What is Digg?80 Comments
- Error601, on 10/24/2007, -2/+36Uh, no. The V as in victory sign is palm out. The proper way to do the insulting sign is to face the back of your hand toward the person (or computer screen) and thrust upward.
- Error601, on 10/23/2007, -1/+25The only people I've seen use it have been from the UK or Australia. The old middle finger is the favorite in the US.
- inactive, on 10/23/2007, -1/+21It is supposed to have started with the battle of Agincourt where the English archers defeated a French army that consisted mostly of knights. The two fingers are the ones essential for firing a longbow. Had the archers been captured these fingers would have been cut. So it is a sign of defiance rather than an insult really.
- InsaneMachine, on 10/24/2007, -1/+19The guy just copied and pasted of Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#The_V_sign_as_ ...
he stole the picture from there as well. - doom2quake, on 10/23/2007, -7/+24No offence, but this is ridiculous. You must understand that the system allows this as a feature, this is a application problem. You are a user so am i, you have settings which allow you to filter stuff. Try using them.
I have removed you from the shout list, hopefully i will not see your "copy pasted" unique comment on my stories .... bye bye ..... - inactive, on 10/23/2007, -6/+20Unknown to most people, turning the back of your hand to anyone, in any gesture at all, is usually inappropriate.
ALSO, go to hell, WiseWeasel. - Ramble, on 10/23/2007, -3/+15Is this not common outside the UK?
- actorboy, on 10/23/2007, -4/+15Dude, you are a nutcase. I see your "Don't Spam My Shouts" comments all over the place. And when someone tells you that your changing your settings can prevent such "ShoutSpam" your reply is usually "I don't wanna!." Set your preferences and the shut the hell up.
- RADRaze2KX, on 10/23/2007, -0/+4It's considered a sign of mockery, a brother to 'flipping someone the bird'...
The origin of the derogatory meaning of both signs comes from medieval times, when bowmen were shooting infantry and cavalry. The shooters that were captured, instead of being immediately killed, were submitted to torture by having their middle finger cut off, then they were usually released.
This hindered the bowman less efficient at aiming, since the middle finger was used in conjunction with the pointer to draw the strings of a bow back, and also to align the shot for firing an arrow with a relatively good level of accuracy.
If the 9-digit bowman were caught again at a later time, they would be killed. The bowmen that had been spotted, but never caught, would 'flip the bird' at enemy troops to mock them - "I've still got my middle finger".
Without research, I'd guess the term 'flipping the bird' could come from the same era as well, since a flying bird would 'flip' if shot out of the air by a bowman with expert aim...
Who knows :)
- Welcomes myself to Digg, as a new registered user. [Been reading for a while, just never signed up to comment] :D - cscivicque, on 10/23/2007, -3/+7This weasel guy is a total jerk. I got the same thing and he was a "mutual friend".
- Pilot85, on 10/23/2007, -0/+4Hot Fuzz!
- crawf061, on 10/23/2007, -0/+4Flawless victory
- notque, on 10/23/2007, -0/+3I think it's hilarious.
- djpants428, on 10/23/2007, -0/+3It's not well known in the states at least that palm inward means the equivalent of "***** off." I originally saw it used in a couple of movies with british characters, and its meaning was explained. Not a lot of people are aware of it though...
- jmpeagle, on 10/23/2007, -2/+5I just gave up and blocked everyone but mutual friends. I wish there was a way to allow anyone to send you a shout as long as that shout does not contain a digg story.
- cnot3, on 10/23/2007, -1/+4ah, cunnilingus
- rnwen2750, on 10/23/2007, -2/+5Okay. I have never been in a country where the "v sign" was considered rude, but even *I* knew it was.
- Lumiras, on 10/23/2007, -1/+4It depends on which way you point it. V palm out, no problems. V palm in, ***** off
I live in America, and this isn't a common practice here and I knew this fact since I was about 13. - Eshestun, on 10/23/2007, -1/+4They make the V sign with the palm facing outward so that the back of the hand is against the person doing the V. Which stands for victory.
The backhand pointed at someone is derogatory. - peterinjapan, on 10/23/2007, -1/+3Churchill made this famous of course, but he did it wrong at the beginning of the war, since he didn't know what it meant to the "lower classes" he lead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign - dvsbastard, on 10/24/2007, -0/+2It is not insanely popular in Australia (the middle finger is still the favorite), but I think most people here recognise it as an obscene gesture...
For research purposes, when I go out to lunch I'll piss off some random people and take notes... . - RxDaniel, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2Except if it doesn't mean anything to the people you are doing it to then you just look like an idiot.
- aussia, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2nope, no one really uses it in north america. I lived in the UK for a year where I picked it up. I use it a lot now (with others in the know)... it's so much classier than the finger!
- RxDaniel, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2Or you know in the US where this isn't insulting at all the only time I would ever use it is to gesture the number two.
- bamapachyderm, on 10/23/2007, -6/+8That's not being a nutcase; those of us who ask people to knock it off (WiseWeasel is nicer about it than I am) are just sick and ***** tired of the sheer volume of ***** LINKS being here. The shout spammers are crapping up digg, and WiseWeasel and I aren't the only ones complaining.
Like WW, I won't stop it either. Not as long as they have the ability to mass-add random people to their friends list and send shouts.
I don't want people adding me who don't care about what I digg/comment/submit. I have to check every single goddamn add to see if I might want to add the person back. Lately, I've had to block, bury, and (sometimes) report several per day for this *****, and I'll keep doing it--and I don't restrict my buries/blocks/reporting to people who haven't yet added me, either. I see one, you're done.
Excuse me, I'm going to check and see if you're one of the spammers now. - gonzo_leben, on 10/25/2007, -0/+2The only thing I've seen it before in was Ali G in da House. However now that I know what it means, it's definitely time to start using it
- rgodfrey, on 10/23/2007, -1/+3I am reminded of the poster for Trainspotting, half a Begbie of which was removed in some of the more puritanical locales.
http://www.virginmedia.com/images/wallpapers/movie ... - NikZ, on 10/23/2007, -0/+2The "forks", as it was often called in Australia & New Zealand (not sure about the UK), has been around for decades. We used to it in the 80's when we were kids. My older sisters who grew up in the 70's *still* use it now (not that they go around "giving the forks" all the time, but I've seen my sister use it in traffic before). It kind of became dorky and unpopular when the middle-finger gesture became more well known.
What an odd topic. ;) - doom2quake, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1everyone in the world is "copying from wikipedia" ... there were talk of it becoming a search engine because of the sheer volume of data in it .... it couldnt have "referred" to a better source
- brewer, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1the more you knooooww...
thanks. now i know the origin of the handshake, the salute, and the two-fingered anti-salute-thingy.
(all medieval origins) - doom2quake, on 10/23/2007, -1/+2The issue is that digg is an open network, and you must learn to embrace the problems with that. If you were so angry goto a closed network with your mates. Behind a login.... wouldnt that be better. You should be loving facebook.
- light50, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPU8_4sEoXE
- bamapachyderm, on 10/23/2007, -2/+3HA, okay, actorboy, you're not one. Going to digg up some of your comments now. :)
- Mongolai, on 10/23/2007, -2/+3No way, dude. This "article" is hilarious. First off, who calls it a "victory sign" anymore. I thought that went out with the Nixon administration. Second, everyone knows that the backfist-V is a crass gesture. The "article" didn't even bother to embellish the insult with the tongue between the fingers. And third, the "article" could have at least pointed out some other gestures, such as the thumbs-up, the OK sign, the "come here" finger wiggle, the finger-to-the-mouth-as-in-shhh!, crossed fingers, and the finger-circling-around-the-ear-to-indicate-crazy which are all normal in some cultures, but extremely insulting in others.
I like your idea of the stupid shout jihad. And at the very least, it's more fun to complain about stupid submissions than to ignore them. - zionKing, on 10/23/2007, -1/+2Wasn't the jester also in the movie Hot Fuzz?
- merikari, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Sorry, I have to call BS on this.
http://www.snopes.com/language/apocryph/pluckyew.a ... - Mongolai, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1edit: nevermind. InsaneMachine beat me to it
- WiseWeasel, on 10/23/2007, -1/+2I think it's you who does not understand. Digg also gives me the ability to post in the comments of stories spammed to my shouts that they're pissing me off, and that I'm burying their story. It works like this: some random spammer sends me a spam shout promoting their story, I go to their story, bury it as spam, and post the text you see above. Then they get all in a huff about it, unfriend me, and I don't get their shouts anymore... Lather, rinse, repeat. I'm responding to the problem in my own way, as much within the framework of Digg as the people spamming my shouts.
- FLaw, on 10/23/2007, -1/+2Its only offensive if you're offended.
- LastVisibleDog, on 10/23/2007, -2/+3The V sign is also used as a weapon by the Three Stooges
- notque, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1That would be a good feature.
- Dokument, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1the other white meat
- ChileanGoD, on 10/23/2007, -2/+3V for Vendetta
- Elohir, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Newsflash: 2 fingers != 1 finger
The 2 finger salute does indeed stem from longbowmen. - inactive, on 10/23/2007, -1/+2Hidden meaning to "V for Vendetta" I figure.
And: don't tase my shouts, bro... - sparkmonkeyz, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1I never would have guessed all those pretty Asian girls were actually insulting me.
- maxtangent, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1They also took to cutting off both index and middle fingers, so the V sign was used to show they had both fingers.
-welcome to digg. - SiNN4R, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1I do prefer the finger over their rude gesture.
- drizzlelicious, on 10/23/2007, -0/+1Then to most people, it's not inappropriate.
...didn't get the joke, was too tired, my bad - stanti, on 10/23/2007, -1/+1In Hot Fuzz when Danny does it he thrusts his hand upward and makes a juicy farting sound.
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