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Is there a standard ordering for the question mark and the exclamation mark used together?

Which is correct:

Was That Folk!?

Was That Folk?!

Or both? I always use the former. But the SO FAQ uses the latter.

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Camilo Martin
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    Welcome to EL&U! This question has already been answered; please see: Is there a standard ordering for the question mark and the exclamation mark used together – MetaEd Feb 03 '12 at 21:07
  • Oh, thanks! I searched for "interrogation" instead of "question mark" and did not see it. Should I vote to delete? – Camilo Martin Feb 03 '12 at 21:16
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    You're welcome. We'll sweep it up. Incidentally, coarse language is fine everywhere, excepting only the title of the question. – MetaEd Feb 03 '12 at 21:30
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    Why compromise? Just use character U+203D INTERROBANG, which is ‘‽’. There’s also a paired U+2E18 INVERTED INTERROBANG, that is, a ‘⸘’, for those who like ¿this sort? or ¡that sort! of thing. ⸘See what I mean‽ ☺ – tchrist Feb 03 '12 at 21:42
  • Uh, it says I cannot vote for delete, only raise moderator attention, as it has an answer. Sorry. Nice, coarse language is fine eve...! I mean, not like I was planning to use it... :) (I even think "Was That Folk" looks better now) Thank you for your attention. – Camilo Martin Feb 03 '12 at 21:46
  • @tchrist Inverted question and exclamation marks are used in Spanish. I actually love that feature of the spanish language, and many more, it's so "easy to understand". They begin and end questions and exclamations much like you'd enclose something in brackets or quotes. Oh, and is the interrobang recommendation a joke, or it has indeed that meaning?, (on a side note, remember some people might see things such as a square box). – Camilo Martin Feb 03 '12 at 21:48
  • @CamiloMartin Yes, that’s what the interrobang was created for; I was not making a joke. It was talked about on one of this year’s QI episodes, even. The inverted form was indeed created for Spanish, and yes, I concur pairing makes reading easier. There’s absolutely no reason in the world for anyone to see ‘little white boxen’ from the regular interrobang, considering that it was in Unicode 1.1 from twenty years ago; if they can’t see it, their computer is broken. The inverted form only entered the standard four years ago, so people who can’t see that one are just a bit outdated, is all. – tchrist Feb 03 '12 at 21:56
  • @tchrist Ah, I see. Too bad it's not quite as easy to type, though. – Camilo Martin Feb 03 '12 at 22:18
  • @CamiloMartin On ease of typing, you could always make a keystroke macro in your text editor that rewrote “!?” as “‽”. These webby things are a pain in that regard, though. – tchrist Feb 03 '12 at 22:35
  • @tchrist But I also fear most people will think it's some kind of joke and draw attention from what I actually expressed before the interrobang. It was not new to me this time, but I only saw it once in a humorous context before, so I didn't take it seriously. – Camilo Martin Feb 03 '12 at 23:10

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The concept of "Correctness" -- blessedly -- has not yet been extended to cover the punctuation of obscene initialisms. Perhaps The Academy will deal with it soon; perhaps not.

In the meantime, you may use whatever punctuation scheme pleases you, and let the SO FAQ sue you if it becomes enraged.

John Lawler
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