Hi, English isn’t my mother tongue so I was asking myself that question since I first encounted a w/… Back then I was like: “What tf does ‘w slash’ stand for?” And when I found out I was like “How, why, and is it any intuitive?” But I never dared to ask that until now

  • ekky43@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    w/ appears to have origin in the food industry some 70 years ago (according to this question).

    To me it makes sense, as I first encountered it in video games where abbreviations, acronyms, and text-saving-slang are commonplace. Furthermore, while abbreviations usually have multiple letters (in written text, not physical or mathematical equations), single letter abbreviations can quickly become confusing, so I belive that this is the reason for putting a slash behind it, or possibly a bar above it.

    RANT: While I know that language changes all the time, I find it very unfortunate that this little fellow o/ and possibly his slightly more formal friend o7 have become synonymous with “nazi salute”. First off, it’s the wrong arm! And second off, what do you have against “man waving” and “man saluting”?

    It must be very confusing for someone who uses this newer definition of o/ to visit the Elite:Dangerous forums.

    EDIT: I’m very happy that I apparently am the only one who has met people who don’t know the real meaning of o/ and o7. I feared that this was a widespread problem, but luckily it appears that I simply am a worrywart.

    • V17@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      RANT: While I know that language changes all the time, I find it very unfortunate that this little fellow o/ and possibly his slightly more formal friend o7 have become synonymous with “nazi salute”. First off, it’s the wrong arm! And second off, what do you have against “man waving” and “man saluting”?

      Have they really? Never seen o7 used that way, with o/ it’s more understandable, but since one can easily just use \o (or use an actual unicode swastika) I just don’t see it getting that controversial. Seems even less known than the triple parentheses thing, which is something that most people who don’t spend their lives on the internet never heard about.

    • Magickmaster@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      First time hearing o7 as ‘nazi salute’, I only know it as a ‘military/captain’s salute’ out of Eve Online, Elite and some milsim games

    • HerbalGamer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      RANT: While I know that language changes all the time, I find it very unfortunate that this little fellow o/ and possibly his slightly more formal friend o7 have become synonymous with “nazi heil”. First off, it’s the wrong arm! And second off, what do you have against “man waving” and “man saluting”.

      Never heard that but thanks for reporting o7

      • ekky43@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Perhaps (hopefully) i just encountered some folks who just assumed something, and that it’s not actually becoming a trend.

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      It must be very confusing for someone who uses this newer definition of o/ to visit the Elite:Dangerous forums.

      EVE online players have done the o7 salute for decades. And while I’ll gladly admit that every single longtime EVE player is at least something of an asshole (it’s a requirement to really enjoy the game) I doubt the majority are cryptofascists.

      • bilboswaggings@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        o7 is pretty popular on twitch, since you can use it in any chat without having a subscription

        So it isn’t going anywhere yet

    • Zyratoxx@lemmy.worldOP
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      1 year ago

      Oh alright, thanks for your input. I never actually saw anyone using o/ and o7 but I wouldn’t have thought of them as nazi code. ^^