Text message speak...

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Does text speak, irritate the hell out of you?
Why do people insist on writing like this, whether they are text messaging or not?
It is fast becoming a problem, as teens are having major problems with spelling and grammar. It seems to me, that mostly people 20 or above are not having these problems as they had already finished or nearly finished their secondary level education by the time text speak became popular, but to be honest, I think that many people younger than that are completely f**ked.
How the hell is something like this;

"Alrt m8, wts d crc wth ya? Dya wnna mt up smtme 4 a pnt & a cht? xxx86i34ncxxxdxjedjd -Bob"

supposed to be easy to understand and there's far worse examples, this one is mild in comparison.
Should the boards.ie mods be stricter on text speak. There have been more incidents occuring in the forums every day. Perhaps a 3 day ban for the first text offence, a week ban for the second, a month ban for the third and if they haven't gotten the message by then, a lifetime ban, should be put in place. Does anyone have any opinions on this?

alan_simon

well I know that several forums have a ban on text speak. The military forum is the one that I'm certain has a ban, but I'm sure there's plenty more. To be honest, text speak isn't that big a deal. I myself swear by it, I'm 17, but I still know when to use txt talk and when not to. Like now. I, like all of my mates, can be eloquent and verbose when required, but txt speak is very handy when u want to bang off a quick message!

I hate text speak. There is absolutely no call for it when you are sitting in front of a computer. I think the three day ban that Captain Negative mentioned would be a good idea.

biko

It's banned in a lot of forums
*like your sig

passive

I myself swear by it, I'm 17, but I still know when to use txt talk and when not to

But in these days of meteor free texts for pretty much everyone under 20 and anyone over 20 with common sense (my parents, for example) and T9 autotext for anyone who's bothered learning it/isn't dyslexic (not insulting, that just seems to be a problem for some people figuring it out) there is no time to use it, other than within the circles that tnk iz d wy u tk wn txting ur m8s.

Blush_01

Cian, have you failed to notice one of the other threads on this same topic that appears to spring up on a weekly basis? You have? Alrighty then.

Blah blah blah, full keyboard. Blah blah blah cheapskate. Blah blah blah, general gist it's a bloody stupid idea and lets beat it out of kids at a young age.

If you can't get your point across in one text, get a Meteor/Vodafone phone and use it for free texts, or just call the person you want to contact.

Bleh.

star-pants

I must admit I do hate text speak... Ok in a text message, if you're like two or three letters over the '1 message' limit, you can shorten things. I'll do that with u, &, ur, y, cuz, etc, or leave out apostrophes but in general I wouldn't ever type something like the example you've given even in a text... because it's just annoying! and most headwrecking to read (especially outside the text message format) Like when you flick onto someones webpage and it's all like that, I just can't be bothered!! lol..
I think that if you have a keyboard in front of you and unlimited charactures (that word doesn't look right...)then why not just type out the full word? ?? It's not like it takes forever to type.
So... I don't know if there are any rules regarding 'text speak' on boards but I guess it would be rather annoying if threads were written in extreme text language.

passive

biko It's banned in a lot of forums
*like your sig

his sig; Grá don teanga.
Grá don gaeilge.

isn't that, em, a bit repetitive?

Dave!

Dear god...

No, text speak doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I use it all the time when I'm texting someone, because it saves me money.

I have yet to receive a reply from friends (including foreign ones) or family (including parents) saying that they don't understand it.

Imagine that.

Blush_01

Teanga implies the spoken word.

o1s1n

DaveMcG wrote:

I use it all the time when I'm texting someone, because it saves me money.

How poor are you?

Also Starring LeVar Burton

There was one user awhile back, who refused to write anything but txt in her posts. I don't know if she got banned or just left because no one would talk to her, because they couldn't understand what she was saying or didn't have the time to bother translating it to words.
I agree with you star-pants about changing 'you' to 'u' and some other obvious ones occasionally, but it's absolutely headwrecking trying to read a whole message with no vowels. Generally when I'm texting I use complete words and correct grammar.

Ps. Úna, surely you know by now, I'm not that perceptive and generally start discussing topics that have been discussed for years, under the impression that it hasn't been done before. For this I apologise, I guess I'm just too busy thinking about Brie and Yellow.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

passive wrote:

isn't that, em, a bit repetitive?

Yes, it's meant to be. If you say something twice, but with different phrasing, people are more likely to absorb the information and take heed to it. I like to think of it as a Jedi mind trick.

Dudess

CaptainNegative wrote:

It seems to me, that mostly people 20 or above are not having these problems as they had already finished or nearly finished their secondary level education by the time text speak became popular

My arse! 20-year-olds only did the leaving two or three years ago (one year ago in some cases). Text-speak became popular a good while before 2004. I know people in their 30s who type in text-speak. To be honest, it annoys me on phones too - especially when done by those who should know better. For example, my 60-year-old mum uses text-speak. It's because it saves time and she can't figure out how to use predictive texting, but it's still embarrassing!

alan_simon wrote:

well I know that several forums have a ban on text speak. The military forum is the one that I'm certain has a ban, but I'm sure there's plenty more. To be honest, text speak isn't that big a deal. I myself swear by it, I'm 17, but I still know when to use txt talk and when not to. Like now. I, like all of my mates, can be eloquent and verbose when required, but txt speak is very handy when u want to bang off a quick message!

Yes indeed, you do have an excellent grasp of grammar, punctuation and spelling. Why dumb it down?

Obviously (see my sig) I violently loathe text-speak. It makes an otherwise intelligent person seem like an idiot.

DaveMcG wrote:

I use it all the time when I'm texting someone, because it saves me money.

Are you charged by the letter or something? (If you are, that one's news to me).

I have yet to receive a reply from friends (including foreign ones) or family (including parents) saying that they don't understand it.

Imagine that.

Again, you've a good command of grammar and punctuation. I guess I just assume that anyone who does would abhor text-speak like I do.
The problem isn't whether people understand it - they generally do. It just looks awfully sloppy and lazy and... thick really. But the OP is talking about people who use text-speak in situations outside of actual mobile phone texting.

And lack of punctuation is another peeve of mine. How can a person be happy with something they have texted, typed or written when there are no breaks in it?

E.g. Hey r u heading out 2nite ill b n brog after 9 neway mayb c u l8r sinead

Translation: Hey! Are you heading out tonight? I'll be in The Bróg (Cork hostelry) after 9. Anyway, maybe see you later. Sinead.

Would a person talk like that - i.e. just a big long babble without any pauses?

And again, this phenomenon knows no age limit.

Edit: DaveMcG, re the saving money thing: is it because using text-speak means you can send a really long message to one person instead of having to send them three messages to say the same thing in long-hand? Long-hand still offers a huge amount of characters - can't imagine a text requiring all that space. It would make more sense to just ring them if it was going to be that long. And if you're having a texting conversation with them, you'd still have to send messages back and forth, which would also end up quite costly (relatively speaking).

2Scoops

CaptainNegative wrote:

Does text speak, irritate the hell out of you?
Why do people insist on writing like this, whether they are text messaging or not?
It is fast becoming a problem, as teens are having major problems with spelling and grammar. It seems to me, that mostly people 20 or above are not having these problems as they had already finished or nearly finished their secondary level education by the time text speak became popular, but to be honest, I think that many people younger than that are completely f**ked.
How the hell is something like this;

"Alrt m8, wts d crc wth ya? Dya wnna mt up smtme 4 a pnt & a cht? xxx86i34ncxxxdxjedjd -Bob"

supposed to be easy to understand and there's far worse examples, this one is mild in comparison.
Should the boards.ie mods be stricter on text speak. There have been more incidents occuring in the forums every day. Perhaps a 3 day ban for the first text offence, a week ban for the second, a month ban for the third and if they haven't gotten the message by then, a lifetime ban, should be put in place. Does anyone have any opinions on this?

Well, thankfully your own grammar hasn't been damaged by the evil txtspk. Must have been something else that made it so bad.

Kidz 2day r just stupid.

chopperbyrne

I cannot stand it and never, ever use it. All my text messages are in proper English with correct grammar and punctuation. I don't care if that means sending two texts instead of one.

Pherekydes

Dudess wrote:

E.g. Hey r u heading out 2nite ill b n brog after 9 neway mayb c u l8r sinead

Translation: Hey! Are you heading out tonight? I'll be in The Bróg (Cork hostelry) after 9. Anyway, maybe see you later. Sinead.

If text speak is used to save money, why do users start their messages with "hey!" Five useless characters, taking up valuable space.

I guess logic doesn't play any part in it.

8k2q1gfcz9s5d4

CaptainNegative wrote:

Does text speak, irritate the hell out of you?
Why do people insist on writing like this, whether they are text messaging or not?
It is fast becoming a problem, as teens are having major problems with spelling and grammar. It seems to me, that mostly people 20 or above are not having these problems as they had already finished or nearly finished their secondary level education by the time text speak became popular, but to be honest, I think that many people younger than that are completely f**ked.
How the hell is something like this;

"Alrt m8, wts d crc wth ya? Dya wnna mt up smtme 4 a pnt & a cht? xxx86i34ncxxxdxjedjd -Bob"

supposed to be easy to understand and there's far worse examples, this one is mild in comparison.
Should the boards.ie mods be stricter on text speak. There have been more incidents occuring in the forums every day. Perhaps a 3 day ban for the first text offence, a week ban for the second, a month ban for the third and if they haven't gotten the message by then, a lifetime ban, should be put in place. Does anyone have any opinions on this?

most ppl txt like dis cos der is only 160 or so chars allowed in a txt msg, and it is faster 2 type a msg like dis. it can b annoying reading it on boards bt it isnt dat comon.

Terry

If it was up to me, the filter would change txt spk into something ridiculous.
I would also instantly ban anyone using it.
However, this is AH, the first step to the dumping ground and as such, you have to expect a certain* amount of idiocy.
I still don't fully understand why people use it when they have a full qwerty keyboard in front of them though.
I asked my teenaged cousin why he used it on his bebo page and he told me it was cool. You can't really argue against a thirteen year old when they think something like that is cool. As for adults using it (on the web. Don't start giving me crap about prices on that one), well that's just really retarded. It's actually harder to use txt spk on a keyboard. It's also hard to type when you're hungover, but that's another story.

Creamy Goodness

only thing that irratates me more than text speak is the twice weekly threads after hours gets on the subject.

Rob_l

Cremo wrote:

only thing that irratates me more than text speak is the twice weekly threads after hours gets on the subject.

I concur my good man, the only thing more annoying than a problem is people who continuously moan about said problem.:mad:

Jip

Just do what I do whenever I get a text speak message, reply saying you can't understand it just to annoy them. I have received some that I genuinely can't understand though. Plus it's usually quicker using predictive text than manually entering letters and making up words.

Rob_l

Jip wrote:

Just do what I do whenever I get a text speak message, reply saying you can't understand it just to annoy them. I have received some that I genuinely can't understand though. Plus it's usually quicker using predictive text than manually entering letters and making up words.

I use the predefined texts

such as "answer is yes", "answer is no" and my personally added favourite one "***k off and ring me you lazy ***t"

Creamy Goodness

exactly if it can't be said in 160 characters then ring.

Dave!

Dudess

Are you charged by the letter or something? (If you are, that one's news to me).

No, by the message.

The problem isn't whether people understand it - they generally do. It just looks awfully sloppy and lazy and... thick really.

If you say so. I personally don't think so (in text messages), because I know it's cheaper, so a few vowels can be sacrificed for the sake of more information fitting in the message. There's a mutual understanding, so nobody gets judged when I'm texting them.

But the OP is talking about people who use text-speak in situations outside of actual mobile phone texting.

Well that's a different thing, but he mentioned in the first post, "Why do people insist on writing like this, whether they are text messaging or not?"

So I think that he just doesn't like it at all, under any circumstances.

And lack of punctuation is another peeve of mine. How can a person be happy with something they have texted, typed or written when there are no breaks in it?

E.g. Hey r u heading out 2nite ill b n brog after 9 neway mayb c u l8r sinead

Translation: Hey! Are you heading out tonight? I'll be in The Bróg (Cork hostelry) after 9. Anyway, maybe see you later. Sinead.

That certainly makes it more difficult to understand, but again, I do not care. It took me about 5 seconds to understand that sentence.

Edit: DaveMcG, re the saving money thing: is it because using text-speak means you can send a really long message to one person instead of having to send them three messages to say the same thing in long-hand?

Yep

Long-hand still offers a huge amount of characters - can't imagine a text requiring all that space.

I think mine offers 160 characters... Depending on the situation, that's might not be enough.

It would make more sense to just ring them if it was going to be that long.

It's not always possible to ring them... Maybe they're in a meeting... Maybe you're in work... Maybe you're in a lecture and aren't bothered leaving... etc

And if you're having a texting conversation with them, you'd still have to send messages back and forth, which would also end up quite costly (relatively speaking).

That's true, so why not cut down on unnecessary costs, like vowels?

Nehpets

wutda hel r u guyz on abt.txtspk iz v ez.lik cumon,u r al fols

Maple

hate txt speak, be it in a text message or in an email. Utter nonsense. And my 55 yr old mother uses it, for shame, for shame. :rolleyes:

Steve_o

Text speak is the work of the devil.....Its probably the most annoying thing ever, i never text people who use text speak back!!

Cuddlesworth

Rob_l wrote:

I concur my good man, the only thing more annoying than a problem is people who continuously moan about said problem.:mad:

If we don't complain, then how will we know there is a common bond of hatred and fear and things we don't know about and don't understand?

"Down with that sort of thing!"

The Bollox

txt spk, for me, acts the same way as laxatives: it irritates the shít out of me

BKtje

I don't use text speak as such, i use internet gaming speak, difference you ask? none, just where i learnt it

In text messages i don't use full blown "internet gaming speak" ( ). I'd generally replace "you" with "u" and other obvious ones like that. I even put in apostrophes,commas and capitilsation in so i'm not sure why i shorten "you" to "u" and whatever else i shorten, habit i guess. Example: "Alright Baz, are u headin out tonight?"

Even writing here i put "you" in instead of "u" where i was trying to write like i text, habit of the full keyboard infront of me i guess.

The one (what i consider) bad thing i do shorten i realise is "mate" to "m8", Terry caught me doing it the other day and i was so ashamed It's just a habit i got into and do without thinking i guess.

I hate full blown text speak but don't mind the minimilised text speak i use. Am i a hypocrite?

It's actually harder to use txt spk on a keyboard.

Really? Care to explain that one to me?

Terry

Really? Care to explain that one to me?

When you are used to typing properly, you tend to spell words properly and using text speak would require further thought.

Creamy Goodness

B-K-DzR wrote:

Really? Care to explain that one to me?

try typing something your don't understand or can't read then come back to us.

Dudess

DaveMcG wrote:

I think mine offers 160 characters

Oh right. Mine actually facilitates 913 characters - it's just that they're in "blocks" of 160, 145 and, for some reason, 152. And my phone is a very basic, run-of-the-mill model.

Rob_I wrote:

the only thing more annoying than a problem is people who continuously moan about said problem

And people complaining about people complaining about a genuine grievance of theirs is pretty irritating too.
Also, I'm a regular Boards user - I don't think I've ever seen a thread damning text-speak. I've seen posts that do so, but not entire threads.

5starpool

Text speak users should be tarred and feathered like that drug dealer in the North a few days back. Harsh, but fair I think you will find.

BKtje

Terry wrote:

When you are used to typing properly, you tend to spell words properly and using text speak would require further thought.

If you can do both then text speak would be quicker to type out even when using a full keyboard (reading of course wouldnt be but that isn't the point that was being made).

The point i thought the original person poster was making was that if you can do both and you have a keyboard, that it is actually harder to type in text speak than in normal speak. That's what i wanted explained or clarified.

Cremo wrote:

try typing something your don't understand or can't read then come back to us.

See above.

Dudess

5starpool wrote:

Text speak users should be tarred and feathered like that drug dealer in the North a few days back. Harsh, but fair I think you will find.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

B-K-DzR wrote:

If you can do both then text speak would be quicker to type out even when using a full keyboard (reading of course wouldnt be but that isn't the point that was being made).

The point i thought the original person poster was making was that if you can do both and you have a keyboard, that it is actually harder to type in text speak than in normal speak. That's what i wanted explained or clarified.

Typing text-speak isn't going to have the same flow as typing normally. And you'll probably have to look around the keyboard more - e.g. for numbers. Yeah, I definitely agree that typing text-speak would require more thought. Surely a person would automatically type "tonight" but would have to think somewhat about "2nite"?

Orlee

This is an email I received from my 14 year old sister who was on holidays in America.

Hay!!

erm you'll never no!! lol
haha ye the O.c i WISH!!
i do hav some pics!!
I GOT AN IPOD!! WOOHOO!!
its de same 1u hav Every1 bought it 4 moi b-day!!
mmmmm lunch!! ye we have to!

XXxXXxxXXxxXXxxXX

LUFF YHoO!!

Absolute gibberish and way to many excalmation marks

my reply was
"Write to me in English or Im not reading or replying to your mails!"

She was not impressed

Dudess

Ouch! That truly hurts my eyes. I pity English teachers, I really do. Or any teachers. Notice the way she does go to the trouble of putting certain letters in caps and, as you said, including exclamation marks. So she obviously is aware of punctuation.

The Bollox

Orlee wrote:

This is an email I received from my 14 year old sister who was on holidays in America.



Absolute gibberish and way to many excalmation marks

my reply was
"Write to me in English or Im not reading or replying to your mails!"

She was not impressed

Shiva H. Vishnu! what the hell is 1u. I thought the point of txt spk was to reduce the character count, why would you put in moi instead of me?

Orlee

all her friends are like this - Her MSN and Bebo are practically in another language!

Dudess

Someone said earlier that they asked a 13-year-old why they insist on using the wretched thing - his reply was that it's "cool".

God, it's quite pitiful when not communicating properly has become "uncool".

BKtje

I can read that the same speed as english. Can you spot the guy who's been reading text speak/ short hand internet english for over 7 years

It does look very ugly though doesn't it?

EDIT: At least 1337 speak hasn't caught on in the real world
EDIT2:

what the hell is 1u.

one you

Terry

Dudess wrote:

Someone said earlier that they asked a 13-year-old why they insist on using the wretched thing - his reply was that it's "cool".

God, it's quite pitiful when not communicating properly has become "uncool".

That was me.
I bollocked him out over it. Something along the lines of 'you'll never leanr to spell properly. This won't be acceptable in exams' and so forth. I probably mad things worse.

Typo left in for comedic effect.

Dudess

B-K-DzR wrote:

one you

And what the f*ck does "one you" mean?!

Sinfonia

Dudess wrote:

And what the f*ck does "one you" mean?!

Nothing, out of context. She said "the one you got" or something.

Anyways, that teenage bebo speak these days (with all THiS kinDa StUfF!!!! lol xxXXxx), is just the same as 1337 5p34k or when Snoop Dogg says "shizzle", it really doesn't matter.
We should probably be getting angry about more important things. Like foreign policy or sumtin i duno lol x

Mossy Monk

I hate it. Have trouble understanding most of it. How hard is it to use predictive text which by all accounts is quicker.

The Bollox

SumGuy wrote:

Anyways, that teenage bebo speak these days (with all THiS kinDa StUfF!!!! lol xxXXxx)

that shíte really grinds my gears! I mean píss off with your caps addiction, I don't want to know!

Max_Damage

I often wonder what the English language will be like in 50 years time, or even 20 years. Text speak is like Newspeak (from Nineteen Eighty-Four) in a different form.

*Doubleplusungood*

GhostInTheRuins

If I was to try to use textspeak, it would take me longer to text/type because I'd be constantly thinking "How the hell can I make this word shorter".

Also Starring LeVar Burton

D.T. Jesus wrote:

If I was to try to use textspeak, it would take me longer to text/type because I'd be constantly thinking "How the hell can I make this word shorter".

I'd be in exactly the same boat, but it seems so pointless texting like that. I have often text back to my friends asking why they couldn't text back with full words and punctuation and the answer I got from most of them is that they didn't know how to use predictive text and that txt speak was easier. Now I'm no phone expert myself, but predictive text is fairly simple stuff, isn't it? You'd have to be pretty thick not to be able to figure it out.