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Rank: Forum Guru
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Was chatting to a friend and the term 'LOL' came up. She was saying how it annoys her because it's used to death. So it got me thinking about why people revert to using these 'hip and trendy' abbreviations, rather than relying on conventional words to express themselves. When texting first became popular people used lol and other abbreviations because the couldn't be bothered to spend time typing on what is, lets face, a sad excuse for a keyboard on the mobile phone. When I text I use abbreviations to save time, because I hate texting.
But when you have a proper qwerty keyboard it seems strange that people still use abbreviations. I think a lot of people use it to demonstrate that they are still in touch with modern trends. I also have friends who have found that lol is used instead of that wonderfully ironic phrase "I don't want to upset you but..." When one of my friends told a man that she was offended by his text he replied "r u going off me lol".
I sometimes think about inventing my own ones just to wind up smug people who use lol to death. I would have a graduated scale that works like this.
mms - made me smile
gal - giggled a little
footsaral - fell off of the seat and rolled around laughing
You could also have ones to communicate displeasure or boredom?
stiyu - So tedious I'm yawning uncontrollably
soidyaaf - so offended I'm deleting you as a friend
waw - what a wanker!
So how about it guys. Lets have some suggestions for some new abbreviations. If we come up with some good ones we could start using them and, who knows, given time they may become part of text speak worldwide.
ttfn (Oh that's "Ta Ta For Now" actually used in U.K. in the seventies)
K
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Rank: Constant Gardener
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ROFLMFAO 
 The best thing you can do for your fellow,
next to rousing his conscience, is - not to give him things
to think about, but to wake things up that are in him...
to make him think things for himself - George MacDonald
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Quote:soidyaaf - so offended I'm deleting you as a friend this one may take off .... or less letters - fui (fuck you idiot)
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NIDWTCAGYHOOMA - No i don't want to cyber and get your hand off of my ass. :)
 Bitches in the Basement on Amazon by our own Dancing Doll
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Rank: Forum Guru
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GTGC = Got To Get Coffee
And in case no-one is aware the so called "text-speak" actually goes back as far as 1888 and was used in Newspaper Advertising in that time period as all was handset and had to pay in some cases by the letter so a lot was abbreviated to make most from your advertising dollar.
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Shotgun011 wrote:GTGC = Got To Get Coffee
And in case no-one is aware the so called "text-speak" actually goes back as far as 1888 and was used in Newspaper Advertising in that time period as all was handset and had to pay in some cases by the letter so a lot was abbreviated to make most from your advertising dollar. so true .... and then the various militaries have always used acronyms (the original txt chatting?) snafu is just one that made it into main stream (situation normal, all fucked up) with all the military people here, I am sure some can add to this ....
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Rank: Forum Guru
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Thanks for the responses. A friend of mine who was unaware of textspeak was over the moon when a prosepective date put LOL in a text. She thought he meant 'lots of love' and was getting really excited about meeting him. Thought he had fallen for her. When they met up, however, he was a PITA (pain in the arse) and he never got in touch after their meeting.
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when i comes to language im kind of a purist so for a long time i hated textspeak. but then i realized its just another dialect and sort of fun and challenging too! provided i can think of it as actually not english then im ok. lol.
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I can't stand txtspeak and don't use it. I don't ever lol or roflmao. I am guilty of shortening some words when texting or IMing on Lush. "Tho" and "thru" are about as close as I get. I have created some acronyms with friends, tho! ;)
Amended: I do use "FFS" ALL the time!!
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TTFN was one of Tigger's sayings in the disney winnie the pooh movies
I don't mind the standard ones and I do use OMW, BRB, LOL, and K pretty regularly and probably a couple of others. I think at this point everyone knows them, so it's just a form of shorthand. I often have to delete parts of what I'm saying in both SMS and online lush messages and replace words, because my message is too long. I only get irritated when I can't figure out what the hell people are saying.
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When my cousin was in her mid teens she would even hand write text speak.
It annoyed the fuck out of me.
There is a really good example on "Not another teen movie" when Priscilla says.
"I need t-to-the-fourth-power-y"
Which means "Time to talk to you."
Axl - Take a look at our piercing menu.
Daria - I don't think that's how you spell "uvula."
Axl - That's not "uvula."
From: "Daria" episode "Pierce Me"
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I cannot stand text speak. I can take the little things like lol, wtf omg but I have had to stop texting and delete friends because it takes way to much time and thought to figure out what they are saying. I feel like they have to spend hours figuring out how to make these weird words when it really is faster to just say it how it really is
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wot u sa....hell yes i find it annoying but i guess i am just too old to keep up with the trend...lol
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Ok so i'm 19, sometimes I will textspeak when I am actually texting friends on my phone. But a lot of times I will write out everything because if not my one friend will beat me up, she likes proper texts. When I mess up, I'll apologize to her
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Rank: Lurker
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SSMS - Stop sending me shite. In the case of the annoying friend who texts you the following
1) Any kind of religious jesus loves you bullshit
2) Chain mail messages e.g. forty million kids in China will die if you don't foward it on
3) Old jokes( yeah I got this one first in like 2005).Add in any tasteless ones involving dead celebrities too.
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99% of the time, I can´t understand text speak. If you´re capable of writing actual english, then do so.
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Text speak!! The person who brought it into the mainstream should be shot with a ball of their own shite. OK, if you must use it. do it where it was designed for.
As far as I am concerned, textspeak is on the same level - way down - as some of the ways that people accept for "modern" spelling of words!!!!!
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Text speak is fine in its proper place. It saves time when jotting a quick note off to a friend. Ppl=People Tho=Though are just a couple of shortforms I'll use. If I use LOL it usually means I've laughed or giggled at whatever was said. If something makes me really laugh I'll use LMAO. But when I see "Wot" or "Dis" it drives me crazy. It takes one more letter to make it a proper word so I consider it pure laziness when I see it used. I use to use acronyms alot when I worked as a bartender... I think my favorite one was FOCUS We (me and my coworkers) used it as a passive aggressive way in dealing with the drunken idiots while still keeping our jobs, but able to have a good laugh about them. So if you ever hear someone say FOCUS it means "F*ck Off Cause Ur Stupid"
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TheDevilsWeakness wrote:Text speak is fine in its proper place. It saves time when jotting a quick note off to a friend. Ppl=People Tho=Though are just a couple of shortforms I'll use.
If I use LOL it usually means I've laughed or giggled at whatever was said. If something makes me really laugh I'll use LMAO.
But when I see "Wot" or "Dis" it drives me crazy. It takes one more letter to make it a proper word so I consider it pure laziness when I see it used.
I use to use acronyms alot when I worked as a bartender... I think my favorite one was FOCUS
We (me and my coworkers) used it as a passive aggressive way in dealing with the drunken idiots while still keeping our jobs, but able to have a good laugh about them.
So if you ever hear someone say FOCUS it means "F*ck Off Cause Ur Stupid" Damn I wish I would have known that yesterday, changes the whole tone of our conversation now! 
The night that changed my life, a four part series of a married man lusting after his co-worker 
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Hey now! I only said for you to FOCUS twice! Third times the charm...
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textspeak is OK if it is a text on my phone, but that's the only time I care to see it.
My first story for Lush is posted, The Goodbye Fuck.http://www.lushstories.com/stories/straight-sex/the-goodbye-fuck.aspx
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beowulf69 wrote:textspeak is OK if it is a text on my phone, but that's the only time I care to see it. I agree .... should be used in context the shortened acronyms are OK with me in email or during chat here.
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i must admit i use lol a lot but it is because i know most people knows what it means but it about the only textspeak word i use. i don't even use text on phone, if you want to talk on phone, let's talk, not type, unless it's an emergency and somewhere you can't actually talk.
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I can excuse the OMGs and ROFLs etc but otherwise it makes my eyes ache..... xx SF
"I would do anything for love, including the thing Meatloaf won't do... (In fact, I sometimes insist upon it...)"xx SF
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I hate it....but that's because I teach high school English :)
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Eden wrote:I hate it....but that's because I teach high school English :) A High School English Teacher on Lush.......... (That's MY next story sorted!!!!!) JOKING!!!!! xx SF
"I would do anything for love, including the thing Meatloaf won't do... (In fact, I sometimes insist upon it...)"xx SF
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I use LOL heaps to show that I'm joking around but I found another version which I might start using  
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I must admit I do use LOL as a few times my comments have been taken as serious, so it is my way of covering my back and making sure that the person knows that I am joking, however, I don't like other forms of text speak.
IAHGTWAS - in a hurry got to write another story
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stephanie wrote:
I can excuse the OMGs and ROFLs etc but otherwise it makes my eyes ache..... xx SF
I use those myself admittedly or LOL LMAO but generally I don't do all that much textspeak it just hurts my head sometimes reading it trying to figure out WTF(my only other favorite) it is
“I'm not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I'm not looking for the secret to life.... I just go on from day to day, taking what comes.” ~Frank Sinatra~
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What's text speech?
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