Ok. We hijacked another thread on this topic, so I think I am going to go ahead and make the post I have been debating over making for some time. Let me say first, I don't know what the most recent drama involving Lera is, and personally I am not concerned. However, there have been A LOT of posts lately that are full of the internet shorthand also known as l337 (Leet, shorted from elite)speak. This type of language was developed by the internet gaming community to speak across factions in different games. In other words, the good guys could talk to the bad guys whereas before this was developed they would only receive gibberish if they tried to talk to each other. People began using numbers to represent letters, and also shortened words to the point the game system would not notice and prevent players from talking to each other.

On a personal level using this type of short hand on the flute forum does slightly annoy me, but I can say that it is mostly because I can't tell if the people are doing it on purpose or if they are really unaware that their spelling and grammar are that bad. Here is a list of commonly used leet speak and maybe it will help some people better understand the new language, while also allowing other people to make sure they are not mispelling words.

wat- what

i- I. The letter I should ALWAYS be capitalized if you are referring to yourself.

LOL- I think most people know these so I won't get into all of them. This means laugh out loud.

U- You. Now, this one is a personal pet peeve. I implore you to take the two extra seconds it takes to type out the whole word you.

wud- would. This is a horrible spelling of this word.

reali- Really is the correct spelling of this word.

R- are


These are the most commonly used words, however I will keep an eye out and update as I see new words if you all feel like it helps. There are also a few words I intentionally ignored because I am not sure if they are regional variances or attempts at l33t speak.

Now, from a grammar perspective I would like to touch on a few issues.

1. When you start a sentence it should be capitalized, and should end in some sort of punctuation.

2. Excessive use of ... (and I am guilty too) is not good grammar. This is also commonly used on internet forums as a shorthand for "what in the world are you thinking?" If you see a post started with ... it usually means the person thinks what was written was not well thought out and that they disagree. However, seeing ... at the end of a sentence expresses a continued thought.

3. Please use punctuation when typing long sentences or paragraphs. It helps the reader follow your ideas and thoughts.

4. There are words that naturally end with the letter G when spelled correctly. Thinking, wishing, and going are prime examples of words that are usually shortened.

Disclaimer: This was written in an attempt to hopefully help people understand each other a little better. I do not claim to have perfect grammar or typing skills, so if you see an error here, please be gentle .

Thank you, Dottedeighthnote.

Using proper grammar and spelling will be a great help to anyone who comes to this forum in search of help, advice, or opinions. This is especially important to people who do not regularly frequent chatrooms and so do not understand a reply fully unless it is written out, 'longhand'.

In my opinion, the lack of an attempt at proper grammar and spelling is disrespectful to anyone reading your posts.

Please have respect for your fellow forum readers.

A forum participant from a non-English speaking country will have grammar and spelling difficulties as a matter of course. My replies do not apply to non-English speakers.



<Added>

All right, just to lighten up a little bit here:
If we are going to talk about what color flute we would like best, i thnk its ok to babbl wthout worry 2 much.

If somebody's father wants advice about the new flute that he bought for his daughter, and wants to know if his daughter's flute teacher is being inappropriate, I think that the courtesy of proper spelling and grammar is warranted.

Oh for goodness sake.

Love your highlighting of the A in Grammar. I may never have known.

Sorry to say this, but I really don't see how capitalization affects the ability of other members to understand a post. Even though it would be nice for everyone to write perfectly, "..." and lower-cased starting words aren't going to blow anyone's mind.
However, I do agree that we all should avoid internet shorthand because it can be annoying and difficult to read. 'i wud luv 2 sai thanx 4 helpin me owt.' I mean, half of those words are the same length as the real thing they are just spelled differently sai=say; both of those are 3 letters, so what's the point??

Maybe it is just trendy or makes some people feel "different".
In Spanish young people often write with the letter "K" instead of "C" or "Q".
I could never get a reason. Just they want to do it.

I agree that some of the grammer has become outrageous, but we shouldn't be TOO picky. When it crosses the line from being cute and understandable to annoying and difficult to understand, then it is time to change. No one should have to read a post three times because they have no clue what is trying to be said the first two times.
Thank you for the lesson! I am glad that someone brought this up and I hope this doesn't cause a big issue! This forum has always been pretty respectable because we all are kind and understanding, right?
(Spelling does not apply if it is a mistake, right? I know I am not the only one who has problems with the keyboard! )

Ack!

I hope it didn't come across as my trying to be too picky. It was more of an effort to have a light guide with an explanation of why some people type that way. And yes Mrs. Carbs grammar being misspelled is one of my big pet peeves. Why? Who knows?!

I for one am a pretty hardcore gamer, so I see this stuff everyday, however some people may have never run across it at all! I personally find great humor in the fact that my grandpa knows what half of this stuff means and even uses it on his own on occassion. Also, in all seriousness some of the things above can be taken by interpretation like the "...". Like I said, my hope is that maybe this little listing will help everyone understand each other better.

I also agree that good writing, grammar, and spelling skills are very important. I think that we should always try to write using our best skills.
I do not have any difficulties deciphering the misspellings, internet-speak, or stilted grammar. I don't find it difficult, but I wonder why someone would throw their first draft effort up for all to chug through.
All of these problems, plus typos, can be improved through the use of self editing. This seems to be a skill that we forget to employ. Remember, we do have a "preview" option.

I also thank you for emphasizing the correct spelling of "grammar". Remember the School House Rock song?:
"Grammar's not your grandma it's your grammar"!

Celebrian hits the target. There is a thin line between cute and annoying!

my personal opinion on this is that most of the short hand writing in posts is because it comes from younger people like myself we know how to write properly but in some cases when we are talkin to our friends on msn for instance we use short hand as it is often easier and easier to read. but honestly now I cant exactly see how writing shorthand is offensive to anyone i mean writing lol on a post is to me better than saying hahahahaha.

but i agree when makin a point made clearly like in some posts you should write correctly. but when talkin on a more in formal post it shouldnt matter what you type!!!!

Don't worry, DottedEighthNote, you didn't come off as being annoying or anything. I think it's a good thing that someone had a post that covered this.

I fully understand the messenger thing; I have friends who seem to talk like that in real life! It's really frusterating! Ironically, grammer was one of my worst classes!!! Spelling, too! Hah!

I find myself using the little face, though, that schoolgirl uses that is part of the internet lingo thing: ^_^ It's cute and not very annoying, I think!

(thanks, tessa, I had hoped I was getting somewhere! )

HeY ppl!..
ahh..thanks celebrian^_^ heehee.
sry you guys, i usually doesn't use grammer correctly on the internet. i guess i don't have the time to check all my grammer mistakes...but when it comes to giving advices, i think you should spell everything correctly and all that so ppl can understand you.
ya know, i don't have a lot of advices to give out..so maybe that's why!:D
i'm usually the person that learns.

DottedEighthNote,
Thank you for that post. I have a question for you since you know all this stuff and I am still rather lost with it.
What the heck does :D mean? I see it a lot and have always wondered.

I am afraid that I am guilty of using Lol a lot as I tend to laugh a lot in life. It is easier to express myself, though I am sure it comes off as me being some kind of air head. I am always using a spell checker! I also agree with Celebrian said as there is a thin line between cute and annoying. I feel as though it can be disrespectful to your readers when using l337 on a flute forum.

:D is a really big open-mouthed smile,like laughing

Just to remind everyone, the word is spelled g-r-a-m-m-A-r. The ending is "ar" not "er". No big deal, just thought I'd share that again. Everyone understands what word is being used either way it is spelled, so no big deal.