Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hiromichi]

Below is a message from Opera ( a browser software company). What does "
consider yourself warned :whistle: " mean?

There will be more builds from 9.0x posted here pretty soon, some to verify fixes, but we may also try out a couple of experiments on you (consider yourself warned :whistle: ). But for now, browse safely and have a nice weekend!
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Hiromichi

[CP]

"Consider yourself warned" = "you have been warned" or "you are on notice." In this case, you are on notice that you might be the subject of experiments.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[hiromichi]

CP, Thank you. So here "whisle" means "let us know if something is wrong."
Am I right?
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Hiromichi

[damon@English24/7]

I am not sure that by "whistle" he means let me know if something is wrong. There are plenty of native English speakers on the web who write poorly. Written communication can be difficult and somethings that seem obvious to the writer, aren`t so to the reader. Maybe he meant that if he were telling you this in person he would whistle at this point. I don`t know, and you shouldn`t think it is your fault that you don`t understand that because it is not clear at all.

[hiromichi]

damon@English24/7, Thank you very much for your advice.
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Hiromichi

[redset]

The :whistle: is an internet thing, it's just a way of implying an action or gesture - in this case you imagine the person whistling after they've said 'consider yourself warned', which is a way that people pretend to be innocent or unaware of something. The writer is basically saying 'we may add some extra test features so watch out' and then feigning innocence as though they would pretend not to know anything about it. It's intended to sound slightly ominous but in a playful way, as though the new features might bring serious problems - they don't really believe that so they're joking about it.

Things like :whistle: are called emotes, there are other ways of signifying them such as *whistle* and /whistle. They can be actions, or states like *nervous* or :tired:. It's a bit like acting! Many messageboards will convert certain emotes into icons or smileys - type :wink: into a post here and you get . If you don't see pictures, you have to use your imagination!

*finishes post, hits Submit*

[hiromichi]

redset, I get it. Thank you very much.
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Hiromichi