When you're reading an @ message do you pronounce the @?

It took me the longest time to stop mentally pronouncing it. Flutter was the only place where I encountered this and it was weird and hard to get used to :)

I do.

I do. Here and on FB.

When I read, I would not bother.

Yes, most of the time, it’s a rote thing.

I just wish there was a user named @tw @.

On this site, I tend to think of it as either standing in for “Dear,” or “Shithead,” lmfao. It’s usually pretty clear which is intended!

Reading out loud? Of course not. Reading to myself? I note the @. I think it, too.

Yes, I hear the @ in my mind.

I read it with the @ in my head. I don’t really know why I do that. I just always have. However, I do NOT use that symbol when I’m conversing with others. I’m not an illiterate. I can spell. I don’t need to use the lazy short cuts. :o

This question just made me realize that I do but only in my head lol

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I do pronounce the @ sign in my head, even when it makes no sense in context.
text art is fun ☺

I think of the ampersand (@) name, on Fluther as meaning “attention” name. I know it’s ‘at’, but I don’t think of it that way. ? ?

I read it in my head. I would not read it out loud.

What really really annoys me is when TV hosts are reading tweets sent byothers out load and they are constantly reading it with “AT” as if it’s part of the users name.

It sounds so ridiculous, as if everybody on the Internet has the @ symbol as part of their username.

Who started this thing in the first place? It makes no sense at all.

I read it in my head as “at”, but I wouldn;t reald it out loud (except when the @ is part of an email address)

@Buttonstc – it started on Twitter where it’s used the same as it is here; to indicate that that you’re directing your comment AT someone in particular.

…actually I wonder if it started pre-Twitter. Usenet maybe?

Well, I get that part that it’s used when you’re addressing someone.

But now it’s being used to indicate a person whos addressing everyone else and acting as if it’s an integral part of their name. THAT’S the part that makes no sense to me at all.

And even here on Fluther, if you are addressing your comments as a follow up to what someone says, that’s perfectly appropriate.

But there are many times when you are referring to someone else mid sentence (as in, “I agree with what ___________ said” ) where it makes absolutely no sense at all to precede their name with @ as if it were an integral part of their name.

Addressing someone fine. Makes sense. Referring to them in the third person or quoting them (as when tweets are read put loud on TV) it makes no sense at all.

Jimmy Fallon does it all the time and it just sounds so ridiculous. You know perfectly well what the persons screen name is. STOP reading @ in front of it like it’s part of their name JUST BECAUSE Twitter insists on printing it that way.

Everybody does NOT have @ as their first name even tho you make it sound that way :)

@downtide:

See what I mean?

Ashleigh asked an interesting Q. But since I’m not addressing her but referring to her in the third person, it makes no sense to precede her name with @. (as everyone on Fluther does routinely)

Except then it doesn’t show up in red :)

The very first time I encountered this on Fluther in the middle of a sentence, it was just the weirdest thing I had ever seen in my life LOL

I did get the hang of it but it STILL makes little sense even tho I do it too. Ya know, when in Rome…....etc.

Yes, I pronounce it as “at”.

I do pronounce it in my head as “at.”

@Sunny2 An ampersand is the “and” symbol (&), not the “at” symbol. There is no word for @.

When it’s other member’s names I do, but when I see my own name, I don’t read it as “at.”

No, I just pronounce the name. There are many times that I don’t even bother using the @. It depends on my mood.

As I’m operating my computer by voice, I have to say ”@”.

In my head I for ”@JoeJaneDoe” I say “at J whatever the rest is.”

Because in real life I’m bad with names and on Fluther I am too. And if your name has another association in my mind, in my mind instead of your name I go “at funny, everyone else angry making troll-ol-lul-er.” (Or whatever association you have in my mind.)

@Buttonstc Ah, but doing it here has another purpose, besides just being in red. It actually is a link to the last thing that person said, too. Saying “I agree with @so-an-so” is a pointer to what you’re agreeing with, so it makes sense to do that even if you’re not directing your comment to that person.

Oh, that’s interesting. I never knew that.

Well, at least that makes more sense now. I just thought the guys did that cuz that’s what Twitter does and it’s just kind of creeping into everything. It’s ubiquitous.

So what does it do if you’re just referencing the other user in the third person generally without referring to anything specific they said?

For example: when letting the thread know that a person has just deleted their acct. when it says @___________ has left the building.

What does it link to then? The deleted acct page?

Anyhow, the whole thing is still kinda weird to me.

And it’s made even worse by Tv hosts saying it as if it’s part of the SN when reading tweets aloud. Even Anderson Cooper does it and he’s a serious journalist who should know better. It just SOUNDS so wrong somehow We don’t refer to people in normal conversatin that way.

But, thanks for the info about Fluther. Learn something new everyday :)

I mistakenly pronounce it ampersand out loud, even though an ampersand is really the &.

I don’t know why, ampersand Ashleigh.

@Buttonstc It still links back to the last thing the person said in the thread. I’d never remember not to use the @ sign at this point, in those rare instances.

@augustlan Whoa!!! I didn’t know it did that link you back to the person’s last post. That’s pretty cool…you do learn something new every day, huh! :)

i say ‘at’.