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Off topic life advice: When you tell someone to stop doing something, don't start out with the word "Please". It doesn't really make any sense as it's a pleadin
by fubu 12y ago
Off topic life advice: When you tell someone to stop doing something, don't start out with the word "Please". It doesn't really make any sense as it's a pleading word used as an order. It comes off passive aggressive and abrasive. Same thing with "I'd really appreciate it if" and "Would you mind". If it really is a simple request, then by all means, but when it's an order or a direct request, just say it without the weird prefix.
- Hoozt 12y agoOn Topic death advice: when giving someone advice, don't start your sentence with "Off topic life advice", as you will drop 30% of your readers* when vision hit the "off topic" part. *No scientific evidence behind this statement, but this is the internet, so it's true.
- fubu 12y agoIt's okay. If only one person reads it and stops the passive aggressive, office speak?, whatever that bizarre stuff is, I've done the rest of the normal sane people a favor. I'll take plenty downvotes to save just one person from having to listen to that weirdness even once.
- enraged_camel 12y ago>>I'll take plenty downvotes to save just one person from having to listen to that weirdness even once. You are such a martyr! Your parents must be proud.
- TeMPOraL 12y agoIf it takes a lot of karma to save a soul, maybe we can pool our collective scores to save more?
- Joeboy 12y agoAs a native, English, English speaker, I don't see anything at all wrong with goodside's phrasing. I think they successfully expressed what they were trying to express, succinctly and with appropriate tone.
- fubu 12y agoThen I have a question. > Tell your employees to stop creating fake profiles on OkCupid and spamming our users. Seems to be what the poster really means. >Please tell your employees to stop creating fake profiles on OkCupid and spamming our users. That means the poster is begging the person stop? Does that really make sense? It sounds like someone is directly telling someone something, but is adding "Please" to get themselves off the hook for being seen as directly telling someone something. As a native English speaker, I cannot remember anyone, except maybe an old person at dinner saying "Please pass the salt", say the world "Please" at the start of a phrase where it wasn't an aggressively postured order. Like this obviously was. Serious question: Could you tell me what I'm missing with that?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- untog 12y agoContext? If you're at dinner with friends you don't say "would you mind passing me the salt". With a stranger you met for the first time you certainly might. "Please" is not a pleading word, it's a polite word. If you're going to give life advice, make sure it's right.
- jacalata 12y agoReally? I would say that at dinner with friends. Why reserve civility and politeness for people you don't know?
- untog 12y agoTrue - I was using an extreme example to make a point. It would be more accurate to say that I don't have to, and that I sometimes don't. I'd be more likely to say "Can you pass me the salt?" or "pass the salt, will you?", which strikes me as a middle ground between "Please can you pass me the salt" and "Pass me the salt."
- DanBC 12y agoThe phrase "Please tell your employees to stop creating fake profiles on OkCupid and spamming our users." is standard English. There is nothing wrong with the please in that sentence. Your advice is weird and wrong. Please is just a word used to convey politeness and civility with a request.