I've noticed in IMing friends and on Joe here, several people try the rhetorical device of "sarcasm" for their arguments.
I know I cannot possibly be the only person who has noticed this. Sarcasm doesn't work in writing.
We write like we speak and just assume others will read what we write the same way we'd speak it. Not so. In fact, rarely so. Sometimes, we use sarcasm and the other person thinks we're serious. Or thinks we're sarcastic but doesn't want to suffer embarrasment in case we're serious. But also doesn't want to be laughed at for taking us serious. So the point is just dropped awkwardly or responded to in both cases. It's always difficult.
Other times, we dont' use sarcasm, but it's read into what we wrote. Don't you HATE when that happens? Often the sarcasm that's read into what you wrote stains your point with hostility and makes it into something its not. The reader becomes defensive and hostile in return and any chance for an intelligent conversation quickly disinigrates like my dog's rawhide chewtoys.
I propose we initiate some guidelines. Some kind of early warning system letting people know we're using sarcasm. I know it would take the fun out of it, but it would help to clarify things! Make us easier to understand -- and that has to be a communication goal; a communication value that's higher than form itself. Fashion vs. Function.
For future reference, I'm never sarcastic without me saying so when I write. So be sure you read my writing / commentary like a carebear would have said it. It'll make more sense... in some weird way. More on that later.