Toilet paper orientation

jarin 15 years ago |

I love the caption on the second image: "The improper under orientation".

I remember a crazy discussion a few years ago on the Something Awful Forums about wiping direction preference, which turned into a flamewar on the merits of wiping sitting up vs. wiping standing up or half-standing.

I had no idea people wiped standing up.

soyelmango 15 years ago |

Personally I'm an 'over' for functional and aesthetic reasons. I could never understand why some would be 'under's - but then again, I don't have pets/children, nor a mobile home.

coderdude 15 years ago | |

As interesting as toilet paper orientation is to a community of programmers and entrepreneurs I don't appreciate your looking down on others. I know people who live in mobile homes and I don't like to see those people being looked down on for where they live (of all the things you could pick on a person for). In fact, I can't stand it.

It's bad enough what they go through from people who think they're better than they are (hint: you're not any better because your parents raised you in something more socially acceptable). It's clear that you don't know what it's like for them, but if you did you wouldn't make comments like that. If every day you heard people driving by yelling things like "trailer trash" at you then you might understand what I'm saying. Spread your subtle hate elsewhere.

Sorry to others for this long rant about a small, unconscionable remark. Condescension is a personal pet peeve.

soyelmango 15 years ago | | |

Hey, no need to apologize for your rant - you have the right to free speech.

I must ask though what gives you the impression that I'm looking down on others. When I wrote "...I don't have pets/children, nor a mobile home", that was merely a statement of fact. Read the article ( this bit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper_orientation#Argume... ) and you'll see why I said what I said, with no malice nor condescension intended.

coderdude 15 years ago | | |

I took your remark as a statement that follows this frame: "I never understood why some people do [something I think is in poor taste], but then again I'm not [some class of people]."

From the Wikipedia article: Under in a recreational vehicle may reduce unrolling during driving.

Unless you confuse mobile homes with recreational vehicles, I doubt that this is what you intended.

Emore 15 years ago |

This article is probably a good example for when '[Citation needed]' is taken a bit too seriously. 119 references!

ErrantX 15 years ago | |

It's probably a magnet for people wanting to delete it :) It's a shoddy article really and needs serious work.. I guess the cites are intended to make up for that.

aquarin 15 years ago |

Hum, I thought I was the only one that have this problem with orientation.

utops 15 years ago |

I'm glad this vital issue has finally been raised in this community. I've been writing a checklist of issues to double-check before I launch my startup and almost overlooked this.

soyelmango 15 years ago | |

It's certainly not a vital issue, but I'd say it's at least an interesting issue. I say that because it's one of those things that people take for granted. It's useful and interesting (at least it is for me!) to analyze the things that we do out of thoughtless habit.

SaltwaterC 15 years ago |

http://i41.tinypic.com/20uwsg3.jpg

However, this one has some points: http://www.blameitonthevoices.com/2009/03/great-debate.html