Quotation Marks

[Mexican18]

Why do many ABers use obliques instead of quotation marks? I find this a little strange. Is it that I am just not 'down with the kids'. I can get down,I just can't get back up!

[mikey4444]

Personally, I always "these"

[douglas9401]

Emphasis, Mexican18, //EMPHASIS//!! :)

[Jackdaw33]

Some use #, some use *.

[Mexican18]

//RIDICULOUS //!!..

[pixie374]

I thought it was just used for copy-and-pasting. I think aog started it off, as it's clearer than speech marks.

[Jackdaw33]

There's only one habitual user of // \\ and it isn't AOG.

[vulcan42]

When someone makes a spelling mistake on this site and another points it out, he or she is told our language is constantly evolving, if this is true, why shouldn't punctuation change with it?

[Peter Pedant]

fifty y ago I saw my brother use single quotation marks
and thought how cool ! ( yeah man! groovy !)

ergonomically it also saves one key strike innit
so if you use them a lot - it mounts 'up'

o god not a single inverted comma '
but a /

I got told when I joined that was the syntax here
// //
as Bill Gates or any other technogeek might write

[Peter Pedant]

Mark twain - first submitter of a type written type script apparently - used not to punctuate his scripts

but list them at the end .,:; etc and state 'scatter these to taste'

(otherwise called house style)

[douglas9401]

Indeed.

[Jackdaw33]

If you are going to use them, and I have no objection, at least use them correctly, // \\, not // //. It's all about symmetry.

[Peter Pedant]

erm // and // have "glide symmetry"
( you can put one over the other by movement)

[Peter Pedant]

well - there was a university exam question:
Is John the same as "John" ?

( erm no - one is specified - see saul kripke - naming and necessity. and yes the fella in "Big Bang Theory" is purposely named after him. wrote his first technical paper at age 16 apparently )

so if you write

and of course we will all be killed in our beds by rabid muslims in burkas - tomorrow !
( craxy thought etc ) - it is different to

// and of course we will all be killed in our beds by rabid muslims in burkas - tomorrow ! // AOG - just as an example I stress

it shows that you arent the author
craziness successfully transferred to AOG
and then you can slig it off in the usual fashion

hence the need for those bally //s

[Jackdaw33]

Who, apart from you, uses the word 'bally' these days?

[Old_Geezer]

IIRC there was a discussion thread on what to use and someone decided // won. Never liked it. Use " myself.

[Eleena]

Not great with quotation, usually get it wrong, but hey.

[Prudie]

Good question, have wondered this myself as have only ever seen it on AB. I always use ""

[pastafreak]

I started using // because I saw on here and thought it was the new *thing*....

[pastafreak]

Hmmm...just lost half my answer...
I also find it easier visually, particularly when there are lots of quotes...or c & p's as we often have on AB.

[mikey4444]

Jack...I sometimes use "bally" in honour of Bertie Wooster. Apparently, its a contraction of Bloody, which was considered to be rude, and therefore Bally was used instead.

"The whole bally scheme has blown a fuse"
—Very Good, Jeeves

"Of course, if he was going to be as bally unsympathetic as that there was nothing to be done"
—Jeeves and the Chump Cyril

There are plenty of other examples !