Thread: "thanks for sharing. feel free to contribute"

A person with a stupid and brutal (some can say, it's only grim humour) avatar (userpic, as they are called in LiveJournal) created a thread in some LiveJournal public community. I posted the following:

I think, such kind of avatars must be forbidden. Sorry for off-topic.

And some other LJ user posted this:

thanks for sharing. feel free to contribute.

I can't understand, what did he mean. Was he serious or sarcastic? Can you help me?

Since the response is NOT from the person with the brutal avatar, it is probably serious. He is probably agreeing that the avatar is in bad taste.

I agree with Kwatts.

I completely disagree. Nobody would say "thanks for sharing" after you've criticized someone's avatar and not be sarcastic. Besides, "Thanks for sharing" and "Feel free to..." are two ubiquitous, sarcastic expressions.

He is saying, "No one cares. You're wasting our time."

Originally Posted by chance1of2

I completely disagree. Nobody would say "thanks for sharing" after you've criticized someone's avatar and not be sarcastic. Besides, "Thanks for sharing" and "Feel free to..." are two ubiquitous, sarcastic expressions.

He is saying, "No one cares. You're wasting our time."

Since it was not the person who responded's avatar, I think that, since being the internet and all, the reply would have been a lot more vicious than the response given if it was meat to be derogatory. Why would he "beat around the bush"? This is the internet!!!

Originally Posted by DDT

Since it was not the person who responded's avatar, I think that, since being the internet and all, the reply would have been a lot more vicious than the response given if it was meat to be derogatory. Why would he "beat around the bush"? This is the internet!!!

Precisely for the reasons that this thread exposes: many people on the internet are oblivious to sarcastic remarks like this, and he is just baiting the person he responded to into demonstrating his ignorance. He can tell that the person who posted before him isn't a native speaker; he doesn't need to insult the person directly if he can draw it out of him.

I don't think there is any ambiguity here. It is sarcasm. Here are some markers: "Thanks for sharing" --> Nobody says this except in a sarcastic tone. "Feel free to..." --> Commonly used in the meaning, "You haven't contributed anything useful." Furthermore, the comment itself is redundant beacuse he didn't need to thank him and invite him to contribute. Anyone who actually agreed that the avatar was inappropriate would say "No kidding/I agree/That is sick" and not "Thanks for sharing."

*nods in agreement with above post*

On my home message board, there was a fella who posted a topic "I never meant to cause any harm".. but he was a pervert and his only reason for being there was to cause harm. So we banned him from that board. So it does ring a bell, as being a bait and switch tactic of a con artist.