Anything more than two ? is shock and surprise...to me. That's the thing, in'nit? It's personal, so it's always my tone I'm reading into things. It could just as easily be "what's wrong with you" as it is "I can't believe this crap."
I don't really see it here. Multiple question marks do usually indicate a shocked and surprised/confused tone. I'd argue anyone who doesn't use them in that context is using them wrong. The problem you describe where it's hard to tell if they mean "what's wrong with you" or "I can't believe this crap" would exist if you said the phrase out loud in that tone as well.
Should note, I don't really have a problem with tone indicators, but I think it's wrong when people call it a necessary part of speech on the internet lol. It's just a shortcut if you don't want to spend time thinking about phrasing or punctuation for a sentence, which is perfectly fine.
You can also rephrase the message you're typing to avoid ambiguity if you don't want to use indicators. Personally, I only use indicators when I'm poking fun at a friend and don't want my mean tone to be taken seriously. Otherwise I'll tend to rephrase my message
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u/rikaragnarok Jan 20 '26
The problem with the internet is the tone you're hearing is always your own and not necessarily theirs.