WOW.

What. The. Fuck.

Is it really that fucking hard? It slants forward, it's a line – also known as a slash. IT'S A FORWARD FUCKING SLASH.

So why in the hell does everyone keep calling it a backslash?!?!?!?!?!
We read left to right. Thus forward is in the rightward direction. NOT THE LEFT.

I honestly don't get this society anymore. Everyone keeps calling it a backslash, yet it's clearly a forward slash. I don't care how computer illiterate you are. It's not like the forward slash is some new character we invented just for the computer. It's been around for many years. Centuries even. Perhaps millenia? So why is it that all of a sudden people can't differentiate between a forward slash (/) and a backslash (\) ?
This mass confusion has seriously only started (as far as I've noticed) in the past year and a bit. Like say starting in 2006.

You're probably all wondering wtf? Well I was watching MTV (there's my first problem, watching MTV, always a bad idea.), and they are doing some XBOX360 giveaway for college students. Plus an online giveaway. The online giveaway requires you to go to their website (well there's your second problem, going to that hell-hole-ish mass conglomerate of random -shit- they call a website.). Here's the catch, their on-air personalities give you the link. And it goes as follows:
"Just log on to www dot mtv dot ca slash xbox360 to enter."
<bunch of banter>
"So hit up mtv dot ca slash xbox360. Backslash xbox360 that is."

Okay so -I- get it, their on-air personalities are retards, that's a given. I can forgive that.... Sorta.... But what the fuck. You've been saying forward slash for years, and now all of a sudden you can't? If you don't know, leave it at just plain slash. Everyone will know what you mean, it's the internet, we all know it has to be that one that's all slanty to the right..... Right?

Now I'm not an idiot, so I understood that he's dumb and I know to correct it. But what about those people who are smart enough to know the difference between the foreslash and the backslash, but not computer literate enough to know the difference of what it will do on their system/in their browser? They're going to go running to their computers to www.mtv.ca\xbox360 in a frantic rush to enter to win a shitbox-3-shitty, and get a 404 error, and be like "what the hell? it's not here!" and probably freak out, smash their computer, punch their neighbour in the face, punt his dog down the street, and go raving into the night like the lunatics that they are. And then I have to deal with their asses when they come crazy-ing down the street, or try to talk to me in real life and say backslash when they clearly mean foreslash. And I'm just not having that. Totally inexcusable.

I was totally going somewhere with this. Oh well.
So Here's my tutorial on the slash keys. Now you have no excuse what-so-ever to not know the difference, and not use them appropriately:

Let's begin.

The Forward Slash.

The Forward Slash, also referred to as the 'Foreslash' is the character that looks like this: /
It is a slanted line that starts at the bottom on the left, and moves forward and upward to the right. Hence the name Forward Slash (or Foreslash).
It is the character located on the same key as the Question Mark (?). It does not require the pressing of the shift key to enter it.
In Internet Browsers (such as InternetExplorer or Mozilla Firefox) it is used in the address bar following the domain name of the website you wish to visit (ie: www.destructoid.com) and denotes that you wish to visit a site, sub-site, page, or sub-area of the main website, and following the Forward Slash you enter the name of said place. For example, let's pretend Destructoid has an area (or sub-site) called 'SteaksRock' to visit this; I would type (into my address bar in my internet browser): www.destructoid.com/SteaksRock
And then press my enter key.
And voila! I'm taken to the SteaksRock area of the Destructoid website! Now ain't that something? ....

Moving on. ....


The Backslash.

The Backslash is the character that looks like this: \
It is a slanted line that starts at the bottom on the right, and moves backward and upward to the left. Hence the name Backslash.
It is the character located on the key with the 'Pipe' symbol (|). Generally located either next to your backspace key, or underneath it (depending on your keyboard). It also does not require the pressing of the shift key to enter it.
Internet browsers don't like the backslash. It's a family rivalry they have going on. Just like Windows Explorers don't like the forward slash key. It's a mean and dirty family fued. Very vicious, very violent, and very .... well you get the idea. On computers, the backslash key is used inside things like the Command Prompt (for advanced users only (aka smart people who know what they are doing and are not retarded societary wankers), or Windows Explorer. It is used in conjunction with a drive letter and a semicolon, followed by words/letters/numbers denoting the name of the folder you wish to navigate into and explore on your computer (ie: C:\DOS\RUN\, C:\WINDOWS\GO\, C:\PC\CRAWL\, etc.). DON'T USE THIS KEY UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. AND IF THINK YOU DO, TRUST ME, YOU DON'T. And don't -EVER-, under any circumstances, use it in the address bar of your internet browser. You will cause a war of massively epic proportions that could result in you, your family, and possibly half of your city or town being destroyed. Not to mention it may blow up your computer. And we can't have that now can we? Think of all that porn that you'll lose. Not cool. And totally not worth it. You always hear about peoples computers' crashing. This is what caused it. Mostlikely though, they got lucky and the computer noticed them attempting to enter a backslash into an internet browsers address bar, and just shut down. But some are not so lucky. It's this feud between the two that causes many system failures, or even worse. It's a machine teetering on the brink. Just like at the Zoo; DON'T POKE THE SLEEPING TIGERS.


Anyways, that got off on another tangent to. So back to my main point.



IT'S A FORWARD SLASH GOD DAMMIT.






(23:25:28) <[Cow]Dave> WHY IN THE FUCK DOES EVERYONE THINK THAT THE FORWARD SLASH IS A FUCKING BACKSLASH?!
(23:25:37) <[Cow]Dave> WE DON'T READ RIGHT TO LEFT, WHAT THE FUCK.
(23:26:39) <AzNheadbanger|home> lol
(23:27:48) <JDW[afk]> rofl



PS: IRCartel FTW BITCHES.