The challenge - exclamation mark maintenance

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JBloggs

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Here is the challenge should you wish to take it.
There are many well-known writers who will tell you to stop using exclamation marks! Sadly, like I just did. They say, well they say many things, but in the end we need to stop going crazy with them online.
So, having said all that, I went to a page ABOUT on our website and noticed I had used them, not in overabundance, not more than one (!!!) as I don't do that, but they were there, nonetheless and really where they should not have been. Can I not make a point without one?!
I went in and removed them.
"We aren't granny's house, really we aren't!"
Seriously JB you did not need one there. I had to remove yet another restaurant that closed from our Where to Eat page and while there decided to do some exclamation mark maintenance. My breakfast page was out of control and riddled with exclamation marks, I have large photos and info, what the heck was I thinking.
What say you, are you up for the challenge? Say what you mean and mean what you say and stop overemphasizing everything.
 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!
 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!.
You are awesome !!!! I AGREE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
wink_smile.gif

 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!.
Arks said:
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!
Agreed.
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often. It is not easy to say what you want to say and get the point across in text, that takes skill. I will put full blame on myself from all of you! This forum at times takes me entirely the wrong way so i feel the need to overemphasize, but I will stop doing it, really. I won't even add a smiley or sunglass wearing smiley here to emphasize my light-hearted point.
 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!.
Arks said:
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!
Awesome post!!!!!
 
And while we're at it, can we offer a challenge to the multiple question mark users? Please.Stop.Using.Multiple.Question.Marks. It's annoying. And border line rude-
Thank you.
 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!.
Arks said:
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!
Agreed.
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often. It is not easy to say what you want to say and get the point across in text, that takes skill. I will put full blame on myself from all of you! This forum at times takes me entirely the wrong way so i feel the need to overemphasize, but I will stop doing it, really. I won't even add a smiley or sunglass wearing smiley here to emphasize my light-hearted point.
.
Joey Bloggs said:
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often.
It's hard to get one's personality across in text. We want our place to come across to potential guests as being positive, fun, upbeat, with it, hip, not your granny's house, etc., and that's where it gets tempting to throw in the exclamation points, to show some liveliness. Just have to be careful or we can come across as hyper.
 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!.
Arks said:
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!
Agreed.
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often. It is not easy to say what you want to say and get the point across in text, that takes skill. I will put full blame on myself from all of you! This forum at times takes me entirely the wrong way so i feel the need to overemphasize, but I will stop doing it, really. I won't even add a smiley or sunglass wearing smiley here to emphasize my light-hearted point.
.
Joey Bloggs said:
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often.
It's hard to get one's personality across in text. We want our place to come across to potential guests as being positive, fun, upbeat, with it, hip, not your granny's house, etc., and that's where it gets tempting to throw in the exclamation points, to show some liveliness. Just have to be careful or we can come across as hyper.
.
Arks said:
Joey Bloggs said:
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often.
It's hard to get one's personality across in text (JB - -THOSE WHO ARE NOT WRITERS, AS WRITERS HAVE WHAT THEY CALL A VOICE, WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY EACH ONE IMMEDIATELY. WE TEND TO NOT USE IT TO OUR ADVANTAGE ME THINKS). We want our place to come across to potential guests as being positive, fun, upbeat, with it, hip, not your granny's house, etc., and that's where it gets tempting to throw in the exclamation points, to show some liveliness. Just have to be careful or we can come across as hyper.
This is true.
When I use them I really am being upbeat. But I think it is a crutch. I think a writer's crutch when I don't want to be too wordy, I toss one in.
I will add, that I have met innkeepers who are not upbeat and positive, who don't smile, who aren't welcoming, and cheerful to their guests. It is a strange phenomena and our guests comment on it all the time, could be because they don't see upbeat positive fun in this business very often either.
Our B&Bs and our lives are stories we tell, people may never recall the name of the inn or the town but they will remember the experience. That is what it is all about!
 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!.
Arks said:
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!
Agreed.
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often. It is not easy to say what you want to say and get the point across in text, that takes skill. I will put full blame on myself from all of you! This forum at times takes me entirely the wrong way so i feel the need to overemphasize, but I will stop doing it, really. I won't even add a smiley or sunglass wearing smiley here to emphasize my light-hearted point.
.
Joey Bloggs said:
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often.
It's hard to get one's personality across in text. We want our place to come across to potential guests as being positive, fun, upbeat, with it, hip, not your granny's house, etc., and that's where it gets tempting to throw in the exclamation points, to show some liveliness. Just have to be careful or we can come across as hyper.
.
Arks said:
Joey Bloggs said:
I thought I was careful with them, but looking over some pages I see yes I was careful, but added them in on at least every other paragraph which is too often.
It's hard to get one's personality across in text (JB - -THOSE WHO ARE NOT WRITERS, AS WRITERS HAVE WHAT THEY CALL A VOICE, WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY EACH ONE IMMEDIATELY. WE TEND TO NOT USE IT TO OUR ADVANTAGE ME THINKS). We want our place to come across to potential guests as being positive, fun, upbeat, with it, hip, not your granny's house, etc., and that's where it gets tempting to throw in the exclamation points, to show some liveliness. Just have to be careful or we can come across as hyper.
This is true.
When I use them I really am being upbeat. But I think it is a crutch. I think a writer's crutch when I don't want to be too wordy, I toss one in.
I will add, that I have met innkeepers who are not upbeat and positive, who don't smile, who aren't welcoming, and cheerful to their guests. It is a strange phenomena and our guests comment on it all the time, could be because they don't see upbeat positive fun in this business very often either.
Our B&Bs and our lives are stories we tell, people may never recall the name of the inn or the town but they will remember the experience. That is what it is all about!
.
Joey Bloggs said:
Our B&Bs and our lives are stories we tell, people may never recall the name of the inn or the town but they will remember the experience. That is what it is all about!
How many times has a guest told us a wonderful story about a great breakfast or the perfect bed but cannot remember the name of the place?
But, they sure do remember the place they were treated poorly because they don't want to go back there.
 
And while we're at it, can we offer a challenge to the multiple question mark users? Please.Stop.Using.Multiple.Question.Marks. It's annoying. And border line rude-
Thank you..
Question marks???? Really?????
devil_smile.gif

 
I can make no promises on this
embaressed_smile.gif
as I am explanation mark happy.

However I did look on our website and surprisingly enough only found one on our home page and same very few others throughout the main pages of the site so not so bad where it counts. (caught myself from adding one here, lol)
Now for full disclosure, DH does our website. I provide the copy and he does the work. I have no idea how many ! he eliminated in the process.
wink_smile.gif
 
i suppose this applies to email newsletters as well. people love love love to use multiple exclamation points in their submissions to the weekly emails and monthly newsletters i put together. i delete most - leave one or two. it just grates on me and i'm glad to have some backup.
i get a lot of sentences from contributors that read like this:
DON'T YOU???!!!!
ugh. bold face, all caps, with lots of question marks and exclamation points. i refuse to send out things like that.
now ... i personally have this awful habit of not using capital letters in personal correspondence. (as you see). do you suppose it's psychological? a sort of rebellion against all the proofreading and editing i have to do in the real world? or maybe it's just proof of my own crazy.
shades_smile.gif
 
i suppose this applies to email newsletters as well. people love love love to use multiple exclamation points in their submissions to the weekly emails and monthly newsletters i put together. i delete most - leave one or two. it just grates on me and i'm glad to have some backup.
i get a lot of sentences from contributors that read like this:
DON'T YOU???!!!!
ugh. bold face, all caps, with lots of question marks and exclamation points. i refuse to send out things like that.
now ... i personally have this awful habit of not using capital letters in personal correspondence. (as you see). do you suppose it's psychological? a sort of rebellion against all the proofreading and editing i have to do in the real world? or maybe it's just proof of my own crazy.
shades_smile.gif
.
seashanty said:
now ... i personally have this awful habit of not using capital letters in personal correspondence. (as you see). do you suppose it's psychological? a sort of rebellion against all the proofreading and editing i have to do in the real world? or maybe it's just proof of my own crazy.
shades_smile.gif
SS. I equate your lack of caps to being soft spoken, proper and polite. I have a mental image of many of my forum buddies and am wrong as often as I'm right when I meet them in person.
 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!.
I think we agreed that "gourmet" is another adjective that is overused. I have seen "gourmet popcorn".
 
i suppose this applies to email newsletters as well. people love love love to use multiple exclamation points in their submissions to the weekly emails and monthly newsletters i put together. i delete most - leave one or two. it just grates on me and i'm glad to have some backup.
i get a lot of sentences from contributors that read like this:
DON'T YOU???!!!!
ugh. bold face, all caps, with lots of question marks and exclamation points. i refuse to send out things like that.
now ... i personally have this awful habit of not using capital letters in personal correspondence. (as you see). do you suppose it's psychological? a sort of rebellion against all the proofreading and editing i have to do in the real world? or maybe it's just proof of my own crazy.
shades_smile.gif
.
when I don't use caps, it's pure laziness. easier not to. funny, eh?
 
As with words like tremendous and awesome, exclamation points are overused by many people. They should be used rarely and only after giving it a tremendous, awesome amount of thought!.
I think we agreed that "gourmet" is another adjective that is overused. I have seen "gourmet popcorn".
.
Tom said:
I have seen "gourmet popcorn".
I believe when it's gourmet, they call it popping corn ;-)
 
One on my homepage, with the title. But it's exciting!

One on my breakfast page. But it's so great!
And one on my weddings page. Hey! What's more exciting than a wedding!?!?!?!
 
One on my homepage, with the title. But it's exciting!

One on my breakfast page. But it's so great!
And one on my weddings page. Hey! What's more exciting than a wedding!?!?!?!.
None on the basic pages. Probably a few dozen in the gallery.
 
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