[...] many LW users seem to have a poorly calibrated sarcasm detector. A recent example [...]
I’m not sure I would describe fubarobfusco’s comment as sarcastic, and I am not at all convinced that the reason why it was at −2 for a while was that early readers didn’t understand that fubarobfusco wasn’t literally claiming that typical modern office environments involve being “crammed up against other people with nothing to do” like cattle on a farm. I think it’s more likely just that a couple of the first people to see the comment happened not to find it very funny—which is perfectly consistent with understanding it.
(I did understand it, didn’t find it terribly funny, and didn’t vote on it in either direction.)
DanielLC’s comment indicates he at least didn’t get the joke. And if people downvote every time they don’t laugh, that’s a great way to encourage people to not make jokes.
I don’t think DanielLC’s comment does indicate that. (It could. But I know that for a variety of reasons I have sometimes chosen to treat comic exaggerations at face value despite understanding that they are intended as comic exaggerations, and I don’t see any reason to suppose that no one else ever does that.)
I’m not sure I would describe fubarobfusco’s comment as sarcastic, and I am not at all convinced that the reason why it was at −2 for a while was that early readers didn’t understand that fubarobfusco wasn’t literally claiming that typical modern office environments involve being “crammed up against other people with nothing to do” like cattle on a farm. I think it’s more likely just that a couple of the first people to see the comment happened not to find it very funny—which is perfectly consistent with understanding it.
(I did understand it, didn’t find it terribly funny, and didn’t vote on it in either direction.)
DanielLC’s comment indicates he at least didn’t get the joke. And if people downvote every time they don’t laugh, that’s a great way to encourage people to not make jokes.
I don’t think DanielLC’s comment does indicate that. (It could. But I know that for a variety of reasons I have sometimes chosen to treat comic exaggerations at face value despite understanding that they are intended as comic exaggerations, and I don’t see any reason to suppose that no one else ever does that.)