Language and the Internet

The language of chatgroups 139

that their accompanying articles will be read. The same point ap-
plies to chatgroup messages. With so much competition for read-
ership, the message which has the intriguing title is the one more
likely to be picked up and responded to. This is another important
difference from the e-mail situation. Both e-mail writers and chat-
group writers look for responses, but whereas the e-mail writer is
surprised if no response arrives (‘Didn’t you get my e-mail?’) the
chatgroup writer is not unduly disturbed if a message fails to elicit
an individual reaction. Chatgroup messages are contributions to
an ongoing discussion. The aim is to influence the discussion, to
correct a misapprehension, to express agreement, to remind people
that you exist, to ‘sound off’, to ‘have your say’. If anyone is minded
to reply specifically, it is a bonus. A lack of reply is not taken person-
ally. Even in those cases where a writer asks a specific question of a
group (‘Does anyone know where I can get.. .?’), the absence of a
reaction probably means only that nobody who read the message
knew. There is no sense of personal responsibility here – unlike that
which obtains in an e-mail situation, where we will respond with
a ‘No’ to such a question, if we do not know, apologise for our lack
of knowledge, and even apologise for the delay in sending the ‘No’
if we have not replied promptly.
The pressure to maintain a practicable route-map of a discussion
means that, even in groups where titles in some groups are prone
to idiosyncrasy and ludic treatment, certain formulae do recur in
titles, focusing on the content of the discussion. Examples include:

Reply/response/reaction to X [where X is the writer or the topic]

Re: X

To X

Agree with X

Disagree with X

Further to 6.16

This last example, citing a previous message number, arises because
this sender was conscious of the screen distance which intervened
between his message and the one he was responding to. Here there
was a concern to keep the message thread going. Not everyone