Do You Use Shortened Txt Msgs?

mada999 · 06-03-2003 02:04PM

i h8 txting ppl

ballooba · 06-03-2003 02:28PM

Speaking as someone whose business is texting, we often need to shorten our texts so that we give the maximum info possible to the user. If we have to send two messages then we double our costs.

The only way of ensuring that we do this is by shortening our texts. But only when necessary.

Tusky · 06-03-2003 03:02PM

i only shorten words when i dont have space left in the msg...for instance if i HAD to id take the "E" out of "THEN" to make "THN"

but only if i realy had to...i hate when ppl send me mumbo jumbo

Space Coyote · 06-03-2003 06:09PM

I do it the odd time esp if my thumbs about to fall off...
What bugs me more is when people are using predictive text and they don't fix words that get typed arseways. man that rattles my bag.

Texting is the best invention ever, now we never have to talk to anyone !

Did ye hear about the football manager that got sacked a cúpla weeks ago...the chairman texted "you're sacked" to him !
Class.

Spunog UIE · 06-03-2003 07:09PM

r e l a x, oh use the full proper word oh my god etc'

why is it so ****in annoying? if a person understands what your saying why should you have to write it all out, its just a waste of time and doesn't achieve anything, does not... hmmmm,

its definitly a thing for saving space for most, rather than for writing it quicker.

if you don't understand it then why don't ya just say it to the person txting you or figure it out. oh noooooo not another abbreviated text, what has the world come to. blah, bling bling.

phaxx · 06-03-2003 07:39PM

Never. If I'm short on space I'll either rephrase what I wrote or remove a few spaces, while trying to make sure it's still quickly readable.

My mother writes like a 12 year old, and I give her grief about it whenever I can.

At my school in the library, there are some posters done by the current batch of first years on the topic of promoting reading.
Some of these were done in MS Word, and there are a few that make me cringe whenever I see them.

I think the worst offender is a clipart book image, with some tacky wordart around it that says, "A BOOK A WEEK WILL HELP U SPEAK"

You have a full size keyboard, use it you lazy little wankers!

seamus · 06-03-2003 07:43PM

In work we have to use text shorthand all the time, but it's the proper 'official' shorthand, as opposed to stuff that people make up on the spur of the moment. What's the point in trying to find a quicker way to write a word when the poor bastard recipient takes 4 times as long to decipher it?

I used to use it on me old phone, but with predictive text now, it's faster to use normal speak. Most of my texts look like excerpts from IRC now (I have

in my predictive dictionary

)

It also makes drunken texts much harder to decipher. at least with normal speak, you can make out the words even if they're spelled wrong. But if your drunk mate is spelling abbreviations like 'ur' and 'de' wrong, it fscks it all up

ballooba · 06-03-2003 07:45PM

Ye Olde languages evolve.... Deal with it.

Space Coyote · 06-03-2003 07:54PM

a wise man once said:

Me fail English? That's unpossible!

Sarky · 06-03-2003 08:02PM

Shorthand text messages are the tool of the devil. Put some god damn effort into communicating with others for crying out loud!

Language evolves, I have no problem with that. This post would have been picked apart by any intellectual 100 years ago.

Text message shorthand is not evolution of a language. There is no school or college that will accept this, and believe you me you most certainly get penalised for using it.

It encourages bad grammar, bad spelling, and it really does look very stupid indeed.

To sum it up, if you can't be bothered communicating in a sensible, coherent way, then you probably have no business trying to communicate with people in the first place.

Harsh? Probably, but this really annoys me and should have been nipped in the bud before it got so bad. Oh, for the day when text messages will be routed through a spell checker that fines people for such "Deviations"...

ballooba · 06-03-2003 08:11PM

Originally posted by Sarky
There is no school or college that will accept this, and believe you me you most certainly get penalised for using it.

I wonder would you have been penalised for writing OK instead of Okay 60 years ago.

Mercury_Tilt · 06-03-2003 08:14PM

This post has been deleted.

TenLeftFingers · 06-03-2003 08:21PM

This post would have been picked apart by any intellectual 100 years ago.

I tnk u nd 2 tk a chll pll m8. I txt my gf on a reg basis n its mch mre efficient 2 use s.hand. She understands me, n I her.
Who cares if sum1 else doesn't like it?

Victor · 06-03-2003 08:29PM

No, I use T9 almost always. Teh only time I would shorten words would be when my message barely exceeds the limit and isn't wort another message to finish.

Sarky · 06-03-2003 08:45PM

Originally posted by merlin_bar
I tnk u nd 2 tk a chll pll m8. I txt my gf on a reg basis n its mch mre efficient 2 use s.hand. She understands me, n I her.
Who cares if sum1 else doesn't like it?

Far too much use of vowels and whole words there young man, must try harder-you're a txt noob!

I have no problem with people talking to eachother however they want. But there are now people who will write essays, business proposals, and quite possibly laws in this form. It's not on!

ballooba · 06-03-2003 08:53PM

laws in txt. that would be funny.

Sarky · 06-03-2003 08:58PM

Oh, and one more thing- When, in the name of all that's good and holy, did the word "text" become a verb?

civilisation is coming to an end faster than I could have imagined possible...:rolleyes:

Spunog UIE · 06-03-2003 09:16PM

get a life ffs. ha ha, ah gotta stop reading this.

oh it does does it...

Swifty · 06-03-2003 10:46PM

I have maaad texting skillz so I can ignore the dictionary and type a message in perfect english

The dictionary limits you in ways. It doesnt recognise some words and then you have to go through the whole pain in the ass process off inputting the word into the thing so it'll recognise the word 'c0cksmoker' the next time you want to use it. Pfffah.

GoneShootin · 06-03-2003 10:53PM

on the topic of SMS end English, theres a load of converters out there, just a google away

daveJAM · 07-03-2003 11:26AM

I despise short-hand texts. If i'm short on space, I use two messages. Most people I know have phones that will support it. Unless its just a few characters that can be fixed using & instead of "and" or similar. But what I really can't stand is improper use of case. I HATE WHEN PEOPLE SHOUT AT YOU IN A TEXT MESSAGE. or then there's this which really looks bad.

Stephen · 07-03-2003 09:33PM

I too hate "shortened" text messages. Anyone with a phone that's not a relic of the early 90's should have a predictive text/t9 facility and should bloody use it. Its a pain in the arse trying to decipher a load of gibberish when it could have easily been sent in ENGLISH.

ManWithThePlan · 07-03-2003 09:39PM

Originally posted by Victor
No, I use T9 almost always. Teh only time I would shorten words would be when my message barely exceeds the limit and isn't wort another message to finish.

Same here.

po0k · 07-03-2003 10:07PM

Originally posted by Swifty
I have maaad texting skillz so I can ignore the dictionary and type a message in perfect english

The dictionary limits you in ways. It doesnt recognise some words and then you have to go through the whole pain in the ass process off inputting the word into the thing so it'll recognise the word 'c0cksmoker' the next time you want to use it. Pfffah.

I've taught my phone all sorts of words, divx, mp3, faeg, kittencake, quakenet, irc, GeForce, several people's nicks, several strange placenames...I could go on....

What I want to know is, does anyone find it incredibly annoying when people constantly use txt speek on irc

Mossy Monk · 08-03-2003 08:43AM

i hate it when people send me messsages in that shortened text language. i saw something about it the other day when some girl in Scotland wrote an essay using it. everyone i know writes to me in a language i can understand because they might as well be writing in Dutch because i can't understand it. T9 is a feature on most phones these days, why don't people use it. but that too can be a problem though when people are bladdered

swiss · 08-03-2003 10:04AM

Originally posted by Space_Coyote:

a wise man once said:

Me fail English? That's unpossible!

Ah, that would be the redoubtable Ralph Wiggum

http://members.boards.ie/swiss/ralph[1].wav

I have no problem with reading and using shortened messages.. when it's easy to understand. Very common abbreviations like "4" instead of "for" or "four" and "2nite" instead of "tonight" does not disrupt the flow of a text, since they are so well recognised.

However, if a text is void of vowels, then that breaks very significantly from the flow of a text. We use vowels everyday in speech and writing, and coming across this form of text messages makes me (for one) pause to figure out exactly what's being said. I can usually figure it out, but why should I, after all the meaning would be intuitive should the person had taken a little more care sending the text.

Just because someone can read shortened text fluently doesn't mean that they should expect every who recieves their text to be as proficient. For example, I sent a text to my mother some time ago using some small abbreviations such as what I just mentioned. She told me afterwards she figured it out after a minute, if I had been any more terse she would never have figured it out.

So as long as your sure the recepient of your message can understand it clearly, it really doesn't matter what sort of format you use, just don't try to force other people to conform to your '1337' shrthnd txt msgs.

Sangre · 08-03-2003 05:01PM

I never use shorthand in a text message because with predictive text its much faster to type normally and its easier to read.

But when playing online I will use shorthand to insult someone between kills. Especially with games like Quake with no dead time its impossible to boost about your skills if you write properly

'ph33r m3 u uber n00bie, i r da l3370rz'

(p.s I know thats not shorthand

)

Do You Use Shortened Txt Msgs?

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