Is Text Speak Acceptable in Online Forums?

In summary: It is there:Text speak is mostly just being lazy in my opinion. The only times I find it acceptable is in text messages, where it was all derived from - when you're actually counting on keeping it short. In all other situations it's to cover up your lack of spelling and grammar skills, when you still haven't learned to type yet, or the pressure placed on kids to be cool.
  • #36
leroyjenkens said:
o86x6s.jpg

ROFL

(I wanted to post LOL, but three letters messages are too short).
 
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  • #37
I actually rarely "lol" but if I do, it's because I actually did. And I generally only use it in live chat situations. But if I've typed "lol" it's because I'm laughing, out loud, for real, yes.

There's a young at my office who ends every written sentence in casual correspondence with "lol". That drives me nuts, although I do understand that he's not confident enough in his written communication skills that he trusts people will know he's joking when he writes something. Hence, "lol" at the end of each sentence to let you know he's kidding around. He's an actor and a improv comic in his spare time. You'd think he'd know that I realize he jokes around quite a bit.

The rest of text speak gets on my nerves in forum-writing situations, including Facebook. My best friend developed a bad habit of typing messages to me containing "ur". It bothered me so much, I now permanently refer to her as "ur" notwithstanding the context. I use it as a substitute for "you". (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know it's supposed to be short for "you are" but I don't care. If you can type "ur" you can type "you are". As someone else pointed out earlier in this thread, no one is so busy that they must save milliseconds of time.)

Therefore, I write sentences to her such as, "How are ur today?" She caught on really quickly.

I understand text-speak writing for actual text messages. You are restricted to space and message size before it spills into a second message. Plus the tiny keyboards get on my nerves very, very quickly, so I can see the advantage. On Message boards or in e-mail, though? Not a chance. I actually have to slow down and stop and think in order to *not* type out the whole word. I touch-type; it goes quickly.

And yes, I perceive people who write posts or e-mails in text-speak as 1) not too bright, and/or 2) too lazy to be bothered to communicate clearly with me. And if you can't be bothered to speak clearly, then I can't be bothered trying to discuss anything with you. It's too difficult to try and figure out what they're trying to say, because, in my mind, when I read the letters, I "hear" the sounds of the letters and not the words those letters are supposed to stand for.

At my office, though, jokingly, we routinely say "brb" to each other when leaving a room.
 
  • #38
Averagesupernova said:
Ah yes. Text speak. Most people don't realize that the first text speak was invented long before we had voice commincation. Morse code. You think telegraph operators didn't use abreviations?

lisab said:
Ah, good point. There was a whole sub-language used back then.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_code_abbreviations
Except that telegraph operators didn't write in morse code to people.

So, I don't get what is similar. Secretaries used shorthand, they didn't write to people they didn't know in shorthand.
 
  • #39
I also dislike text speak, but I think we do it because of the generation gap. We think its the new generation thing and hence don't like it :wink:
 
  • #40
Siv said:
I also dislike text speak, but I think we do it because of the generation gap. We think its the new generation thing and hence don't like it :wink:
Neither of my girls use text speak when they text, and I know that my youngest does a couple of thousand text messages a month, she says she can't stand text speak.
 
  • #41
My boyfriend is always suspicious when I am sitting behind my laptop laughing. When I do he'll say "you're at PF again, aren't you?" and starts stalking me. So, when I say lol, I mean lol :smile:
 
  • #42
Monique said:
My boyfriend is always suspicious when I am sitting laughing behind my laptop. When I do he'll say "you're at PF again, aren't you?" and starts stalking me. So, when I say lol, I mean lol :smile:

He should join!
 
  • #43
GeorginaS said:
...
At my office, though, jokingly, we routinely say "brb" to each other when leaving a room.

Precisely my thoughts on the subject.

BRB is one of the few I do use. Not because I have to, but generally when I have to use it I'm in a rush to duck out really quickly (been summoned by a higher power in other words). So just hit brb and disappear and people know I'm not going to respond. And then that's only in IM conversations.

That is one of the only occasions I see that justifies the use.
 
  • #44
Monique said:
My boyfriend is always suspicious when I am sitting behind my laptop laughing. When I do he'll say "you're at PF again, aren't you?" and starts stalking me. So, when I say lol, I mean lol :smile:

Whenever my girlfriend sees me on the internet she asks if I'm on Physics Forums, usually it's followed with a yes, by which point she laughs :biggrin:
Oh and you won't catch me laughing too often on PF. More than likely any emotion I show would be shear frustration at some of the comments I read from the new guys up in the homework help section. Especially when they come in here talking in txt speak.
 
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  • #45
Evo said:
Except that telegraph operators didn't write in morse code to people.

So, I don't get what is similar. Secretaries used shorthand, they didn't write to people they didn't know in shorthand.

Ham radio operators aren't people? Depot operators (in the past) weren't people? There is no difference. Someone new to the ham community who could copy morse code efficiently could get on the air and see all these abreviations come in and think: "WTF?
-
My parents who don't text but can easily read a text I would send them would look at my text-speak and say: "What the f...?".
 
  • #46
I've never typed text like messages. I remember when I first saw these texts, I was like WTF! :biggrin:
 
  • #47
drizzle said:
I've never typed text like messages. I remember when I first saw these texts, I was like WTF! :biggrin:

Okay, WTF is another one that's handy both in writing and to say out loud. WTF out loud is *very* funny.
 
  • #48
Evo said:
Except that telegraph operators didn't write in morse code to people.

dit dah dit dit _ dah dah dah _ dit dah dit dit :devil:
 
  • #49
GeorginaS said:
Okay, WTF is another one that's handy both in writing and to say out loud. WTF out loud is *very* funny.

I use that one, out loud. Sometimes just, "W...?"
 
  • #50
That is if you prefer WTF over OMG.
 
  • #51
dlgoff said:
dit dah dit dit _ dah dah dah _ dit dah dit dit :devil:

lol.
 
  • #52
Imagine a irate Ned Flanders text.
 
  • #53
Hey Don, is you're username a short for: "Don will go off"?


I guess once uncoded, right? :truedevil:
 
  • #54
Averagesupernova said:
Ham radio operators aren't people? Depot operators (in the past) weren't people? There is no difference.
That's not talking to the public like getting on a public forum like PF. That's talking to a specific group that uses the code. Big difference.

If someone uses text speak within their group, no problem, the problem is when they get on a public forum and use it.
 
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  • #55
evo said:
that's not talking to the public like getting on a public forum like pf. That's talking to a specific group that uses the code. Big difference.

10-4
 
  • #56
Imho, idm. Ipof, afaik, edi.
 
  • #57
Upisoft said:
10-4



Ten minus four is six, but I guess that's not what you mean.
 
  • #58
  • #59
Evo said:
All right, this thread has met the 3 post criteria, so I'm going off topic because I think this is cool.

The picture of trees is a picture of a cat. From now on all posts will be required to be hidden within the post. or not

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography#Digital_steganography

This reminds me about a programming language named http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_%28programming_language%29" . It uses only white-space characters, so when you print a program you get empty paper only...:-p
 
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  • #60
That's the greatest [s-t-u-p-i-d-e-s-t] idea ever.
 
  • #61
One time i thought i was found, but now this thread makes me feel lost :confused:
 
  • #62
Borek said:
Ten minus four is six, but I guess that's not what you mean.

That's ten-speak (Ten codes)
 
  • #63
Evo said:
All right, this thread has met the 3 post criteria, so I'm going off topic because I think this is cool.

The picture of trees is a picture of a cat. From now on all posts will be required to be hidden within the post. or not

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steganography#Digital_steganography

You mean like this? :devil:

143hmxe.png
 
  • #64
lisab said:
You mean like this? :devil:

I know. There is a headache hidden in the picture...:cry:
 
  • #65
lisab said:
You mean like this? :devil:

143hmxe.png
AAARRGHHH, my eyes!

Is that a *magic eye* type picture? I loved those books.
 
  • #66
leroyjenkens said:
Sometimes shorthand makes no sense. It's supposed to speed up typing, but it doesn't. I've seen shorthand where the person just omits one letter from the word. That's just pointless. There are no benefits to it. It makes you look stupid, it puts you in a habit of misspelling words, it's harder to read and it doesn't save much time, if any. If I type "are you serious?", it takes less than a second. If I type "r u srs?", it takes basically the same amount of time. No one is so strapped for time that they need to save milliseconds.

Don't mean to derail any conversations going on at this moment, please continue...

The text quoted in Leroy's post had me chuckling. To expand on his comment, taking one to two minutes typing something that could easily be left as a voice mail in less than ten seconds is wasteful.

My daughter texts at least 200 - 400 times per day, just think of all the time being wasted. I would be willing to bet that her important texts could be reduced by a factor of ten or more. She uses plenty of "text slang" as well.

Rhody...

P.S. Another pet peeve is trying to talk to someone and they keep being interrupted by and paying attention to their incoming text's instead of the conversation. This drives me nuts. I usually disengage from them. If they continue the bad habit after a polite reminder about it, then from them for good. Some people seem blissfully unaware of what they are doing however...
 
  • #67
Evo said:
AAARRGHHH, my eyes!

Is that a *magic eye* type picture? I loved those books.

aaaw, I'm so sad :cry:. It's a Fourier transform of a secret message, but when I copy it and feed it backwards through the software, it gets garbled. Dang.

Nevermind :frown:.
 
  • #68
lisab said:
aaaw, I'm so sad :cry:. It's a Fourier transform of a secret message, but when I copy it and feed it backwards through the software, it gets garbled. Dang.

Nevermind :frown:.
Why yes! I see that now! :smile:
 
  • #70
Text speak where it doesn't belong is just an immaturity thing. No more irritating than a lot of the other things teenagers do.
 

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