fuck black people right.

and

Man fuck black people right /s

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[–] The_Redditor ago 

Generalised decline in standards of literacy, compounded by the tendency to aim for the lowest-common-denominator when writing for mass appeal to a massive audience.

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[–] faissaloo 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Poe's law

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[–] Futt ago 

In addition to the points already mentioned, sarcasm is a cultural thing and not as widely used and understood as you might think. For instance, it is rarely used in Japan and other parts of Asia.

Some light reading on the subject

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[–] PussySmasherMD 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

People are retarded and have no reading comprehension. It's fairly obvious based on context clues.

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[–] Vheissu_ 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Here is a theoretical example to drive the point home:

Say someone submits a news article titled: The NSA is spying on civilians

A comment without a sarcasm marker:

I don't see the big issue, if you have nothing to hide, then does it matter the NSA are spying on you? It's not like the government would ever use this information against anyone anyway. And if you want privacy, don't go on the internet or use your phone or any activity they might be able to log.

See the issue there? You don't know if the commenter is legitimately being serious or sarcastic. Adding a "/s" to the end will probably save the commenter a world of downvotes by showing they don't agree and they're trying to make light of the situation, sort of.

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[–] Ralph_Malph 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I have to ask -- is this an actual comment taken from somewhere? If so, was it actually sarcastic?

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[–] Vheissu_ ago 

Haha, no. I made that comment up. However, I have actually seen people post things like that before though. Especially when the whole Snowden situation was fresh and people had conflicting views on Snowden and the NSA's activities.

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[–] ghotioninabarrel 1 point 3 points (+4|-1) ago 

Because we've seen people who would say shit and mean it. If the entire comment is sarcastic and we haven't seen that person before (or just didn't read the username) then as far as we know they're serious.

Google Poe's Law.

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