2009/11/7 wjhonson@aol.com:
Isn't it however Michael true that a plain text message conveys little to no "tone" I could say the above sentence with anger, with sarcasm, with hope and without emotion at all. You cannot tell how I'm inflecting it, simply by the words. Sometimes or even most-times people will add the tone. Some people's manner of address is direct, and that is read, in an email, by some, as a form of caustic speech I suppose. That doesn't however mean that that is the way it was intended to be understood.
Indeed. My standard advice for people on how to interpret my text-based messages is this: If in doubt, I don't mean any offence. If I want to offend you, I will leave you in no doubt.