Comedic "things you would ban": minor things that irritate you

[Merle Haggard]

Well, opinions differ. Certainly the teachers I know (including the Heads of three large secondary schools, all rated Outstanding) have the same opinion as me.

But you are quite right about this forum’s strength, ie someone having experience of something for years, and someone else comes along and tells you that you‘re wrong!

I know that feeling after a career (is that the right word?) spent on the railways and I make clear (I hope) the difference in my comments between when I'm absolutely certain from first hand experience and when it's just an impression - but now I don't bother to comment further when the former is disbelieved, just ends up in ping-pong, I've done my best.

 

[Richard Scott]

Well, opinions differ. Certainly the teachers I know (including the Heads of three large secondary schools, all rated Outstanding) have the same opinion as me.

But you are quite right about this forum’s strength, ie someone having experience of something for years, and someone else comes along and tells you that you‘re wrong!

My years of experience tell me that moving the bank holiday to October would be more beneficial, I'd be very surprised if anyone in education disagrees.
The other plus is first half of Autumn term is incredibly long and an extra day removed from it would be better than the one I the, usually, short half term from Easter until end of May.

 

[35B]

My years of experience tell me that moving the bank holiday to October would be more beneficial, I'd be very surprised if anyone in education disagrees.
The other plus is first half of Autumn term is incredibly long and an extra day removed from it would be better than the one I the, usually, short half term from Easter until end of May.

With respect, that is a rather different case than that the day in May is critical to exam candidates. It's also one that many could get behind given the burden of the long autumn term.

 

[GusB]

My years of experience tell me that moving the bank holiday to October would be more beneficial, I'd be very surprised if anyone in education disagrees.
The other plus is first half of Autumn term is incredibly long and an extra day removed from it would be better than the one I the, usually, short half term from Easter until end of May.

In my experience, having gone to school and studied for exams, I can say that a single day wouldn't have made any difference. By that time most coursework had been completed.

Your experience is just that - your own experience. It's not so much a case of telling you that you're wrong, merely the experience of others may differ.

 

[rmHawk765]

That is absolute rubbish, sorry.

The primary concern of schools is the safety and wellbeing of those who are enrolled.

It should be, currently it isn't. I could go on a long ramble about this but it's not the purpose of the thread, let's stay on topic.

 

[KT550]

In some cafes, (generally slightly hipster type places) rather than displaying the price of something as say £5.50, they'd say 5.5. Just 5.5. This hacks me off more than it should.

Travellers-Fare had their own version of pretentious pricing back in the 1980s, ditching the pound sign and decimal point on their menus.

Bacon, Egg and Tomato for 123p

Thanks to @YesterdaysBrit1 on X.com for the image.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Travellers-Fare had their own version of pretentious pricing back in the 1980s, ditching the pound sign and decimal point on their menus.

Bacon, Egg and Tomato for 123p

Thanks for that. A real blast from the past. The days before almost everything gets rounded up to the nearest 5p or 10p above?! Still much better than pricing something as 2.5 though.

 

[The exile]

Travellers-Fare had their own version of pretentious pricing back in the 1980s, ditching the pound sign and decimal point on their menus.

Would suggest that that was more a practical attempt at consistency when for most items prices were still under £1. The alternative would have been displaying preserves at £0.09. I don’t like it though!

 

[gg1]

Travellers-Fare had their own version of pretentious pricing back in the 1980s, ditching the pound sign and decimal point on their menus.

Bacon, Egg and Tomato for 123p

They missed a trick there in not pricing it at 125p

 

[The exile]

They missed a trick there in not pricing it at 125p

Don’t think that was an HST menu; so nothing more than 100p / 95p.

 

[Statto]

Those who reply to others & start there reply, with respect, i stop reading the rest of the reply right there & then, as i find that highly patronizing & condescending.

 

[Strat-tastic]

People from appearing to finish their post but starting another paragraph with 'Oh, and...'

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Those who reply to others & start there reply, with respect, i stop reading the rest of the reply right there & then, as i find that highly patronizing & condescending.

With respect, that should have read "...their reply..." And yes, me pointing that out is both patronizing & condescending. Apologies!

 

[pokemonsuper9]

When people just start a direct message conversation with just "hi".
I know you need something, just type the whole message and sent it instead of making me wait.

 

[Techniquest]

When people just start a direct message conversation with just "hi".
I know you need something, just type the whole message and sent it instead of making me wait.

Ooh I feel similar, makes one really annoyed. I feel like that with things like ‘can I ask you something?’ - you already have - or people who start a conversation out of the blue with ‘so’. Just no, go away. Speak properly or just leave me alone.

I’m in a bit of a moaning mood it appears, so here’s another:

- Drivers who moan, loudly, about other drivers when their own driving is, by their own admission, not amazing.

- Similarly, drivers who complain about other road users

- People who use swear words as if they were perfectly normal words. Instant loss of trust, faith and such like in them. Especially when it comes to the big swears, which obviously I’m not going to use here. I’d imagine most people will know what sort of words I mean there.

- People trying to be clever or just intentionally annoying by either removing signage or moving it into the wrong position.

- The sort of people who haven’t worked out how to use headphones when playing social media and/or music when out and about.

- People who end a sentence with three full stops, or more than 3, which really annoys me as there’s no follow up or obvious explanation as to why there’s 3 full stops! There are *far* too many people on this forum who do it!

Finally for now:

- Supposedly being in a city centre where 5G is available but even 4G fails to load anything. Not even slightly bitter about how useless Vodafone is in my home city, not even a little!

 

[Statto]

Another thing i find annoying, those that sign off there own posts, why, when we can see who posted on the left side of the screen.

 

[Gloster]

Ooh I feel similar, makes one really annoyed. I feel like that with things like ‘can I ask you something?’ - you already have - or people who start a conversation out of the blue with ‘so’. Just no, go away. Speak properly or just leave me alone.

I’m in a bit of a moaning mood it appears, so here’s another:

- Drivers who moan, loudly, about other drivers when their own driving is, by their own admission, not amazing.

- Similarly, drivers who complain about other road users

- People who use swear words as if they were perfectly normal words. Instant loss of trust, faith and such like in them. Especially when it comes to the big swears, which obviously I’m not going to use here. I’d imagine most people will know what sort of words I mean there.

- People trying to be clever or just intentionally annoying by either removing signage or moving it into the wrong position.

- The sort of people who haven’t worked out how to use headphones when playing social media and/or music when out and about.

- People who end a sentence with three full stops, or more than 3, which really annoys me as there’s no follow up or obvious explanation as to why there’s 3 full stops! There are *far* too many people on this forum who do it!

Finally for now:

- Supposedly being in a city centre where 5G is available but even 4G fails to load anything. Not even slightly bitter about how useless Vodafone is in my home city, not even a little!

Regarding three full stops, which I use a lot. Firstly, it should be three, not two or four. It is a way of indicating a deliberate tailing off of an argument or conversation, often reported, rather than the writer having run out of steam. Or it can be a ‘fill in the rest of this sentence according to your personal preference or prejudice’ indication. Or it can be a deliberate indication of a pause for effect. They can also indicate an interruption in or omission from a quote.

 

[Purple Train]

Regarding three full stops, which I use a lot. Firstly, it should be three, not two or four. It is a way of indicating a deliberate tailing off of an argument or conversation, often reported, rather than the writer having run out of steam. Or it can be a ‘fill in the rest of this sentence according to your personal preference or prejudice’ indication. Or it can be a deliberate indication of a pause for effect. They can also indicate an interruption in or omission from a quote.

As someone else who is guilty as charged, I quite agree with all points raised. As a child of the texting age, peer pressure has taught me that one shouldn't end a text message with a full stop unless one is trying to be sarcastic or serious. It is a difficult habit to get out of.

I'd also like to ban signs or emails such as "polite notice" (this is particularly annoying) or "friendly reminder" - er, no, I decide whether or not you're being polite, friendly or gentle etc. based on the wording of your message, it's not a magic word that lets you mark your own homework and pretend you're being nice when you aren't!

 

[gg1]

When people just start a direct message conversation with just "hi".
I know you need something, just type the whole message and sent it instead of making me wait.

Yes!

Someone in my team at work has the annoying habit of doing that.

 

[Techniquest]

Regarding three full stops, which I use a lot. Firstly, it should be three, not two or four. It is a way of indicating a deliberate tailing off of an argument or conversation, often reported, rather than the writer having run out of steam. Or it can be a ‘fill in the rest of this sentence according to your personal preference or prejudice’ indication. Or it can be a deliberate indication of a pause for effect. They can also indicate an interruption in or omission from a quote.

Not seen it from that point of view before, interesting. I’ll have to try and be more open about three full stops!

 

[Bald Rick]

People who use swear words as if they were perfectly normal words. Instant loss of trust, faith and such like in them. Especially when it comes to the big swears, which obviously I’m not going to use here. I’d imagine most people will know what sort of words I mean there.

Swearing is an interesting subject, not least because of the question “who has decided a word is swearing?”

Just within this country there are some fundamental differences in cultures re swearing, depending on geography, “class”, job, even what school you went to. And selective use of swear words can have quite an impact.

Besides, at the end of the day, in my opinion sometimes swearing is f*****g fun…

 

[The exile]

Yes!

Someone in my team at work has the annoying habit of doing that.

If I do it it’s usually because I need an answer from someone quickly and I want to see if the person I’m contacting is actually responding to messages before I waste time explaining what I need to someone who won’t be in a position to do it for an hour or so.

 

[styles]

When people just start a direct message conversation with just "hi".
I know you need something, just type the whole message and sent it instead of making me wait.

Agreed.

I also can't be arsed with all of the, what Jamie McDonald would call, "f'ing Oxbridge pleasantries", in emails, etc.

"Dear John,

I went to use the printer on B floor today and it says it has run out of ink. Please could you order a new colour ink cartridge?

Best wishes,

P"

Look, your name is Phil. What are you doing with the time it's saved you typing the last 3 letters of you name? Oh that's right, you've spent it on making your email sound like a paragraph out of a Jane Austen novel.

Can't the message just me, "Hi Phil, could you order some more colour ink for the B floor printer please? Thanks!"

 

[35B]

Agreed.

I also can't be arsed with all of the, what Jamie McDonald would call, "f'ing Oxbridge pleasantries", in emails, etc.

"Dear John,

I went to use the printer on B floor today and it says it has run out of ink. Please could you order a new colour ink cartridge?

Best wishes,

P"

Look, your name is Phil. What are you doing with the time it's saved you typing the last 3 letters of you name? Oh that's right, you've spent it on making your email sound like a paragraph out of a Jane Austen novel.

Can't the message just me, "Hi Phil, could you order some more colour ink for the B floor printer please? Thanks!"

For me, that's the difference between email and IM messaging.

When people just start a direct message conversation with just "hi".
I know you need something, just type the whole message and sent it instead of making me wait.

Absolutely - but even worse are those with automessages that say "please just come out with it" in more flowery language.

 

[gg1]

If I do it it’s usually because I need an answer from someone quickly and I want to see if the person I’m contacting is actually responding to messages before I waste time explaining what I need to someone who won’t be in a position to do it for an hour or so.

If it's a fairly long winded question, in those circumstance I'd start with something along the lines of "Hi, are you available atm, I've an urgent query about X"

The person I referred to in my last comment does it for every teams message, regardless of urgency or subject.

 

[The exile]

Agreed.

I also can't be arsed with all of the, what Jamie McDonald would call, "f'ing Oxbridge pleasantries", in emails, etc.

"Dear John,

I went to use the printer on B floor today and it says it has run out of ink. Please could you order a new colour ink cartridge?

Best wishes,

P"

Look, your name is Phil. What are you doing with the time it's saved you typing the last 3 letters of you name? Oh that's right, you've spent it on making your email sound like a paragraph out of a Jane Austen novel.

Can't the message just me, "Hi Phil, could you order some more colour ink for the B floor printer please? Thanks!"

The difference is that the first makes it clear that there is no ink now, rather than that I’ve just put in the last spare cartridge so we’re going to run out in a couple of weeks. Ok - there are other ways of doing it, but the first does at least explain the background.

 

[styles]

The difference is that the first makes it clear that there is no ink now, rather than that I’ve just put in the last spare cartridge so we’re going to run out in a couple of weeks. Ok - there are other ways of doing it, but the first does at least explain the background.

You're right. I'll expand my second option to, "Hi Phil, could you order some more colour ink for the B floor printer please? It's run out. Thanks!"

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I'd also like to ban signs or emails such as "polite notice" (this is particularly annoying)

The reason they do this one is they hope people read it very quickly and think it says "Police notice"

 

[Brightonboy]

Things to ban - electronic menu boards in fast food retail premises (e.g. Costa or KFC) that continually change to showing adverts for specific items or just general 'feel good' images. I want to read the d**n menu because I don't frequent such premises often enough to know what I want to order without looking. The changes mean I have stand there waiting for the menu to reappear thereby delaying me and others from placing our orders. It slows down my 'fast food' unnecessarily! Grrrrr

 

[daveo]

Things to ban - electronic menu boards in fast food retail premises (e.g. Costa or KFC) that continually change to showing adverts for specific items or just general 'feel good' images. I want to read the d**n menu because I don't frequent such premises often enough to know what I want to order without looking. The changes mean I have stand there waiting for the menu to reappear thereby delaying me and others from placing our orders. It slows down my 'fast food' unnecessarily! Grrrrr

Why not check their menu online before your visit, then you're prepared? (Also for a restaurant).