Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

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[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I feel like fonts and the Oxford comma aren't things that professional writers care about, just people who would like to think that, in another life, they could have been professional writers.

I see a lot of dotcom guys with strong opinions about the Oxford comma, while simultaneously being the type to just have Google Gemini compose all their emails anyway.

Also, justice for Verdana, the great forgotten hero of the early internet age.

 

[prabe]

I feel like fonts and the Oxford comma aren't things that professional writers care about, just people who would like to think that, in another life, they could have been professional writers.

I see a lot of dotcom guys with strong opinions about the Oxford comma, while simultaneously being the type to just have Google Gemini compose all their emails anyway.

Also, justice for Verdana, the great forgotten hero of the early internet age.

I see a lot of professional writers (and editors) take positions on things like fonts and the Oxford comma, but it mostly seems to be ... less than entirely serious. I think they care about them--especially things like the Oxford comma, that are actually stylistic--but I think they're maybe a little less likely to choose them as hills to die on than non-writers think they are, and I think much of the ... posturing they do around them is at least mostly for laughs.

 

[Ryujin]

I feel like fonts and the Oxford comma aren't things that professional writers care about, just people who would like to think that, in another life, they could have been professional writers.

I see a lot of dotcom guys with strong opinions about the Oxford comma, while simultaneously being the type to just have Google Gemini compose all their emails anyway.

Also, justice for Verdana, the great forgotten hero of the early internet age.

As someone whose previous job involved a lot of technical writing I can say, with a fair amount of certainly, that the Oxford Comma is a necessity

 

[overgeeked]

I feel like fonts and the Oxford comma aren't things that professional writers care about, just people who would like to think that, in another life, they could have been professional writers.

You'd be surprised.

 

[Umbran]

I feel like fonts and the Oxford comma aren't things that professional writers care about...

The internet, if it had a desire, would desire you to think that "care" and "argue on the internet about it" were synonymous. But they aren't.

Professional writers choose style modes as needed for their work, and construct sentences with or without the comma to present the meaning they intend. They care without making it a performance on the internet, is all.

 

[payn]

I feel like fonts and the Oxford comma aren't things that professional writers care about, just people who would like to think that, in another life, they could have been professional writers.

I see a lot of dotcom guys with strong opinions about the Oxford comma, while simultaneously being the type to just have Google Gemini compose all their emails anyway.

Also, justice for Verdana, the great forgotten hero of the early internet age.

 

[Richards]

I have a T-shirt that reads, "THE OXFORD COMMA PRESERVATION SOCIETY: Defenders of Tradition, Form, and Clarity" - it was a gift from some friends who know me very well.

I also appreciate the fact that the Courier New font has characters that are all the same width, so that everything lines up. I always fill out my COMSEC (COMmunication SECurity) paperwork at work in Courier New, so that instead of this:

SHORT TITLE 1 EDITION HIJ OCTAL 01234​

SHORT TITLE 2 EDITION WXY OCTAL 56710​

I get this:

SHORT TITLE 1 EDITION HIJ OCTAL 01234​

SHORT TITLE 2 EDITION WXY OCTAL 56710​

It's so much easier to read that way, especially when you have a whole page of COMSEC materials to go through.

Johnathan

 

[Bedrockgames]

I feel like fonts and the Oxford comma aren't things that professional writers care about, just people who would like to think that, in another life, they could have been professional writers.

I share your feelings here. I definitely know writers with strong opinions on both, but I have never understood caring about this kind of minutiae. The only time I worry about fonts is if the font I have selected in a word doc is making it hard to read or if the font in a book is making it hard to read. Honestly though, I think readability is much more about layout details like kerning and margins, than the font in many instances (I picked up a paper back last month and had to switch to the digital version because the way the paragraph was laid out on the page was making it take forever to read).

 

[Umbran]

I always fill out my COMSEC (COMmunication SECurity) paperwork ...

Sure. But do you want to contend that COMSEC paperwork is not Lawful Evil?