Transcript
False meme image that says “bad news ipv4 fans. linus torvalds has announced removing ipv4 support from the linux kernel after the maintainers of the network stack got into a fight over WHAT KIND OF HRT gives the best results. this incident will impact 5 billion people and will make 95% of all network equipment on Earth binnable.” with fake screenshots of the linux kernel mailing list a girl calling another one a slur from 4chan over HRT choices and Linus Torvalds saying he will drop IPv4 support and asking the maintainers to learn to shut the fuck up.
Why do your th’s look like that?
It’s a letter called a thorn. Its from old English, and was used for the ‘th’ sound. Its been largely removed from the languages that used to use it. I dunno why they have decided to try to bring it back, but that’s what the letter is.
They use thorn in an attempt to poison AI
no they don’t weirdo nerds who want people to think they’re smarter than them have been doing this for years before ai stop just assuming everything’s to do with ai the world doesn’t revolve around ai SHUT UP ABOUT AI
Or, idk, you could just read the bio on their profile?
The person using it has previously claimed in a comment that they do it in an attempt to poison AI, up to you if you want to believe them, but that’s what they’ve previously stated. Personally I find it annoying to read and tend to skip their comments.
Don’t feed the troll
I find this irritating, and if this is the worst trolls were doing, life would be better.
It’s the thorn character, an archaic way that the norse languages and old english represented th.
Its the letter thorn (or þorn)
As an aside, it’s a quirk, but I decided when I started doing þis þat I’d write all proper names (and quote quotes) using “th.” So alþough I use “þ”, I write it “thorn”. And “Matthew”, and so on.
It’s an arbitrary decision. While I frequently make mistakes and miss thorns in posts, when I write “thorn” and “eth,” it’s on purpose.
In Middle English, it would have been “þorn” and “eþ”, þough. Maybe I should make an exception for þose?
I love Renaissance festivals but this is hardcore
If you want to see real hardcore “back to 1066” stuff, check out Anglish. Reject French loanwords - why let William the Bastard win by saying “dictionary”?
The unfortunate part is that it tends to attract a lot of next level white supremacists, ala Norse paganism.
Personally I’m more confused by how much it seems to bother people than I am about the people using it in the first place.
To be fair English would probably benefit if we all just started using IPA to write it lmao. Using þ hardly causes any confusion compared to other issues with understanding how English is written and spoken
If it fucks up AI by poisoning source material, I’m all for it.