Interacting With Me

I am autistic and neurodivergent, so I often misinterpret social cues and tacit communications! I may find it difficult to tell that you are making a joke, or whether someone is angry. Additionally, I have Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and partial/sporadic hearing loss, which makes it hard for me to understand spoken words, especially with background noise or multiple speakers.

For these reasons, please be patient with me! Some things I say may hurt or offend you, but know that I am usually unaware of why or how and most likely did not mean to. I encourage you to tell me if I do, and if you want, why it hurts or offends you, so I can learn from it. Of course, you don't have to, but I hope that you can give me a chance to clear things up if I ever do.

Also, please respect my personal boundaries!

Tone Markers

Because I struggle with reading tone and intent, I find tone markers to be a helpful aid in conversation, and make frequent use of a fixed set of them. I don't demand that everyone use them, but I appreciate anyone who does!

List of tone markers I use:
/j (joking): I am trying to make a joke (general).
/s (sarcasm): I am making an untrue statement to highlight the opposite for emphatic or humorous effect.
/lh (light-hearted): I may believe the statement to be true, but communicating that I do is not my main intent.
/srs (serious): Does not indicate anger. The opposite of /lh; said because I affirm its content and want others to engage with it meaningfully.
/genq (genuine question): I am asking a question in earnest, not as a joke or insult.
others: If I find it necessary to indicate something else, I often spell it out: e.g. "/not mad".

These tone markers sit at the end of a message to make the tone and intent of the speaker explicit. Minimally, they indicate that the speaker believes there may be a chance of misinterpretation even if the marker used is not known to the reader. Please do not misuse them! It is not funny to indicate something is "/srs" when it is not, as it only creates confusion and distrust.