What's wrong with great as gr8?.

Not everyone knows Chat-speak. It would be as if someone was posting in middle english. It can be read, but it has to be deciphered. Why be irritating when you can be easily understood?

In the end, it comes down to whether you want people to understand you at first glance, or if you want them to sit there and wonder what you're saying--knowing that half the time people will assume that if you couldn't be bothered to spell the word out, you couldn't be bothered to have something worthwhile to say.

yeah whatever I still love chat speak. UP the REBELS!!! :)

- I speed-read; I scan over the body of the text and pick out relevant points, and if it interests me I read it thoroughly. Chatspeek irritates all hell out of me so I don't bother trying - besides, everyone seems to have their own "dialect" which leads to the need to ask "could you repeat the in English please, I don't understand?"

...plus, chatspeek/AOLspeek/whatever just makes a person look childish, like they don't have the ability to construct a proper sentence with real words.

I mean, imagine you're looking on an art gallery which doesn't show thumbnails but text links. You see two links; "OMG i drew ths 4 my friend their a gr8 drawer lol!!!1" and "This is a detailed watercolour and pencil illustration I was commissioned to draw by a friend of mine. Mixed media, taking inspiration from photographs she provided me with." Who would YOU click on to look at if you had just one more click before your computer crashed? I mean, that pencil and watercolour sketch could look like a five-year-old drew it, and the "OMG i are teh gr8 drawer!" be a masterpiece, but hey, you don't know that from the description. AOLspeak is the most ridiculed invention the intarweb has to show for itself - on an instant messenger I admit it has its uses, but this is a forum - you don't HAVE to write fast.

omg coherent writing, lol!!!!!1one!!

Sorry to be a prat but use more full stop's will ya? I got confused reading that post. *faint's* :()

Me either. I hate it with a passion!

me either?

While it may not be in our rules, people continually using chat-speak will be forced to stop doing it. It is annoying, and we want as many people as possible to be able to read the information people post.

Alcar...

i guess nothing is wrong with it, in fact it`s a gr8 idea.
Now my problem is , what am i going to do with all the time i saved by using
two less key strokes ?
But , hey i always though that lol. stood for loser`s official language , so
what do i know ?

I disagree with that. I don't think that it has anything to do with whether people can understand it or not - it's fairly simple to work out most of it. I have a feeling that it's really just down to the fact that it is a pet hate for many people.

If someone's post is filled with something that annoys you, then you're 100% less likely to want to read it.

I don't mind which way we swing chat speak or norm speak as long as i have a good time.

Perhaps by everyone I just meant me. I have trouble reading it quickly. Its about as easy for me to follow as pictograms. And I don't hate it, I just don't use it. But if its been posted by a member who's usually coherent or makes good points, I'll try to read it anyway. I just don't always get it. Like Pwned. Still don't know what word that's trying to be.

My thoughts exactly. People are expected to behave in a mature manner on forums. (Well, maybe not all forums or even most of them out there, but at least on this one.) The point is to have fun while using coherent dialogue, but with some exceptions, such as when the topic is silly and easy-going.

That was so horrible here it is polished.

There that's better I don't think it's perfect, but way more understandable.

Never forget to get your amount of spaces correct and please I beg you capitilize your I's

Yeah, okay, we don't have to go overboard on punctuation and grammar. As long as it is understandable, mistakes shouldn't be frowned upon. We all learn differently, and make mistakes. While I may keep a tight reign on spam, I'm not about to English-ify the forums.

Alcar...

Aww. *puppydog eyes* Please? *waves little Union Flag* *bats eyelashes*

Worth a try, I suppose. :P

Yes let out your english fury.

Is it just me, or has overall use of grammar and proper spelling been going on the up since this topic was created? Slightly, ever so slighty. But at least you don't get posts like 'yeh i lik tht piccy. it best1' anymore. Huzzah. Slight progress. :D

And the adverse effect it seems, is a slight increase in spam, or overally pointless posts. Hopefully it'll sort itself out.

Alcar...

Can't make progress without risks... :p Eventually people will smarten up, I assume. It hasn't been that bad, the spamming... But still, I see your point.

Every choice a consequence.

Phat_man, that is the kind of post we consider spam. It really adds nothing to the discussion. Please refrain from it in the future :)

Alcar...

Well I was just pointing out that this had to do with an old moral. Because Grammar has cleared up, but there is more spam. Meaning something good happened at the expense of there being more of something bad. It was not spam at the least, you guys just didn't know what I was talking about.

You may notice that recently my grammar has became better. This is because I now type it through word, and if there are any mistakes, I can correct them!

You're at the same grammar level as me now, then. Eventually people get older, and have learned more. And I think this bad grammar/pun is a result of....

1. 1st forum ever joined.
2. Previous forums were full of spammers, or noone used grammar/pun.

Or else people, who don't use computers very much, have trouble finding keys. My friends think I must be the world's fastest typer, but it's only because I know where the keys are. So if anyone does have bad grammar/pun, let them. Eventually they learn. Take Alpha, for example. No grammar/pun at all, and now he's good at it. But spam is another thing. Maybe we would class something as spam, and start flaming. But was it really spam? Sometimes it would just be the way they presented their post. For example in a newcomer thread, ''hi there guys im new and want friends im gr8 as a m8'' Now, although that was horrifically presented, it had relevance to the topic, therefore he/she is NOT a spammer. And if people class someone as a spammer, because of posting quality, they never learn to use grammar/pun and just start flaming everybody. I had bad grammar/pun at the start and gayboys like Sligslinger would always start flaming me. Now that they have been banned, or left I saw the better people and learned.

It always comes down to those two points.
I am now trying Microsoft word to see if my grammar improves. LOL

No need Alpha. Youres is quite good now, anyway.

I'm not going to say what I want to say about certain individuals and contribute to the discussion.

On the grammar front, I don't think it needs to be strict, it's nice to be able to read and understand whats being said. But, I think people should have the freedom to use "chat speak" or whatever as long as its not in excess. Things like "Lol" and "@" are fine by me.

I also remain on my viewpoint that you cannot force people to read rules, it'll put them off, and also if members are going to constantly remind them how to make sentences.. They know this already.

I never knew what "@" meant in chat speak. So what does it mean?

@ means 'at'. I hope.

I'm @ Bill's house.
You're a tw@.