Recently it has come to my attention that texting words have become more popular here. IMO, FTW, FTL. These were used before, but it seems like they're more popular now. I might just be noticing them more now than before as I get more active in the forums.

What do you think?

Anywhere you look there's a trend of decreasing intelligence. Literature, film/television, music.

You forgot to add a question mark at the end of the thread's title - unless it was a statement, in which case the title is misleading; it'd imply you had an answer for us.

Perfectly acceptable shorthand. Although I have to admit I still don't know what 'WOOT' means.

You could say there is currently Zero punctuation on the escapist at the moment.... okay that was a bad joke I'll admit.

crimson5pheonix:
Recently it has come to my attention that texting words have become more popular here. IMO, FTW, FTL. These were used before, but it seems like they're more popular now. I might just be noticing them more now than before as I get more active in the forums.

QFT.

Jokes aside, I still like to think that the general standard of English on The Escapist is still quite high. However, I'm still a little taken aback when I see a disjointed and near-unintelligible post, which is happening more and more.

scumofsociety:
Perfectly acceptable shorthand. Although I have to admit I still don't know what 'WOOT' means.

General exclamation of joy. Not entirely sure who came up with it, or how. Certainly not how it became so commonly used.

They're just internet acronyms, nothing serious. What worries me is the exponential increase in "low quality" threads, most of which clearly ridden with controversy fueled by badge-whoring.

Fortunately wilson and nilcypher do a good job "cleaning up". But they're only human.

Its become more popular to use these shortened words with the mainstream popularity of text messaging. Also with words like LOL or ROFL which are widely used on the internet.
p.s Does anyone know who came up with those terms?(LOL and ROFL etc.)

FTW? FTL? QFT? These still elude me completely to be honest.

scumofsociety:
Perfectly acceptable shorthand. Although I have to admit I still don't know what 'WOOT' means.

As far as I'm aware, it was originally used on quake as an acronym for "We Owned (the) Other Team.", and has since evolved into a generic expression of joy or celebration along the lines of "yay" or "woohoo".

As for the whole text/internet speak thing goes, I personally try to keep my sentences in proper English as much as possible, mabye only using things like "lol" or "woot" in fast moving FPS games, where there really is little time to type anything further.

It's nothing but a minor annoyance.
Or more often for me they serve as a helpful notification that the poster is an idiot and it is not worth my time to bother reading what it is they have to say.

Hookman:
p.s Does anyone know who came up with those terms?(LOL and ROFL etc.)

Stupid, lazy people.

It's actually amazing how much the shorthand texting culture reflects to the shorthand writing culture back in the day (or for editors that still use pen and paper). Except for FTW and other gaming type shorthand, most shorthand hasn't changed at all.

BUT, unless you are editor, taking notes or texting, I don't think people should be using shorthand in forums. It's just plain lazy.

Supernovajake:
FTW? FTL? QFT? These still elude me completely to be honest.

For The Win (I think the preceeding word/statement is awesome), For The Loss (opposite of FTW), Quoted For Truth (I think the quoted text is concordant with my opinion/funny) no idea how they became so widely used but I'm guessing 4chan had a hand in it somewhere.

Molikroth:
Anywhere you look there's a trend of decreasing intelligence. Literature, film/television, music.

You forgot to add a question mark at the end of the thread's title - unless it was a statement, in which case the title is misleading; it'd imply you had an answer for us.

Don't point out my flaws as I have none. Joking aside, I'm still unclear as to what several of these short hand words mean, which may be part of why I notice them. QFT seems like utter nonsense to me.

Molikroth:
Anywhere you look there's a trend of decreasing intelligence. Literature, film/television, music.

Why is that a decrease in intelligence if someone uses an acronym? Are people at NASA morons for not saying National Aeronautics and Space Administration every single time?

Shorthand is used by doctors and nurses every single day. ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) or RBC's (Red blood cells) for examples. Sometimes you just get used to communicating in this fashion and I don't agree at all that it's a sign of intelligence diminishing.

scumofsociety:
Perfectly acceptable shorthand. Although I have to admit I still don't know what 'WOOT' means.

Get educated

Supernovajake:
FTW? FTL? QFT? These still elude me completely to be honest.

For The Win (FTW)
For The Loose (FTL)
Quoted For Truth (QFT)
Get The Fuck Out (GTFO)
Shut The Fuck Up (STFU)
By The Way (BTW)
For Your Information (FYI)
Go back to [place] (gb2[place])
In Before [something] (inb4[something])
In Before The Lock [inb4lock)
Too Long:Didn't Read (tl:dr)

These are basically all you need to know, for everything else, there's Dramatica.

There's just something i don't get, there's always a thread that pops up now and then bemoaning the downfall of the written English language on the Escapist. But, I have never seen it once, not on this site at least. Can anyone here actually show me a thread where there were more that 1 person using bad grammar in a non-ironic way?

runtheplacered:
Why is that a decrease in intelligence if someone uses an acronym? Are people at NASA morons for not saying National Aeronautics and Space Administration every single time?

LOL ROFLMAO UR SO FUNNY LOL QFT!!!1

It's annoying, no?

I'll use IMO. as it seems less pretentious than In My Opinion, but FTW seems a bit stupid for me, I mean it's not like everything is a competition & I've never had reason to use FTL, I rarely get into deep conversations about space travel, physics etc.

I understand WOOT but I'd never use it. WOOTing seems like the kind of thing Chimpanzees do when they capture a monkey & start tearing it up.

While i will concede 4chan may have aided in some of them becoming far more mainstream than they originally were I would not agree it spawned anything of the sort: the text message//aol generation gave us LOL, and others in use during instant messaging; QFT spawned as a forum based method for agreeing with someone much like the now rampant use of the following:

Something you agree with

"^this"

It along with IIRC (If I recall Correctly) were methods by which to shorten larger phrases into much more time-friendly typing acronyms in an effort to keep your post from ending up TL;DR.

(Too long, didnt read).

dey took are jawrbs?

Molikroth:

runtheplacered:
Why is that a decrease in intelligence if someone uses an acronym? Are people at NASA morons for not saying National Aeronautics and Space Administration every single time?

LOL ROFLMAO UR SO FUNNY LOL QFT!!!1

It's annoying, no?

So you took it to the extreme and asked me if it's annoying. It's annoying that you missed the point. But I could careless that you typed that out.

Not to mention, the acronym's you used didn't really make any sense in context.

I'll give you something to reflect about:

Do you prefer a forum that has the eventual "QFT", "FTW", "Inb4", or one that's stuffed with "LOL U GUYZ R SO FUNNI!!!!!!11[two billion smileys here*]". I think we'll be fine.

*I don't think I can ever thank enough to whomever had the idea of NOT including smileys/emoticons in these boards.

That's not to an extreme. The Escapist is thankfully rather isolated from that type of behaviour, but it's extremely common elsewhere.

runtheplacered:

Molikroth:
Anywhere you look there's a trend of decreasing intelligence. Literature, film/television, music.

Why is that a decrease in intelligence if someone uses an acronym? Are people at NASA morons for not saying National Aeronautics and Space Administration every single time?

Shorthand is used by doctors and nurses every single day. ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) or RBC's (Red blood cells) for examples. Sometimes you just get used to communicating in this fashion and I don't agree at all that it's a sign of intelligence diminishing.

There is a fairly large difference (even if it is situational) between shortening words or phrases to fit on a medical chart or prescription-slip, and being too lazy to type out words over the internet.

While i will agree simply using acronyms is not a sign of idiocy, the rampant use of "LOL" and "OMG" in everyday conversations I overhear on even a college campus makes me worry about the future.

Molikroth:
That's not to an extreme.

Yes it was. People who post what you posted, are just trying to be extreme or satirical.

runtheplacered:

But I could careless that you typed that out.

This brings me to another point actually, as I've seen lots of people doing this lately (not just on The Escapist, mind). I think what you mean is 'I couldn't care less.',
'I could care less' tends to imply that you do infact, care.

Sorry to nitpick, but it gets a bit irritating.

Google it.

Edit: better idea, look at the comments section for any Youtube video.

Scorched_Cascade:
You could say there is currently Zero punctuation on the escapist at the moment.... okay that was a bad joke I'll admit.

It sure was, but thank goodness you didn't use "1337" speak. Whatever happened to the mockery we made of people who spelt wrong on purpose?

runtheplacered:
Why is that a decrease in intelligence if someone uses an acronym? Are people at NASA morons for not saying National Aeronautics and Space Administration every single time?

No.
Quite simply because "Laugh out loud" is much quicker to say than "National Aeronautics and Space Administration"
It's generally small words that are being acronymized (Or whatever the word is), small words which wouldn't take that much effort to type out in full.
To me, expressing your feelings towards another put simply with acronyms tells me that you don't really care that much about it. LOL has lost all meaning to me, in many cases it just ends up at the end of a flame baiting text as a half-arsed attempt to not appear inflammatory. If someone responds to something I say with "LOL" I'm not going to even bother reading the rest of it. I'm certainly not going to bother paying attention to the poster should they quote me (or what have you) again.

Shorthand is used by doctors and nurses every single day. ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) or RBC's (Red blood cells) for examples. Sometimes you just get used to communicating in this fashion and I don't agree at all that it's a sign of intelligence diminishing.

Yeah... But doctors and nurses actually have a valid reason to get things done quicker.
There is no discernable reason why someone trying to make a valid argument would need to use Acronyms. I doubt school debating championships would dissolve into an acronym filled "my dick is bigger than your dick" contest. So I see no reason why we need to, when our goal (getting our opinion across to others) is so similar.

By the way, I should probably point out that this wasn't meant as a backlash to you in particular. I just used your examples and then got carried away off on my own, separate qualms about the way things work here and how they annoy me.

Ex_ery:

While i will agree simply using acronyms is not a sign of idiocy, the rampant use of "LOL" and "OMG" in everyday conversations I overhear on even a college campus makes me worry about the future.

How is this any different then the rampant use of "dude" or "far out, man" or some other iconic term from some random decade? Humans know more things now then ever before in the history of humans. I'm not too worried if some weirdo with an ipod strapped to his heart and a cappuccino clenched in his fist goes around spouting off nonsensical acronym's. He'd hardly be a fine representation of what humanity has to offer.