1337 Speak

[Anglachel]

What are your opinions on 'leetspeak'. Personally I would prefer it if people consider maybe not thinking about possibly using it. Call me a hypocrite as I 'lol' as much as the next person, but when I am posting I at least use full stops, capitals and you know, generally use language as it is supposed to be.

You know there is a point to paragraphs and full stops. It makes it easier on the eye, easier to read. I'm sure many of you would have struggled to read through a post by someone, somewhere, who unfortunately had a huge block of text with no paragraphs, no capitals, generally bad grammar and hundreds of spelling mistakes. Don't you wish they could have taken an extra minute to type reasonably; it doesn't take that much effort. I'm sure you thought they were quite mature, sophisticated and iltelligent too.

Now apparently I am completely wrong in thinking this *cough* IRC... Because apparently I failed to notice that 99% of the population already talks in 1337 outside of the Internet and in English assignments and what not. Oh and I might also add that I've been called wrong for thinking English is a valuable subject in schools and should be kept in the curriculum.

Please discuss kind and noble forum resident who never even 'consider' flaming people :D Have a nice day!

Yours sincerely,

-Anglachel


PS: There is more to the English language than just spelling.

 

[zealex]

Hate it. I don't get why people use it, makes them look uneducated and retard-ish to me :p

 

[Lackluster]

Hate it. I don't get why people use it, makes them look uneducated and retard-ish to me :p

Don't even make me start following you around, pointing out every word you spell incorrectly and every comma you omit. Also, "Hate it" isn't a sentence; therefore it should not have a period following it.

 

[Spades]

Ah, Very good point. When it comes to the IRC I use a form on 1337. I don't r3pl4ce l3773rs w17h num83rs because that is just plain wrong and stupid in my opinion. I just don't usually place periods at the end of my sentences or capitals or apostrophes in the sentences, but I know that the IRC and the forums is different, thats why I use my capitols, my apostrophes and my periods to end sentences and things like that.

 

[zealex]

Don't even make me start following you around, pointing out every word you spell incorrectly and every comma you omit. Also, "Hate it" isn't a sentence; therefore it should not have a period following it.

Nippletwister :p
English isn't my first language and I think I can speak it good enough.
I still remember the times when I was like 10 years old or so, and people sometimes asked where I'm from and what's my first language, since I speak English so fluent. XD

 

[Anglachel]

Yeah I have seen a lot of people on these forums who use English as their second language, and a lot of them speak really good English. Even if they don't speak it too well I am not going to hold it against them.

...But if there are people out there with English as a second language speaking it so well, English speakers have no excuses.

Don't even make me start following you around, pointing out every word you spell incorrectly and every comma you omit. Also, "Hate it" isn't a sentence; therefore it should not have a period following it.

He used decent grammar. I’m sure that’s all anyone’s asking for. Besides, why are you bother to point that out when you advocate leet-speak? Easier that arguing?




…Don’t hurt me :P

 

[Lackluster]

Yeah I have seen a lot of people on these forums who use English as their second language, and a lot of them speak really good English. Even if they don't speak it too well I am not going to hold it against them.

...But if there are people out there with English as a second language speaking it so well, English speakers have no excuses.



He used decent grammar. I?m sure that?s all anyone?s asking for. Besides, why are you bother to point that out when you advocate leet-speak? Easier that arguing?




?Don?t hurt me :P

I promote chatspeak in chat channels and regular English in the forums and in term papers. *rolls eyes*

 

[lunarea]

As far as I know, the shorthand speech (like using "u" instead of "you") stems from the early text-messaging days (probably before that too, in the old newspaper advertising pay-by-letter). Messages used to be billed per letter sent, so this was a pretty smart way to keep the cost down. Later on, kids used this so they could type privately to their friends while being monitored by parents (who were completely oblivious and confused by the whole thing).

That being said, I can understand where certain occasions of this kind of written speech is acceptable. And chat (i.e. IRC) being a kind of environment where you sometimes have to make quick replies could possibly fall into the acceptable category. It still makes me cringe, but I can understand it.

However, I don't think it has any place in a forum-based environment. Fact is, we can all sit here and take our time composing messages, proofreading and generally edit what you're typing so that your post is as clear as possible. There isn't a need to rush because responses aren't immediate (unless someone happens to be reading, but that isn't a sure thing anyway). If you've got something real urgent to ask/talk about, there are other ways of getting an immediate answer.

Personally, I don't like the whole shorthand/l33t speech. I like typing out my words and reading posts that are equally typed-out. I don't throw a fit over grammar or spelling mistakes (though I note them in my head), but I am more impressed by people who can spell properly and use the right grammar. Not only do they seem more mature, but it makes their posts a lot easier to read.

My 2 cents

 

[Lackluster]

As far as I know, the shorthand speech (like using "u" instead of "you") stems from the early text-messaging days (probably before that too, in the old newspaper advertising pay-by-letter). Messages used to be billed per letter sent, so this was a pretty smart way to keep the cost down. Later on, kids used this so they could type privately to their friends while being monitored by parents (who were completely oblivious and confused by the whole thing).

That being said, I can understand where certain occasions of this kind of written speech is acceptable. And chat (i.e. IRC) being a kind of environment where you sometimes have to make quick replies could possibly fall into the acceptable category. It still makes me cringe, but I can understand it.

However, I don't think it has any place in a forum-based environment. Fact is, we can all sit here and take our time composing messages, proofreading and generally edit what you're typing so that your post is as clear as possible. There isn't a need to rush because responses aren't immediate (unless someone happens to be reading, but that isn't a sure thing anyway). If you've got something real urgent to ask/talk about, there are other ways of getting an immediate answer.

Personally, I don't like the whole shorthand/l33t speech. I like typing out my words and reading posts that are equally typed-out. I don't throw a fit over grammar or spelling mistakes (though I note them in my head), but I am more impressed by people who can spell properly and use the right grammar. Not only do they seem more mature, but it makes their posts a lot easier to read.

My 2 cents

Since when does proper grammar and spelling reflect upon maturity? I'm pretty much the most immature prick on these forums and even I use them.

 

[PINEDAXP]

Since when does proper grammar and spelling reflect upon maturity? I'm pretty much the most immature prick on these forums and even I use them.

I agree.

You all should consider, on this whole grammar obsession, that not just all of the members here and in any other forums, speak/type/write english a their primary language.

 

[lunarea]

Like I said, that's my personal opinion. I'm just aware of the fact that I usually consider people who can spell and use proper grammar as mature until they prove otherwise.

There was no implication that proper speech = maturity.

 

[PeteD2S]

Leet speak isn't "rofl, lol, lmao", not using ' or , or ., and several other gramatical errors people comit in chat rooms. It's understandeable, I also speak like that. Speaking leet is stupid and imature, used for bypassing games curse word filters and acting 1337 (or stupid). (r0f1, u |\|u8 u $u[|< $0 |\/|u[|-|, see how annoying it is...)

In forums we should all use proper english (or atleast try), it's not an IM system so no need for hurries.

 

[Mac]

How ironic is this? I arose an issue about this in IRC the other night...basically i think it's the most pointless way to write and its just plan annoying.

I like to think i'm a very helpful mod and member of this community and i try my best to help people out but when i get pm's and comments with stuff like "LAWL!!! Just tride ur $cript, it ROXXARS! But how make compat with RTBA????!!?!?!?!?!" that kinda defeats the objective of being able to help people out and it generally gives me a headache, why can't people just speak properly....i wish we could abolish leet.

:/

 

[PeteD2S]

How ironic is this? I arose an issue about this in IRC the other night...basically i think it's the most pointless way to write and its just plan annoying.

I like to think i'm a very helpful mod and member of this community and i try my best to help people out but when i get pm's and comments with stuff like "LAWL!!! Just tride ur $cript, it ROXXARS! But how make compat with RTBA????!!?!?!?!?!" that kinda defeats the objective of being able to help people out and it generally gives me a headache, why can't people just speak properly....i wish we could abolish leet.

:/

I don't think people that speak like that are very good at english (exclude the ROXXARS and LAWL). Still, they could be more educated and maybe apologize for not speaking english so well.

 

[Reives]

Sadly, I consciously discriminate against people who use text-messaging styles such as "u" for "you" on forums (msn excluded). . . I know that it obviously doesn't show anything about their actual mental capacity/maturity and all that, and I keep telling myself it, yet still I can't help but cringe. :< It's like an instinct.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

You can't look at someone's grammer, spelling, or the way they annoy you by saying "u r kool", and pass judgment on intelligence. Some of the smartest people I know can barely spell. But that's not truly leet... that's like people who spell through and threw as thru...

Leet isn't a "dumb" thing. If it were, would it be so easy to figure out what half the possible outcomes for combinations of symbols and numbers are? They appear to be, because we've already seen it so many times. Leet's actually quite crafty in it's roots, honestly. It took typing out 80085, and 07734 (damn this font for not having a 4 that would fit properly) and making that say "boobs" and "hello" into a whole definable code.

Once you get the clues, it's easy. But there's still times when I see whole sentences and my head breaks trying to figure it all out - and there's people out there that can read it like you would read this.

-end rant on how 1337 isn't 'dumb'.
-being rant on how 1337 is annoying.

I've used it as a mock, to poke a little fun. But it honestly annoys the hell out of me because I really don't want to have to spend that extra half second to decode. It annoys me the exact same amount when someone who is fluent in English decides to start speaking Spanglish to me. Do I really need to have a translator? Do I really need to take that extra step to decode? It doesn't take long, but it is annoying.

7h3 0n|y 600d 7h1n6 480u7 |337 15 7h3 51mp|3 f4(7 7h47 17 (4n 83 0((4510n4||y (0m1(4|. R4r3|y 8u7 17 (4n 83. 7h3 m057 u53fu|n355 17 h45 7h47 1 (0u|d f1nd 15 7h47 wh3n 50m30n35 1n 4 (h47 4nd 1 d0n'7 w4n7 7h3m 70 533 wh47 1'm wr171n6, 8u7 d0n7 f33| |1k3 P|\/|1n6 7h3 3n71r3 6r0up. 7h3 84d 7h1n6 15 7h47 1 571|| u53 (0mm45 4nd pr0p3r 6r4mm4r - 0r n34r pr0p3r 6r4mm4r.

Then again, like I said, it's really only good for me for comical situations or when I don't want to constantly PM individuals in a chat and don't want that one guy to read what I'm saying - who obviously wouldn't know 1337, otherwise I hit up another code. The funny thing is, other than the grammar thing I mentioned, I still spell things out mostly correctly... though I do make more mistakes than normal.

 

[Kraft]

I still have a hard time decoding it...

It annoys the heck out of me!

I can only make out a few words in your sentence, but other than a few words... (I think I see the word "usefulness" in the second row)

But yeah... And it takes forever to type as well!

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Kraft, you did see usefulness
[translation]the only good thing about leet is the simple fact that it can be occasionally comical. rarely but it can be. the most usefulness it has that i could find is that when someones in a chat and i don't want them to see what I'm writing, but don't feel like PMing the entire group. The bad thing is that I still use commas and proper grammar - or near proper grammar.[/translation]

.. - .. ... .-.. .. -.- . -- --- .-. ... . -.-. --- -.. . .-.-.-
...- . .-. -.-- ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. - --- - .... --- ... . .-- .... --- -.-. .- -. ..- ... . .. - .-.-.-
-.-- . ... .-.-.- .. ' -- .--- ..- ... - ... .... --- .-- .. -. --. --- ..-. ..-. -... -.-- - .... .. ... .--. --- .. -. - .-.-.-

[translation]It is like Morse Code.
Very useful to those who can use it.
Yes. I'm just showing off by this point.[/translation]

Hmm... I'm out of acceptable codings now... I'll have to learn a new code now - if for no other reason than showing off some more