Things that annoy Andy, number 372 in an occasional series

[andrewducker]

People that use underlining in web pages. 

Underlining means "This is a link, you can click on it, and if clicking on it doesn't work then your browser has probably crashed."

This has, admittedly, removed a method of emphasis from online use, but confusing people further by using a symbol in a way that its new context has redefined is just going to confuse and annoy your audience.  It's the equivalent of using "Gay" to mean "Happy" in a Queer Studies tutorial.

Comments

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Yes, seconded. Complicated by the fact that in lynx, italics are sometimes rendered into underlining...

[andrewducker]

This was basically the reason I started _emphasising_ things like _this_.

Complicated, of course, by the fact that MS Word changes that into italics...

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

MS Word changes that into italics
Only as a default, you can switch it off. Come to think of it, you should be able to supply a user-stylesheet to your browser to render <u> as a dotted underline or something.

[thishardenedarm.livejournal.com]

i like the gay analogy, clever. So _you_ emphasise things like that, is that a convention of one? or internationally recognised. why cant i type _this_ in italics?

[andrewducker]

I've seen a few other people using it, but not often. I started using it when I was using a plain text medium, years ago, and found it handy. But people seem to understand that it's an emphasis just fine.

Amusingly, if I read email that has _some text_ then it comes out as underlined. Probably just a Mozilla thing though.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

God, I *hate* that underscores-mean-italics thing. Google Chat does that too. Stupidest, most counterintuitive convention I've come across all year. _Underline_. /Italics/?!

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

But I like underlining things.

You can make your browser stop showing links in that style, I believe. Also, links show up as a different color to regular underlined text for me.

[andrewducker]

That was, in fact, the next thing I did - alter my style so that links were in a different colour.

Which made your post there slightly more obvious, if slightly less funny :-P

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I'm saddened that you follow the sheep and have underlined links.

Perhaps you should have them in scrolling and blinking text? That would highlight them nicely.

[0olong.livejournal.com]

But that would confuse matters when people want to put things besides links in scrolling blinking text!

[theferrett.livejournal.com]

I keep screaming at my boss and co-workers to not do that. Sometimes, they listen.