I use lol, k, wtf and some other sometimes but that's okay to me. Other wise I type perfectly.
Of course, I mess up on my grammar sometimes. ;-;

I find it more annoying when people whine about not being able to understand it.
you can usrtenad waht I'm snyaig wehn I tpye like tihs, right? Not that hard.

Ariel most people understand when things are typed like that, actually I read an article that stated as long as the first and last letters are in place and it has all the letters in the middle just jumbled up than people still understand it. I don’t mean to be rude, but she isn’t speaking about incorrect placement of letters in words but computer acronyms. There is a difference.

I've always typed properly. Honestly not bragging, it's the truth. Internet spelling and leet speak and all that really bothers me.

I rarely ever use chatspeak. I mean, I use "lol" sometimes, or I just use "haha" to express my laughter. =D

I'm a stickler for proper grammar, but I don't bug people about it. I'm a perfectionist about myself, not other people. Besides... it takes too long to think about the acronym I should use for "Sorry it took me so long! My cat got stuck in the dryer again!"

I think that translates to "sry 4 d-lay cat stuk n dryr"

That just took me a whole two minutes to type that little bit of bad English, haha. I find that simply typing out the whole word is much quicker, lazier, and easier to read and understand.

It's a learning experience for my readers! Haha.

I don't like to write like that because it makes me feel like I seem unintelligent. Some of my friends do that and I'm always correcting them. It's actually really annoying. Although, I don't exactly understand why you aren't supposed to. I agree that people should type correctly but I have my own reasons, and I'm not sure I get Menewsha's reasoning. Either way, I definately prefer proper English :D

Originally Posted by Melissa

lol, lmao, wtf, btw, stfu, and omg.

Those are the only ones I remember and make sense (to me that is). People use QFE all the time and it took me forever to figure out what it meant. There are some others I've had to look up before (thank you google).

What is QFE?

It took me forever to figure out what SAHM and MILF meant. It also took me forever to realize what FTW meant. (Stay at home mom, mother I'd like to f**k, for the win, respectively)

Chat speak is way annoying...

Oh, I can read chat speak perfectly, but there really isn't a need to type in such a fashion in my opinion (imo?)
I don't know the difference between chatspeak and typos though, someone would type U and I would think of it as a typo of I.

@ Bunai: Unfortunately, that's just how the internet is. Those who jeer at illiterates are no better than the illiterates themselves.

I've honestly never typed in netspeak. I've always been a strange, grammar loving child. The only thing I do is add faces--not emoticons--faces like ^^, xD, etc.

I can't read netspeak. I always have to ask people what some thing's mean because I couldn't figure them out. And if you were to give me a sentence in 1337, I would stare at it and then burn it. ^^

However, I understand lazy typing when I'm chatting with someone over aim. Sometimes you just aren't concentrating on typing and you're supposed to be doing something else and only have one hand free. ...it's sometimes hard to understand the message because some letters are missing or incorrectly replaced, but it's excusable in that case.

I don't tend to use many acronyms but I do use sorts of incorrect english, emotes and faces, and type things funny. Basically what I try to attempt, though, is to portray the way I actually talk.
I only l337 when someones doing it to me.

I notice, but what can I do? Even if I tell them they might continue. I use chatspeak too, but only when it's "lol" "wtf" and etc like you. ><

I hate it when others use "u, r, urs" etc instead of "you, are, yours" I don't care about lol etc and things like that, but I do mind the other stuff.

I generally don't use chat speak - but I can read it and use it when I am text messaging on my cell phone sometimes simply because it is faster and saves message space.


Sometimes students will email faculty and use chat speak and acronyms that the faculty don't know so they send me the emails for 'translation' - it's pretty funny :lol:

It doesn't bother me unless it's throughout a post, but I don't do it myself. I know what it does to one's credibility. You immediately think less of a person who uses it, and the more they use it the less you think of them. I hate admitting that, but it is true for me and I have little doubt that it's true for most everyone else too.

Examples?

Hi! I'm new to Menewsha!

Hi!1! im n3w 2 m3n3wsha!

I wouldn't even click on the second one.

I used to talk like that all the time on gaia, until I started talking to my bf on IMs and messages, he always types the words out, and I started to pick it up. now I am a literate poster xD and I see people making comments about illiterate users all the time and I always wonder if people said those comments to me and I didn't know what they meant ^^;
when I'm IMing or just chatting I sometimes use 'idk, lol, lmao' but its easier to type 'idk' then 'I dont know' and can you imagine someone saying 'laughing out loud'? xD

Originally Posted by siaasgn

Sometimes students will email faculty and use chat speak and acronyms that the faculty don't know so they send me the emails for 'translation' - it's pretty funny :lol:

That must be awfully embarrassing. xD

@ Nissa: I appreciate the honesty, and I feel the same, it shows how much effort one puts into their posts, and I respect one for bothering to make my reading experience easier. :3

@ Phantasmagoria: Let us not even imagine the horrors that is..
Person 1: Who's the Soulja Boy's best friend?
Person 2: I dunno, who?
Person 1: YOUUUU
Person 2: LAUGH OUT LOUD!!!!

I hate chat speak. Hate hate hate.
It makes you look illiterate and stupid, if you ask me. I tend to take people way less seriously if they're using 'lol' and 'u' and 'r' in their posts.

I really won't get on your ass about it unless your post starts to give me brain hemorrhages.
If you just use 'lol' once... no, I'm not going to hurt you, but I will secretly judge you. >:]


The only time when it's really acceptable to use chat speak is when you're text messaging. I try to be as literate as I can, but if I happen to be typing a really long message and I run out of characters, I will go back and change 'you' to 'u' or 'are' to 'r' simply because it's easier than sending a second message.

When I type things in forums, I tend to use proper grammar and spelling because it's just common courtesy. Personally, I think that 1337 sp34k is something that should be used for friends only. Using it in forums is like speaking being an American speaking Spanish in an English-only forum. Seriously. When they go to the effort of having you take a test to make it clear that they don't want you speaking 1337 here, why in the world would you intentionally do that? I mean, people should make any effort and I understand if they slip up here and there and accidentally put "lol" or "k" and so on and so forth, but come on. Learn to type correctly, people. Slip ups are fine, but that's the limit.

Originally Posted by Notsilveraura

Using it in forums is like speaking being an American speaking Spanish in an English-only forum.

That's a good way to put it.

Originally Posted by Lady Monoki

Ariel most people understand when things are typed like that, actually I read an article that stated as long as the first and last letters are in place and it has all the letters in the middle just jumbled up than people still understand it. I don’t mean to be rude, but she isn’t speaking about incorrect placement of letters in words but computer acronyms. There is a difference.

I know, I was using it as an example.

I use chatspeak when I'm joking around with people, or for things like "lol", "brb", "afk", and the like.

But, I don't go as far as to replace "you" with "u", "are" with "r", and things like that.

I try to maintain comprehensible sentences, I guess xD

I've never used chatspeak.

I started using the forums when was 11 or 12, and even then I typed everything out. It helped with my spelling a lot.

I only really type like that when I'm on msn or sending pms because I'm only talking to friends, however I don't like other people thinking I'm completely illiterate so when posting in forums I always try my best to type properly, unless I'm just having one of those days. I always make a lot of typos as well since I type quite quickly...that annoys me a lot as I feel compelled to go back and edit.

@ Joviee: That's why Firefox's spell check is my best friend. I can't always find my typos since I'm still learning how to touch-type. >_<;;