Forum postings

[Pecheur]

lol, btw, roflmao, ok are used in daily life, even on TV, so I assume that many people knows them already. "l33t" is not. Come on, I think you know what I mean.

Really? I'm willing to bet a lot of people here don't know what roflmao really means. The problem with imposing rules is, where does one draw the line, there's no point specifying something that you can't evaluate.

[wilfredlgf]

'rolfmao' is understood as 'roll on the floor laughing' but I can't make out the 'mao' part. I still think such sentence can be represented a simple '', don't you think so?

'Asap', 'rsvp', 'sos' are well understood but they too are abbreviations and are widely accepted. The only difference is that these abbreviations are formal and had been used for centuries in everyday transactions.

The internet had only seen major revolution of the past two decades, so I doubt it is acceptable worldwide yet, else you'd see Microsoft memos written in netspeak.

[wood_22_chuck]

rolling on the floor, laughing my a*$ off.

-dave

[kwun]

i think some abbreviation is ok. as to where to draw the line, well, how about from the dictionary? abbreviations like ASAP, RSVP, and even LOL are in the American Heritage Dictionary. however, others like ROFL are not, and only in some acronym finder dictionary.

i think if it is in the American Heritage, it should be ok, otherwise not. if we are looking for where to draw the line, i think that is the best line we can draw.

[Pete LSD]

Hummm, I believe we shouldn't restrict abbreviations strictly mentioned in the American Heritage Dictionary. We have an international audience here.

i think some abbreviation is ok. as to where to draw the line, well, how about from the dictionary? abbreviations like ASAP, RSVP, and even LOL are in the American Heritage Dictionary. however, others like ROFL are not, and only in some acronym finder dictionary.

i think if it is in the American Heritage, it should be ok, otherwise not. if we are looking for where to draw the line, i think that is the best line we can draw.

[kwun]

it is conveniently available online via dictionary.com.....

[bigredlemon]

But this is sticky business we have here - some may get offended no matter how good your intention is as they may think that it's an insult to their level of English.

I think whether the poster INTENDED to speak in some unrecognizable language should be the key factor. It's pretty easier to tell poor grammer from "leet speak"

[bigredlemon]

it is conveniently available online via dictionary.com.....

or urbandictionary.com for the vernacular slangs. But some gibberish is incomprensible to ANY dictionary.

I.e.
I dun no whaza l33t rackit 4me???
geh yonex izda bomb!! kekeke