Ending posts with "cheers" and "peace out": What does it mean?

reply to post by BrokenCircles

Just because people attach different significances to "cheers" does not mean it has no significance.
In fact, a proliferation and amalgamation of significances is far from no significance.

One post above says the significance changes with the context, and she uses it diffusely, but not meaninglessly.

Sometimes it may be positive, and sometimes it's the last profound and ironic comment, it seems.

So the person who gets a post that ends that way cannot be entirely sure.

Being unsure will increase the focus on the greeting, rather than reducing it.
But that also depends on the weight and significance of the rest of the post.
If the whole post is frivolous or not much cared for then it probably does not matter.
However I'm starting to find it in posts I do care for.

But you're also right for me in the sense that one shouldn't attach too much meaning to it, and we have a right to reply within the conditions of ATS no matter what anyone else thinks.

That's why we're all here.

Cheers mate.

reply to post by halfoldman

Originally posted by halfoldman

One post above says the significance changes with the context, and she uses it diffusely, but not meaninglessly.

Sometimes it may be positive, and sometimes it's the last profound and ironic comment, it seems.

The fact that it does have many different meanings, does not necessarily mean that any of those meanings are meant negatively.

On the previous page, how many people answered your question, by saying that it could be meant as a negative remark?

Originally posted by halfoldman

Just because people attach different significances to "cheers" does not mean it has no significance.
In fact, a proliferation and amalgamation of significances is far from no significance.

lol. C'mon now. This is going to send us quickly down the road to 'Irrelevance'. There can't be different significances. There is either 1 significant point, or there are none. It either is, or it isn't.

I just think people say it because people want to go where everybody knows your name, and not everybody knows your name on this site.

Unless you're a god, like me.

reply to post by BrokenCircles

Well, significantly the one poster who reported on using the word said it could be positive or negative for the intended person according to the context.

I wonder if there's a slight gender context here.
For example, with my female friends I sometimes find I have to include a lot of emoticons and "luv" greetings, or they consider my e-mails curt, or rude.
There has to be more reassurance in friendship all the time, I find, and words or lack there-of have more subtle meanings.

I think gays like me have female friends because we have similar minds in some respects.

So something that looks significant to my more feminized mind might not appear as odd to a straight male.

Maybe that's a load of bull, but it is something I've wondered about.

However, I cannot agree that we either find one meaning for something or none at all.
Heck, even the dictionary already gives "cheers" three.
Imagine arguing that from now on we either have one Christian church, or none at all.

Meanings for the word "CHEERS"
1 Thanks for the info...i get it
2 have a nice day
3No sense complaining nobody listens anyways.....
4.everyone knows yer an idiot but im too polite to inform you....
5 i heard what you said but dont believe a word...i just dont want a duel of wits with an unarmed man....
6 F@CK you anyway....but have a nice day....
CHEERS BUD

I think "cheers" has been well covered here already. It's just a way of saying "have a nice day".

When people use "peace out" it is a sort of sign off. Like the kind radio DJ's use. It's meant as a way of saying "peace be with you, I'm out of here".

I don't think anyone has tried to use those phrases as an insult. They might be trying to lesson the impact of previous insult though. Sort of like "I just insulted your intelligence but don't take it personal" maybe.

reply to post by halfoldman


You Seth Efrikaans are mad!

Cheers means "Catchya later, don't get too drunk, look out for that thing called life!" to us Aussies.

I say cheers not to mean "Bugger off you walley!" but because like when a beer, Cheers! A toast to the future.

Cheers big ears!

Originally posted by halfoldman
I think gays like me have female friends because we have similar minds in some respects.

And if I said that I'd be called a homophobe. How very interesting.

So you're different after all! Why all the lies and obfuscation of the facts.

ha. cheers!

reply to post by mainidh

Why would it be homophobic to say some gay men (I can't speak for everybody in a huge group of people) are different?
A recent documentary called The Making of Me looks at some of those issues.
But these are just possibilities, and not necessarily written in stone, and differences could also develop socially.
I think it only becomes problematic when one uses difference and human variation (also between the genders) to discriminate, or if one tries to "cure" people based on religious interpretations.

Thanks for your Aussie view and clarification, because they do seem to use it a lot.
At least your written English is more comprehensible than the spoken "Strine".

Originally posted by halfoldman
At least according to dictionary meanings of Cheers I'm not wrong:

cheers [tʃɪəz]
sentence substitute Informal chiefly Brit
1. a drinking toast
2. goodbye! cheerio!
3. thanks!

www.thefreedictionary.com...

However, I suspect that not any of these meanings explain the proliferation of the mysterious "cheers" that grace the ending of numerous ATS posts nowadays.

As a thanks it should come sooner, as a toast it should be appropriate (unless the sender assumes and rudely implies the receiver is an alcoholic), and as a goodbye it cancels out future interaction (which on a thread meant for interaction is inappropriate and rude - then why not end with "F You"?).

So what does it mean?

What do you mean when you end a post with "cheers"?

edit on 1-7-2012 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)

Your getting it all wrong. Cheers, literally giving someone cheers, I'm cheering you on, CHEERS.

When you see it at the end of a post it means thanks/ or i'm cheering you for reading my post.
Hip Hip hurray. Cheer's.

Basically means thank you. I hope this helps.



Still reading through and am just astounded at the meanings given. Just look at the word itself, Take away the S and what do you have?
Cheer, if you cheer someone are you saying goodbye? NO
Are you saying anything? NO
You are just supporting their actions in what they're doing.
So "cheers" becomes a vocal replacment for actually yelling "Yeeaaahhhhhhhh" in someones ear to show how much you appreciate what they're doing.

Again, at the end of a post it means thanks for taking your time to read my post/writings/thoughts.

reply to post by Chukkles


I've been to lots of sports games where the audience will cheer.

Many times they will cheer insults. Like "the pitcher stinks" or "go home loser".

I think you're a little off base thinking that cheer leaders only cheer positive messages.

Cheer leaders also will say negative messages about the opponent.

In this case, I think "cheers" is being used more closely to the way it is used during a toast.

reply to post by halfoldman


I suspect that like me, you may be of an older generation, used to more formal address ?

I'm fifty six, and have had to adapt to " Cheers " No problem " et al, over recent years, It is very slack use of English grammar, I'm afraid, and I do it myself now !

reply to post by halfoldman


I guess the word 'cheers' can mean different things to different people but in Australia it means "thanks mate."

cya later

There is nothing new about the word cheers.in scotland we use it all the time instead of thanks.we also use it as a toast with drink.im 36 and all my life it has been used.my grandparents used it and they would be near 100 years old if still alive.how you can asume that it is negative i really dont know,says a lot about you in my opinion.why do asume it is some sort of sarcasm?

sup halfodman

hoe lyk dit

I do use cheers quite often, usually to say bye bye, or goodbye, but in a less informal way.

Of course I also use it as a thank you.

For example: Here is your footlong chiproll sir, me: cheers mate.

So yeah mate, don't read to much into it.

Just a silly thing left behind by the british occupiers....

vvv

As a few lads have stated already, "Cheers" is simply "Thanks".

There is no hidden ulterior use of the word, and is simply another way of saying thanks mainly in the U.K and here in Australia. As for "Peace out", that seems to me like more of a hip-hop culture way of saying the same thing.

"May the force be with you!"

cheers for the heads up mate, didn't know people didn't know what it meant. will watch out for it in the future,

peace out!


we aussies use these expressions aswell

reply to post by halfoldman

Originally posted by halfoldman

I think gays like me have female friends because we have similar minds in some respects.

So something that looks significant to my more feminized mind might not appear as odd to a straight male.

[color=9CFFFF]It is doubtful that there is any gender context variance for the word itself, but that↑ very well might be the reason that you're making a big deal out of something that should not be a big deal.

Now this depends on the post itself, but a majority of the time, the "cheers" that you are focusing on, is most likely the single least important word in the post.

Originally posted by halfoldman

Well, significantly the one poster who reported on using the word said it could be positive or negative for the intended person according to the context.

I'm not exactly following your logic here. If 20 people say it is meant positively, and 1 person says it could be positive or negative, then you automatically believe the 1 person, and ignore the other 20?

Originally posted by halfoldman

However, I cannot agree that we either find one meaning for something or none at all.
Heck, even the dictionary already gives "cheers" three.

lmao. You're not even trying. I said no such thing. I've already explained it to you a few times. You're confusing the words 'meaning' and 'significant'. Not all meanings are significant.

reply to post by BrokenCircles

I'm not ignoring anything, but looking at a variety of meanings that people give, and their opinion is just as valid as yours.

I'd say it's mostly positive, as "thanks" or "goodbye".
If somebody writes a very negative post with a personal attack that's just in the range of the T&C and then they sign off with "cheers" it is probably not meant positively.
Luckily most posts on ATS are positive by my experience, and a lot of the negative speech with personal attacks and not so veiled insults are found in certain topics where opinions differ sharply, like gay issues or HIV denialism. Some forums on US politics even have warnings that they are especially heavily moderated. So the ratio of negativity goes up for some topics.

Similarly laugh out loud emoticons are sometimes added to things that are not funny at all.
Once again the aim seems to be to modulate the harm of any intended insults.
Since ATS is moderated, this may also be a way of avoiding being censored by making clear that unpleasant things were said in jest.
It doesn't always work however.

This is the chit chat forum, so the topics are not likely to be of astounding meaning.

Originally posted by glen200376
There is nothing new about the word cheers.in scotland we use it all the time instead of thanks.we also use it as a toast with drink.im 36 and all my life it has been used.my grandparents used it and they would be near 100 years old if still alive.how you can asume that it is negative i really dont know,says a lot about you in my opinion.why do asume it is some sort of sarcasm?

If you think I'm referring to "cheers" in real life, I'm afraid you've missed the point.
It's only unclear at the end of some posts on the Internet.

In real-life language meaning is not only created by words, but also by tone, volume facial expressions and so forth.
This cannot be copied on the Internet, although emoticons can clarify and moderate meanings to an extent.
So in speech there could be a very indignant "Goodbye!", for example before slamming the phone down, or there could be a heartfelt "goodbye".
The meaning at the end of a communication is clarified in speech by tone or body language, but on the Web it's not always clear, and there can be miscommunication in all kinds of ways.

So the word "cheers" itself is not sarcastic.