A new way to be sarcastic on the Web.

I'd like to propose a better way to convey sarcasm on the Web. It occurs to me that a lot of digital communications are perhaps misinterpreted when the sender is trying to sound sarcastic and the reader reads the message without that crucial sarcastic tone. For example, the phrase "that was just perfect" takes on opposite meanings with and without sarcasm.

My suggestion is that we use a compact marker to start a sentence which we intend as sarcasm. This could and should be something very simple, "~" for example. So a sarcastic sentence would read "~that was just perfect". This way the reader is clued in at the beginning to the tone of the sentence.

This method could also be expanded to other modes. A sentence could begin "^that was just perfect", with the "^" indicating a depressed tone, much as :-( indicates unhappiness. Or, we could use "!" to indicate an upbeat tone, "!that was just perfect!" (I know that this is accomplished with the end exclamation mark, but I think it's just as important to know at the beginning of the sentence.)