Why is it necessary to add "IMO" in your post?

[K.I.L.E.R]

If a person can't tell between fact and opinion then they have something seriously wrong with them.
My English teacher back in year 10 told me that placing "IMO" in your writing isn't necessary because it is quite clear what an opinion is vs what is a fact.

If you read the dozens of articles out on the Internet none of the professional ones use "IMO" before they say anything.

 

[nutball]

because it is quite clear what an opinion is vs what is a fact.

Is that a fact, or just your English teacher's opinion?

If you read the dozens of articles out on the Internet none of the professional ones use "IMO" before they say anything.

Forums != articles. Forums are conversational in style, articles tend not to be, especially those written by people trying to blur the boundaries between fact and their own opinion. I find it's quite common in conversation to say "well I think ...", "the way I see it ...", "my view on this is...", "if you ask me ...", "I think it's fair to say...", all of which are long-hand variants of "in my opinion", but nevertheless are labels which distinguish fact from opinion.

So basically, it's not important. (<---- is this fact, or opinion?)

 

[Blazkowicz]

webforums are somewhat halfway between classic written stuff and a spoken conversation , without visual/emotional clues, and also you will never have someone flaming you in an article right next to your one, in the same newspaper

so it's safer to put an IMO or IMHO, like you sometimes have to put a smiley when doing sarcasm.. Else you get flamed by a lamer who appears to not try taking the time to read and understand the damn stuff.

 

[K.I.L.E.R]

So people need guidance to determine what is fact or fiction?

On forums 99% is opinion and I don't need people to tell me what's real or what isn't real.
I know when something is real or not because I can just find facts elsewhere from real sources.

Whenever you have a conversation with someone it's usually common to treat everything said as opinion and if you want to determine if something is fact just look it up.

 

[nutball]

So people need guidance to determine what is fact or fiction?

No but they clearly need guidance on what to expend calories worrying about and what to just let pass!

On forums 99% is opinion and I don't need people to tell me what's real or what isn't real.
I know when something is real or not because I can just find facts elsewhere from real sources.

What do you mean by "real sources"?

 

[KimB]

so it's safer to put an IMO or IMHO, like you sometimes have to put a smiley when doing sarcasm..

Well, if anybody paid attention to that, maybe it'd be useful.

Anyway, I really don't see why anybody should feel the need to qualify their statements with an "IMO" or "IMHO." I mean, the difference between fact and opinion should always be obvious. An opinion is a judgement call, an interpretation (this product is best, that social group is evil). A fact can always be shored up by direct evidence (Bob woke up this morning).

The only reason why you may want to add those qualifiers would be in an attempt to drive home that you may not be sure that your interpretation is the correct or best one. Me, I always try to word my sentences to imply when I'm not absolutely certain of an interpretation.

 

[Crisidelm]

You're all wrong, IMHO.

Sounds a bit hypocritical, doesn't it?

 

[L233]

"IMO" is a "softener". While it does not add any important primary information to a statement (because most people should be able to tell fact from opinion), it does add meta-information to a statement communicating that the writer acknowledges the fact that other points of view exists and may also be valid. Or short: it makes statements less confrontational. "IMO" adds nothing to the content but to the way the content is delivered.

It's mainly an Anglo-American thing. Americans and, to some extend, Brits and Aussies are obsessed with the usage of softeners. As a German, I find it quite anoying because it often adds more or less useless fluff to the language and cultivates a certain touchiness in people. If you're not using softeners you're considered blunt or even rude. This has been an endless source of frustration in German/American cross-cultural communication because Germans do the exact opposite: we make extensive use of intensifiers ("absolutely", "without doubt", "must").

Someone who grew up in a German language country might state an opinion like this:
"We must absolutely change the way we approach the problem".

An American would probably put it this way:
"In my opinion, it may be a good idea to consider alternative appraches to the problem".

It's actually one of the sources of many of the more persistant cultural stereotypes, like "German are arrogant" or "Americans are only superficially friendly but don't really mean any of it".

 

[Blitzkrieg]

Very nice post L233. Heh I think I would fit in better in Germany then. I hate using IMO and have had many arguements of my family, stating that it is fluff and useless. Basically I said they should be able to tell unless they are stupid. Probably why many ppl find me a bit confrontational. Must be all my German genes

 

[L233]

Keep in mind though that it is not just the lack of softeners but it's the lack of softeners combined with the excessive use of intensifiers.

I've seen it happen. You stick a German and an American engineer into a room together and tell them to come up with a solution to something and after 2 hours you have bloody murder. Joint-ventures and corporate mergers have failed in the past because of this.

The American interprets the typical confrontation style of his German counterpart as arrogance, questioning his competence or as an attempt to stifle discussion. The German on the other hand has problems figuring out what exactly the opinion of his American collegue is and gets the impression that the American doesn't really want address the issues or doesn't take them seriously enough. Both sides find it hard to communicate with each other.

There are actually consultants for cross-cultural communication now, even though there is little awareness of the problem yet.

 

[KimB]

Yeah, and I think it's a real problem with US society. I've been around some people where there's this culture of not wanting to step on anybody's toes. Nobody wants to tell another that they're doing something wrong. And I hate it.

Personally, I try to use the full range. More weasel words when I really am not sure, and intensifiers when I am. I don't like worrying about stepping on other peoples' toes, and I wish fewer in the US did. Far more important to get the job done right than to worry about one another's feelings.

 

[Babel-17]

I use "IMO" to delineate the difference between my opinion and that which is generally considered to be accepted fact.

For example, if someone were to ask me "What are some of the best films that never got a wide release and/or aren't that well known?" I could spout off a list of films that many top critics would agree were lesser known gems.

I might then add a few to that list but with the "IMO" caveat.

 

[nutball]

I've seen it happen. You stick a German and an American engineer into a room together and tell them to come up with a solution to something and after 2 hours you have bloody murder. Joint-ventures and corporate mergers have failed in the past because of this.

I've seen similar situations arise between Germans and French (both sets speaking English, so extra room for mistranslation and misinterpretation!). The Brits in the room were, as you say, trying to be non-confrontational and solve the problem, and getting it in the neck from both sides.

Maybe we should all stay at home and not talk to each other!

 

[Blazkowicz]

I didn't know US people had such a "softening culture", though I knew brits often say "Sorry".
what is said here makes me think of Japaneses. but Japanese must be much worse, and anime are often full of "onegai shimasu", "sumimasen" and such.

strangely I appear to make a good use of "I think that", "IMO", "almost", "quite", "kind of" here, but not much of french forum. I may have been contaminated, or it's because there's so many people with higher than average intelligence and knowledge here, or not being from native english language I won't much say the equivalent of "putain de driver à la con", "driver ATI de merde"etc. and be polite in general