Manly Etiquette

You know the situation: You've just made a new male acquaintance and you're texting them. You want this budding friendship to develop full bore because you think he's quite the chap, but suddenly you become aware that because of how they've framed their previous message there is literally nothing interesting you can say in response. Nothing.

Then it dawns on you, there is a way to redeem your message - to give it that little lease of life it sorely needs. Exclamation marks. Too few and well you may have lost a friend by being dull, but too many and your new acquaintance might just wonder if you want to be more than friends - and that's even worse.

So you make your edits, full stop gives way to the mighty line with the dot. You take a deep breath and send the message. Of course this does nothing to appease your anxiety - you sweat and shake a little, maybe tears form slightly at the corners of your eyes. Only with knowing the outcome - acceptance or disgust - can you feel whole again.

I was reminded of a conversation I had with a friend about this topic earlier today, and I thought discussion of the topic here might be well received. He said he thought if he sent too many exclamation marks to a male acquaintance he was worried that it would appear to be gay. Of course since that day most messages I send to him end in at least 5 exclamation marks, if not more. Personally I was always of the disposition to include exclamation marks regardless of whether I'm messaging a man or a woman - but maybe I'm just desperate for affection.

So how many exclamation marks do you deem socially normal to receive from a new male friend? Of course I'm not sexist - ladies how many exclamation marks do you believe makes another woman a hysterical pyschopath? Perhaps not the best way of framing that I'm not sexist, but nevermind!! Reply - manly etiquette (or female pyscho fear) demands it!!!!

 

I am not THAT familiar with texing, but I think it depends on what you have written.

 

tl;dr
I voted for the last, because it is shortest.

 

5 short paragraphs each comprising of 4 or less sentences - my my, you are steadfast in your attention span.

 

Avoid using exclamation marks at all. Everything just becomes so silly.

 

Every time I see an exclamation mark, I hear the alert sound from Metal Gear Solid in my head.

 

Well from the responses this is turning into quite the lesson on Manly Etiquette already!!1!!!1!!!!

Any committed player of Metal Gear Solid would have deployed the use of cardboard boxes to avoid situations such as this. Evidently, there's nothing suspicious about a box that moves from place to place seemingly all by itself.

 

OMG!!!shift!!!one!!11

 

I have a habit of not making male friends. It has served me well so far.

 

I don't think exclamation marks can convey sexual orientation. Overuse simply shows poor grammar and impulse control. ZOMG! NEEDS MOAR EXCLAMATION1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111111111111111111!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I correct the person. More than two is pushing it for me. It's this kind of situation and improper use of "than" that gets me.

 

They're not your friends if you have to pay for their time.

 

No I don't, but I'll answer the question the best I can.

The short answer is that one exclamation point is often inappropriate because day-to-day life just isn't that exciting. Recently I sent a technical e-mail to a bunch of coworkers on a specific distribution list. As it happens, there was a reorganization elsewhere in the department and they should have been included on the e-mail as well, but my boss hadn't communicated this to me yet. So I was chastised to everybody on the original distribution and then some for leaving the reorganized chain off of my original e-mail with something to the tune of three exclamation points. My response to this was simply "It was an oversight. Relax." You may notice that my response features no exclamation points.

So any exclamation points are too much. Tell your new boyfriend to relax.

 

I'll make sure my boyfriend gets the message, and then we'll have a long relax together.

Though I posted this up in jest, I am quite surprised to see how strongly people respond to exclamation marks in text. I know there's many places on the internet where they are overused horribly, but regardless it is a valid form of punctuation so surely it's use must be warranted sometimes? Is it really only appropriate to use in times of serious peril or drama like "I got raped!" or "My Dad died!"? If that is the case then that will lead to the exclamation mark getting a bad name and sinister connotations, which no humble jot of punctuation deserves.

 

Short of "I got raped!" what are some other occasions that might warrant an exclamation point?

As it applies to my anecdote, one exclamation mark was too much. I hadn't included people I did not know to include on non-critical correspondence.

Over it: get there.

 

From this moment onward, I shall assume each exclamation mark I stumble upon was preceded with rape.

 

Rape genie? What lamp did you rub?

 

Three exclamation marks is maximum.

Four is off the edge of the map, matey. Arrgh.