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Jan. 23rd, 2004 06:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cleolindaI said this on a JournalFen thread, but I think it needs to be repeated for all and sundry to hear and think about, because GOD am I tired of reading wonky typing.
The original comment was in reference to people who insist that "you are what you write," i.e., if you write perverted porn, you are a pervert--never mind that the role of fantasy for most people is to imagine doing things they would never do. My reply takes a different tack:
Why do people still insist on "you are what you write"?
Okay, here's what drives me nuts: they mean this in a figurative way, but the same people never think about it in a literal way. On the internet, on text-based media like chat rooms and message boards, the way you write/type/spell reflects your personality to people the way your physical appearance does in real life. And yet people will argue to the death that it's perfectly fine and intelligent to type like the schizophrenic love child of e.e. cummings and a crack whore (or, if you like, "dA sChIzOpHr3nIc lOv3 ChIld oF 33!111!!!! oMg CUMNGS aNd A CrAK WhORA1!!1!1!1 oMg wTf").
Thank you, that is all.
The original comment was in reference to people who insist that "you are what you write," i.e., if you write perverted porn, you are a pervert--never mind that the role of fantasy for most people is to imagine doing things they would never do. My reply takes a different tack:
Why do people still insist on "you are what you write"?
Okay, here's what drives me nuts: they mean this in a figurative way, but the same people never think about it in a literal way. On the internet, on text-based media like chat rooms and message boards, the way you write/type/spell reflects your personality to people the way your physical appearance does in real life. And yet people will argue to the death that it's perfectly fine and intelligent to type like the schizophrenic love child of e.e. cummings and a crack whore (or, if you like, "dA sChIzOpHr3nIc lOv3 ChIld oF 33!111!!!! oMg CUMNGS aNd A CrAK WhORA1!!1!1!1 oMg wTf").
Thank you, that is all.
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no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 05:56 pm (UTC)I'm guilty of doing that, but always ironically. I'm aware that it's stupid, and I'm careful who I do that with. With people I don't know so well, I take the silliness rating down because you're right, what you say in text is the best representation that you can give of yourself on a medium such as this.
Lack of capitalisation doesn't bother me as intelligence comes through regardless of whether you use big or small letters, but crack-speak used seriously? No, I'd likely not spend much time reading what that person had to say. If you haven't got irony, I'm not going to read your crappy writing.
liek, omg!
*runs away giggling*
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 07:35 pm (UTC)See, I love doing that, but given that I'm a Grammar Nazi the rest of the time, I trust that people understand why I'm saying "OMGWTFBBQ!" for the sixth time that week. It's the people who can't (or won't) write any other way that drive me batshit.
no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-23 09:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-01-24 02:29 am (UTC)on our ezboard we have various rules - sig sizes, no flaming, blah blah blah.
but the one that gets the mods out in droves (frequently with shotguns) is netspeak. it is the WORK OF THE DEVIL and just means people are too lazy or stupid to bother to spell. or use punctuation. or english.
thank god none of them seem to know l33t....