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Kenneth · Jul 16, 2003, 07:42 PM

lol is so 90's

ROFLYMFJAOMACNN.... on and on..

OwlBoy · Jul 16, 2003, 07:45 PM

Oh come on, millions of people on the internet need a way to say that they find something funny, or that they laughed.

its better than " I am laughing" or "that was funny"

-Owl

starman · Jul 16, 2003, 08:18 PM

How about "haha"?

Mike

disco_stu · Jul 16, 2003, 10:01 PM

G00gl3 is 1337!!!!!!!!!!!!1111!1!

/got nothin'

Korv · Jul 17, 2003, 01:06 PM

I find the shortcuts convieniet. LOL, AFAIK, IIRC, IMO, etc. al make typed conversation more understandable and more efficient.

Aparently when writing transcripts, linguists use the symbol @ to denote one burst of laughter. Like a "ha". So "Heehehehehe" would be @@@@@. Many of the forlks I know have been using @@@ instead of lol recently. I do like it better.

UNTeMac · Jul 17, 2003, 01:12 PM

Originally posted by benb:
http://rubix.darktech.org/L33tSpeak/

http://hpfanfiction.net/leet/

And Romeo and Juliet in 1337 $|*33|<!!!111

http://www.starterupsteve.com/swf/romjul.html

hEh...HACkER5 mu$+ b3 g0Od 4+ 831ng G4y n00b5 WHO C4n'T $P34k r34l engL1$H.

AB^2=BCxAC · Jul 17, 2003, 01:23 PM

Originally posted by MacGorilla:
And these people will our future leaders?

The future is now.

itomato · Jul 17, 2003, 02:21 PM

Well, you see, once upon a time (before snobbishness was the order of the day) if you actually did laugh out loud, there was no better way to say it than "lol".

It was actually a big deal, because there was no graphical emoticon option. Imagine- text display. Pretty much devoid of feeling and emotion. A simple 'lol' or ':-)' was a clever way to actually let the other side know that a human was on the other side. People get used to hearing the other person 'laugh out loud', and as a way to keep normal conversation going, they typed 'lol'.

It became a standard.

Then 'n00bs' got too big for their britches, and decided that 'lol' and its kin was 'ghey', and that people should 'stfu'.

In steps Apple with iChat AV! Now, you can see and hear your friend in Kansas laugh out loud.

:wistful music: Miracles happen everyday in computerland..

itomato · Jul 17, 2003, 02:30 PM

Originally posted by benb:
I h4x0|23d j00 n00b!

What would possess someone to speak like this is beyond me. And what would cause someone to think that talking like that would make them seem "awesome at computers" is beyond me as well.

Like were all saying, "Holy crap! He writes with letters and numbers! I bet he is really good with computers. I hope he doesn't hack me."

You see, back in the 80's if you didn't have a Commodore 64 (with it's graphical keys and color combinations) you got incredibly bored with typing. There were no font choices. Graphics were hardly an option.

The solution? Type a 7 for a T! Type a 0 for an O! A 3 becomes an E when used in the right s3nt3nc3!

Hell, you may have actually done it yourself with your Mac Plus (SE, II, Quadra, what have you)

When you're 12, and you've just gotten comfortable with a computer, it's the natural thing to do. There have been generations before now, and there will be generations to follow.

LTFU!

benb · Jul 17, 2003, 04:54 PM

Originally posted by itomato:
You see, back in the 80's if you didn't have a Commodore 64 (with it's graphical keys and color combinations) you got incredibly bored with typing. There were no font choices. Graphics were hardly an option.

The solution? Type a 7 for a T! Type a 0 for an O! A 3 becomes an E when used in the right s3nt3nc3!

Hell, you may have actually done it yourself with your Mac Plus (SE, II, Quadra, what have you)

When you're 12, and you've just gotten comfortable with a computer, it's the natural thing to do. There have been generations before now, and there will be generations to follow.

LTFU!

Yea, except you are all wrong.

Differing views here and here.

http://www.auburn.edu/~campbjo/7050/l33t/origins.htm

http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache...hl=en&ie=UTF-8

No mention of h4x0r or 1337 stemming from peoples desire to create pretty graphics on computer screens, and I couldn't find any other articles on it. Are you really saying that people invented h4x0r because they were tired of just text?

We are talking about h4x0r, not emoticons like :-)

itomato · Jul 17, 2003, 05:33 PM

Originally posted by benb:

No mention of h4x0r or 1337 stemming from peoples desire to create pretty graphics on computer screens, and I couldn't find any other articles on it. Are you really saying that people invented h4x0r because they were tired of just text?

We are talking about h4x0r, not emoticons like :-)

Yes. ASCII art ring a bell? People have been substituting things numbers, letters, characters, and combinations thereof for longer than you or I have been using computers. Do enough homework and interviews, and I'll bet money that you will find ties to what I described, as well as crossovers from PASCAL coders and EE students trading ASCII diagrams leading to h4x0r sp33k.

Computing today is NO WHERE NEAR what computing was when I got my start. As an 8th grader, I thought I was clever when I typed a zero for an "o". My computer peers consisted of the other guys in my C=64 lab. That's it. No internet, no BBS to dial into when I got home, nothing. That was the extent of it. Among 10 or 15 people, things look different. Spread it around millions, some of whom come of age using l33t $p34k (or whatever you want to call it) as their medium might grow tired of it quickly, and dismiss it as "gay".

It's tired, I admit. But as All Your Base grew and exploded, so will everything small, catchy, and easy to implement on the internet. It's what humans do. Listen to your (least) favorite pop or country station. They play the fnck out of 15 popular tunes, until you can't stand to hear them anymore.

Not everybody gets it at the same time. Not everybody wants to, and not everybody can.

Damn that was long.

benb · Jul 17, 2003, 06:12 PM

Originally posted by itomato:
Yes. ASCII art ring a bell? People have been substituting things numbers, letters, characters, and combinations thereof for longer than you or I have been using computers. Do enough homework and interviews, and I'll bet money that you will find ties to what I described, as well as crossovers from PASCAL coders and EE students trading ASCII diagrams leading to h4x0r sp33k.

Geeks drawing ASCII porn and and "1337 speak" are two completely different things, and to say that h4x0r was used as a way to make graphics is quite the strech. I believe that was ASCII art's origins, but not h4x0r. I think you are confusing ASCII art and 1337 speak.

Are you defending your signature by any chance?