I don't want to sound petty... but...

I'm with you here. I learned to spell. I can't see why others think that it's either unimportant or cool not to be able to spell.

Times - they are a-changin'

Na I 'am with you on that.
I'm not the worlds best speller and my knowledge of comprehesion could be filled out on the back of a beer coaster. But there is no excuse SMS style of writing.

shadow

It becomes very much a habit and they see it as completely OK and the norm in a fast paced world. Would think you're a complete dinosaur if you pulled them up on it.

ppl bcum use 2 it :-)

It's a bit like how most people dress today to go down to the video or pizza shop - that always blows me away!

We've gone from suits and full dress to smart casual to now beach bum/grunge/slob or even pj's.

Can't wait until it gets to underwear or has it, I can't tell now?

god I'm old.

I ave bean saying thit for years eh whi would yer need spill chquek or evin abrevitate words thee engwish langurige is reallly simlpr.

Arl thee breest
Erwick

Ps I have been telling my daughter that for ages she and her mates even talk short hand.

It's their equivalent of our"10 Codes." Remember those? We had to keep a small sheet of paper in the glove box, and Tracy would decipher for me what the dudes were saying.

OMG!!! Then we had that whole phonetic bloody Alpha - Beta thing goin' down as well, whoa....

THEN, then we had our OWN codes for places to go, like the "Water Bottles", so all us underage dudes could go there Friday night and drink, and if the cops were listening in, they wouldn't know, that we were heading for the big water tanks between Gladstone & Pt Pirie.....lol!!!!!

What was it? Oh, Wolfies takin' a 10-100, is that a 10 -4 Over?

Somehow, SMS seems almost kindy stuff, compared to the REAL stuff us dudes used to do in the 70's. Wow, we were using CODE, not this silly abbreviation, wow, even dudes in the Fighter Planes used "10-4" & "Roger", well in the movies they did...

What goes around, comes around....

Wolfie

I find it difficult on forums too... It may be quicker to type but it takes me 5 times as long to read it, by the time I piece it all together I'm ready for bed...

Gawd are u old fuddy duddies serious or what?

I understand for job applications etc, but on forums like this we are having a conversation with 'mates'. When you do that you use all sorts of short hand. No problem.

As for difficult to read, the human mind is a marvelous thing. Try this. See if you can read it:

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at CmabrigdeUinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer inwaht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the only iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod
as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt!

See, it is not a problem!!

Sup digs, gota fling the tap code isa' rippa' 4 da uno's who dont know. Da lol is a lygergic to the old skool who thought they were props when they had there own "slip" code.

Just kidd'n, I dont really talk like that...code is code...if you cant keep up with it, well you were never meant to understand it. Everything is in code, engineering is written in code, the computer you're on is in code, damn even porn is in code. What the irony is is when ppl (people) who used to speak in code (early uhf, HAM, post internet proxy, etc) dont understand new CODE that is coming out. It's like having the social rug pulled out from under you...same will happen to "sms/chat" code.

I gotta say though having someone "code" a job app is the funniest thing I've hear all day. Just chuck that application in da bin :)

I ws AFK for a while and although this is not a FAQ, I am sure its not OTT. Most times you can RTFM to DTRT
IMHO its NP
GTG now ROFLMAO

All language is a coded construct to some extent.
Once again horses for courses. The language of the bar isn't always appropriate for the boardroom.
Code is fine in the correct context. Unfortunately, nobody appears to have mentioned that to the younger generations. I can never remember anyone replying to a question in an interview with "10-9?" or "excuse me but I have to go 10-100."
Not to wrry, itz al gud i gess.

All I can say is

AFK Away From Keyboard
AFAIK As Far As I Know
ASL Age sex location?
B4N Bye for Now
BBIAB Be back in a bit
BBL Be Back Later
BBS Be Back Soon
BRB Be Right Back
BTW By The Way
CU See you
CUL See you Later
CYA See ya
DTRT Do The Right Thing
EG Evil grin
FAQ Frequently Asked Question
FYI For Your Information
GG Good going
GTG Got To Go
G2G Got To Go
IAC In Any Case
IC I See
IME In My Experience
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
IOW In Other Words
IRL In real life
k OK
kewl Cool
L8R Later
LMAO Laughing My Ass off
LOL Laughing Out Loud
NP No problem
OIC Oh, I See
OT Off topic
OTT Over the top
POV Point Of View
PPL People
ROFL Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO Rolling On Floor Laughing My Ass Off
RTFM Read The Flippin Manual
TMI Too much information
TTFN Ta ta for now
TTYL Talk to you later
TY Thank you
WB Welcome back
WFM Works For Me
WTF What the ....?
WTG Way to go
YMMV Your Mileage May Vary
YW You're welcome

Get your own back

Tim

A 15 year old white male patient presented the other day and after trying to decipher the illegible scrawl of the referring practitioner, I asked the patient for his name and address.

Mumble, mumble, mumble came back the reply.

Repeated the question with more unintelligble mumblings.

Asked the patient to write the information down with more mumbling replies but clear enough to decipher " I can't read or write"

Asked the Mum for some info and Mumbles Mum muttered more indecipherable mumblings.

Not a banjo in sight but kids generally are hard to understand and with the standard of television these days am tempted to leave the sub-titles running continually.

Seems the newsreaders are the only ones capable of speaking English properly.

Watch a modern movie and you will have trouble keeping up with the lipless movement of sound. Watch a 40 year old movie and you can do it with your back to the screen and know what is going on

John G

Tim F ,
It annoys me , yes , but lots of other things do too . For instance , using two or three exclamation marks or question marks , when one is all that is required .
I am just old and grumpy though , so ignore me .
Willie .

Tim, I am with you. I try to decypher typos and where letters get transposed as I do it all the time like my relo Des Lexic, as is distinct to my Bro Willem. Des has my hairstyle and my capability for hitting the wrong keys.

If I am having to decypher the code and have to do it while they work for me. How will I know I have got it right? We rely on information to be provided for OH&S, and HACCP programs for the business quality controls and for any legal proceedings if there was an accident. That is all aside from the information fed into the farm computer for livestock information.

I can usually make allowances for schooling too and people who may have been brought up in homes where English is not the major priority. English the second language or something.

As for anyone who used codes in a job application, you did the right thing.