Unintended consequences of the Internet

27 Nov 2007

So Scott Adams has decided to cut down on his blogging, because he doesn't like losing money being misunderstood:

Every blog post reduced my income, even if 90% of the readers loved it. And a startling number of readers couldn’t tell when I was serious or kidding, so most of the negative reactions were based on misperceptions.
Let me be the first to stake out a controversial position: this is terrible. Not only is Scott one of the most clear and concise writers I've read, he's popularized fantastic webcomics and allowed me at least one reprieve from work, every day.

He doesn't need to retire.  I have a solution to his problem:

؟

Introducing the irony mark. You use it, get this, to indicate when you're being ironic. Examples include:
  • Agile programming is nothing but writing code and complaining؟
  • Hillary Clinton should stop running for President and make me a sandwich؟
I expect Scott to start posting regularly once again, and my royalty check to arrive shortly thereafter.؟