TIAL wrote:To be fair, people do respond to it as if they don't understand it. I've never been quite sure if they are just saying it for effect or not.
I don't know whether that was aimed at me or not, but whether it was or it wasn't my question earlier on demonstrates this point perfectly: I understand text speak, although I don't like it, and I like it even less when it's inserted into a sentence in a way that makes no sense. That was the comment I picked up on earlier.
However the use of punctuation marks to create symbols is something I genuinely don't understand. I don't know whether it's a part of text speak I just haven't come across or if it's something else completely. I don't even know if it's covered in the rules or not. I asked what it meant because I didn't know, and I was interested, not because I was "saying it for effect".
Widening this out a bit, all you guys who are complaining about excessive reactions to text speak need to remember something - there are people out there who
genuinely hate being forced to read it, I know because I'm one of them. The written word is one of the most powerful tools we have to communicate, and English is one of the most expressive and extensive languages in which to do it. Text speak is a cheap and nasty alternative.
So you have no idea how refreshing it is (for me at least) to find one message board where not only do other people seem to share this dislike of the habit, but it is even banned in the rules. So when cretins start complaining about being picked up on it, and moan about how it's allowed somewhere else - well, yes it is. So if you can't see an alternative, disappear and do it over there.
But to all those asking why text speak is so frowned upon, I'd turn it around. In a forum where it is explicitly not allowed, why is real English so bad? What's wrong with using real words? There's a time and place for text speak, and if this isn't it, is the alternative really too horrendous to contemplate?
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