h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes. The decay of the 'vowel gene'

It always gets up my nose how elitist some 'hootooers' on 'h2g2' are. I mean, it's ok for we 'subscribers to the hitch-hiker's guide to the galaxy website' to use a few abbreviations in our conversations, usually liberally scattered with emoticons (or 'smileys', wow, save TWO whole keystrokes with that nickname!), but for someone to use 'txt-spk' to save time and money sending a text message is way out.

Damn, I mean what's next? Widespread use of apostrophes as we can't be arsed typing 'can not' or 'what is'?

It's just a widely accepted convention (abbreviations) of the English language being taken to a level where a little more adjustment is required. I mean does it really matter if it allows quicker and more efficient communication?

I suppose text speak is alright within its own environment. I can see the justification of using it on a mobile phone where one is limited to the number of characters one can use. I don't like it, but then I'll never have to use it, as I have no mobile phone and no intention of ever purchasing one.

What I don't like is the use of text speak in an environment where its use has no justification. For example in this posting I could ramble on to a limit of (I think) 250,000 characters before it would tell me that I'd written too much. Therefore the use of text speak is not justified in hootoo, and certianly not in threads where other people are using proper English. In my opinion it just indicates that the person is lazy in the way that they communicate.

There is a further complication for my part; and that is that I don't speak text. It takes me an age to work out what is being said, and so I tend to fall back on my position that its use is lazy communication, and hence the message is probably not worth reading anyway, so I ignore it

= reflection on use of mobile phones - I have to use one a lot with work

I agree text speak is lazy communication. From time to time I spend time with a wide range of teenagers - what worries me is that they are starting to speak using text speak grammar - nightmare! We have a beautiful expressive language and while I am not against it evolving I am against it being so seriously pruned and it's flexibility being lost.









I know my grammar is not perfect before you comment!

I'd agree with all of that

In an attempt to fight back against poorly worded communication; I am not above replying to people's e-mails at work and asking them to write it in proper English as I can't understand what they're saying.

And as for you using the mobile, Light. Your brain must be mush by now

Yippee - that implies it was not all mushy to start with! Actually my useage has gone down this year but its still very high

I'm resisting buying a mobile too, and finding it incredibly easy

Lucky you

When it looked like my office was going to move 15 miles up the road. I did look into buying a phone so that I could summon up the RAC to fix my wobbly car, and to tell the office that I would be late.

The phone salesman looked at me as if I was something he'd just stepped in when I asked for the cheapest nastiest ultra-bargain basement deal available on a phone, and no there was no way that I wanted a 3G phone and all that jazz added onto the package thank you.

Fortunately the move never happened, so I didn't need to fork out that fifty quid

I think that this illustrates the situation perfectly - http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/h2cluster2/h2.cgi?thread=%3C1103661782-10177.16%40forum5.thdo.bbc.co.uk%3E&find=%3C1103661782-10177.16%40forum5.thdo.bbc.co.uk%3E&board=sixosix.division1&sort=Te

[Note - that URL is to the 606 message board which is not archived, so grab it while you can ]

I'm able to understand that message.

I have three twenty-something offspring, who taught *me* to text-speak.

I do restrict it to the mobile though (saves money).

It *really* annoys me when I see someone posting text-speak on hootoo.

I didn't know what to think when this journal title appeared in my message centre...

Send Three and Four Pence. We are going to a dance.

That's a really interesting link. And shows up yet another fault on the H2 messageboards. Because I haven't logged out at home I've still got all my host and 'superuser' buttons on the boards still.

Oh, forgive me for lurking btw.

I have no idea at all what that was all about but I like the post about the boffins at Bletchley Park

* tries to get her hear around the concept of GD with a phone - afterall he hates all phones *

Tut tut Mina, you better not tell anyone at the BBC

Oi I'm a 23 year old who doesn't use text speak, but I think I'm 36 at heart.

I emailed them and they said it was something to do with cookies. But I think it's just broken! It seems to have stayed fixed now, but they are deleting my work accounts anyway. On the messageboards, not on DNA.

Sorry to divert the conversation, I only use txt spk if I want to send a message on the phone and it's quite long. I don't use it on the internet, but then I use internet acronyms which are just as baffling to people not in the know. So I say AFK, they say WTF? I say BRB, they say oh speak bloody English! Is there a difference?

I'm not going to pretend I understand that...