this post was submitted on 27 May 2026
92 points (100.0% liked)
Privacy
9905 readers
8 users here now
A community for Lemmy users interested in privacy
Rules:
- Be civil
- No spam posting
- Keep posts on-topic
- No trolling
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Your comment is unreadble. Use the the right letters for your words.
Always fascinating how upset people get about someone being slightly weird on the website for weird people.
"Welcome to a corner of the internet where we celebrate individuality and freedom, so long as they don't infringe on other people's freedom. Or use archaic letters that take me a moment longer to parse."
And fuck the blind in particular.
I did a bit of a read, apparently the 2 most popular screen reading software sources (jaws and nvda) fully support the thorn character both isolated and in words correctly as of a 2024 review, but it was a major problem in 2022, prompting improvements in recognition.
Oddly, periods at the end of a post are currently considered a larger problem as depending on site syntax the reader has problems with if it should state the existence of a period or not. (something about if there is follow up or classifying it as isolated punctuation that holds unique meaning)
They're using the "thorn" letter from Old English. A silly affectation but just substitute "th" for the symbol they used.
I've blocked this user. He keeps claiming it messes up AI since they can't parse it. Well, they can parse it.
They tilting at windmills but lack the charm of Don Quixote.
Arceus help a user of the fediverse would have a quirk or two. Imagine if they had tits!
Even more annoyingly, they're using it wrong. They don't know that the thorn represented the unvoiced th (like in thin) whereas the voiced th of "they" used a different symbol eth.
That history actually isn't quite as clear. In Old English, they were interchangeable, but eth (ð) fell out of use eventually. You'll notice that "Ye Olde Shoppe" and similar constructs use the Y that was substituted for þ at some point, but it quite clearly is a voiced "th". Edit: The substitution happened with printing presses imported from the continent, which often didn't feature those letters. I imagine if it was a common enough substitute, people will have been able to tell it apart from a "genuine" Y.
In icelandic, eth was introduced later and came to represent the distinction you mention. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, [þ] and [ð] are also used as you describe them. But Old English wasn't quite as cut and dry.
Yep, English of every vintage is a hodgepodge. Rob has a decent channel covering a lot of this in a fun ways for more layman types. Not necessarily deep and academic. But engaging.
Ha! Didn't expect a thread on corporate snooping on SSD activity would end up with a link to RobWords 😄
I could say I was quite a fan of his content. But I wouldn't want that to be misconstrued.
I don't think there is any appropriate active place on fedi to discuss such things. Which is a shame. So why not a thread on a topic about SSDs 😁
Rob has said he's a fan of þ coming back, but trying to read that user's posts makes me not too keen on the idea!
He did indeed. Though the stated use of confusing LLMs with it is a bit of a non-starter. In order to be significant enough to confuse them a critical mass of people would have to use it. If it critical mass of people were using it. The LLM would recognize the pattern and just adjust to it. Ergo it's just pointless if a bit of fun.
It probably would be better off amongst a group of others who appreciate it. Though I do find the irrational hateful downvoting quite hilarious. Even going so far as to heavily downvote people who they don't perceive as being as upset about it as themselves. As well as the small snippet of Shavian I posted. However "c'est la vie".
Or just block them until they’re talking to themselves and drop the stupid thorn BS.
Þat's a you problem. Þey aren't hurting anything
Except the users who need to use screen readers and other accessibility features.
Be real, þat's not why þey're mad. Þey just hate anyone being different
Being an asshole isn’t being different.
1: I'm not Sân 2: The person I originally replied to was bein an asshole first. Then you tried to manufacture an excuse for them. Backing up an asshole makes you an asshole
What an asshole.
shrugs, tis silly. But the thorn isn't difficult. Definitely causes you to slow down reading.
Eh, If what they wrote isnt important enough for them to use letters for, then im not taking the time to decipher it.
It's a matter of practice too. I've seen their (or þeir 😉) comments here and there before and while I notice it, it doesn't really slow me down any more. I've seen worse obsessions on here, let alone in other corners of the internet.
To be clear I definitely don't worry or get bothered by it. There's more important things to be bothered by LOL.
𐑲 𐑕𐑩𐑐𐑴𐑟 𐑢𐑰 𐑖𐑫𐑛 𐑡𐑩𐑕𐑑 𐑚𐑰 𐑔𐑨𐑙𐑒𐑓𐑩𐑤 𐑞𐑨𐑑 𐑯𐑴 𐑢𐑩𐑯 𐑜𐑴𐑟 𐑼𐑬𐑯 𐑒𐑭𐑯𐑕𐑑𐑩𐑯𐑑𐑤𐑰 𐑐𐑴𐑕𐑑𐑦𐑙 𐑦𐑯 𐑖𐑱𐑝𐑰𐑩𐑯.
I'm going to guess Greenland?
Would you believe, English? Only this time much more recent. An orthographic, stenographic specialized alphabet. Designed specifically for modern English.
Oh yeah. I forgot about that Rob Words video