The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Backspace Graeme Hague |
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Graeme Hague thought it might be an idea to educate people on the language of online forums and newsgroups. Not ours of course! |
lot of you may agree that the
English language, particularly
n its written form, is pretty well going down the toilet. It used to be a
battle just to keep the
"u" in colour and labour, now it's a problem getting people to use
proper words at all. A colleague at my old work place once sent me an email
along the lines of "C U @ the bosses (sic) office in 1 hour 4 meeting".
He probably
spent more time and effort trying to figure out the clever abbreviations, than
he would have simply writing it normally. Irritated, my reply was to suggest
that his teenage son,
if he were to write like this in a school exam, would totally fail.
Which apparently earned me a resounding "Fail" in workplace politics.
By the way, before we get any deeper into the latest in new language, "fail" is
the current word for any poor result. Lose a
game, miss a green traffic light, get dumped in a relationship, fired from your
job... it's known as a "fail".
For example, "Did you get that cute girl to go out with you?" Reply, "It was a
fail" (no good).
Which at least is a real word.
Otherwise, lower-case acronyms, abbreviations and combinations
of letters with characters that are supposed to be graphical messages, not
spelling, are taking over. It wouldn't be so bad, if it was restricted to SMS
messages between teenagers, but respectable internet forums are also getting
littered with this stuff leaving crusty old codgers like me scratching our
heads wondering what the hell is being said. It's even called "forumspeak".
So in the interests of given those of us who are illiterate in forumspeak a few
hints, here is a guide to the more common terms. Many are based in online
gaming, but have crossed over into common use. I have to admit, some of it is
fascinating and even funny. And yes, some is a bit silly, but here goes...
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KK: Okay. Believe it or not, it's easier to type KK than OK. And they say kids
today aren't lazy. LOL: Laugh out loud (You found something funny) ROFL: Roll on the floor laughing. ROFLMAO: Roll on the floor laughing my arse off. (Plainly, this concept can be taken too far). FTW: For the win or FTL which is "For the lose". So you might see, "Yay Obama FTW!" or just an expression of support like "Windows Vista FTW!" (which would be unlikely). AFK: Away from my keyboard. AFK BIO: Away from my keyboard using the toilet. BRB: Be right back. BTVV: By the way. FWIW: For what it's worth. FYI: For your information. GG: Good game. GTG: Got to go. HTH: Happy to help. HAND: Have a nice day. IMHO: In my humble opinion or, for people who aren't humble. IMO. |
Someone very skilled is considered elite, but this is shortened to "leer and
then, just to annoy people like me, "l33t". Making matters worse, there is an
intensifying suffix "zor". To be
regarded as "l33t" is a compliment. If you're "l33tzor" then you're
right up there with the best.
Forget words, no matter how much they've been distorted. Sometimes it's not
about language. "QQ" suggests you're a whinger -the two Q's are crying eyes.
And ":P" viewed sideways is a face with a silly grin or tongue hanging out - to
say the message isn't to be taken seriously.
Hmm... maybe we shouldn't be taking any of the above seriously and it will go
away? After all,
the Spice Girls and Windows 98 didn't last forever. But if you're a constant
user of forums I don't like your chances. So it's better not to QQ about
forumspeak. Acronyms FTW! Learn them until you're l33tzor at acronyms and
you'll
pwn every thread you post to.
Reprinted from the February 2009 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
