So... what the heck does this all mean?

[Legal Fish]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

Leet(as in 1337, as in Elite) speak is an style of wording found on the internet which subsitutes some letters for numbers or simply not say those letters at all. (3 replaces three, p replaces o in the word own)

It is often recreated in sarcasm, for people who think it is funny to repeat leet speak to make fun of it. However, as it has been done to death, it is not funny at all. This doesn't stop people from doing this however. You can see examples of this in this thread. People doing this can be related to when people find it funny when older white people say 'gansta' words, like "fo-shizzle", which is also, not funny.

Lastly, orz is not leet speak. It a Japanese emote, a parallel of leet speak.

[Tirrock]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

The sad thing is, all these forums and online games have made it so I can read "leet" without blinking.

[Legal Fish]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

Show me one example of someone using 'leet' seriously, outside 'pwn'.

[Taskmage]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

Show me one example of someone using 'leet' seriously, outside 'pwn'.

What do you mean seriously?

Practical uses
Arguably, the first use of Leet was on the BBSs of the late 1980s. On public BBSs administrators would frequently search for illegal or undesirable material, and remove them if found. As a way to combat this, many terms that are now common terminology in Leet appeared. "Wares" would become "W4R3Z," "porn" would become "pr0n," exploits would become "spl01tz," etc. Leet continued to evolve in this fashion, so when the new terms were picked up by administrators they were quickly replaced. [2] An additional use in the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s was in chat rooms that had filters enabled that were designed to remove profanity from user input.

A more modern and legal use of leet is as a cipher that is opaque to computer systems. Computer security systems often disallow the use of common English words as passwords. Leet's use as a way of ciphering English words and phrases as strings of punctuation characters can make it useful as a means of creating memorable passwords that such systems will accept. A system that will refuse "Now is the time" as a password will often be quite happy to accept "|\|0\/\/ 15 7|-|3 71|\/|3".

On occasion in multiplayer gaming, the action can be too intense for the player to properly express themselves with 'standard' english (or whatever their native tongue may be). For example if a player is being Imperial Guard rushed in Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, they may not have the time to explain to a team mate, "Oh my god, what the f*** I'm being rushed by the Imperial Guard player". Instead most gamers would type "omgwtf ig" or "omgwtf igrush" etc. This basic example can be extended over the majority of fast paced multiplayer games on the internet. In addition these common abbreviations which can be considered as part of 'Leet' can allow players from different speaking backgrounds to understand each other perfectly.

[Raydeus]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

Show me one example of someone using 'leet' seriously, outside 'pwn'.

I actually use leet to encrypt passwords, a long password with some leet in it is more useful than you think.

[Balfree]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

by the way:

!1onethousandonehundredeleven

[Jarre]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

I'm switching to old fart mode.....

The problem with all thsi abreviation "Leet" speak and "txt" speak (In UK anyway as I'm unsure if in the US you can send text messages from your mobile) everything is shortened and kids are learning it this way. What does this mean? , well the English (or american) languages we speak is going downhill, less people can spell properly and the grammer of kids is getting worse. Now I admit I am by no means a word smith, but I wasn't brought up on text or internet leet speak, this is all new to me.

When my neice sends me a text message it takes me a while (until i found this translator to help me. Text message translator ) to try and understand it.

So an example from my little neice I get "Hi wot tym wiL U b arriving 2day?" which translates as "What time will you be arriving today" Thats quite a simple.

One I got last week took me ages to translate...

"skul wz bad 2day, maths exam wz terrible!! sis iz bn a pain 'gen & her bf iz makin me 7k how luvvyduvy he iz."

which means

"School was bad today, maths exam was terrible!! Sister is being a pain again and her boyfriend is making me sick how luvvyduvy he is."

Call me old fashioned, but where is our language going?

As for leet, us older generation will need lessons like learning spanish etc.!! Our cultural languages are going down hill.... Were doomed! (Dads army quote)

[durecellrabbit]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

I don't find it hard to understand Txt-Tlk or 1337. I'm most cases you change just read out the message as word are often written as they sound. 1337 is slightly harder but numbers and dashes in word often look similar to what they replace. Of course I am growing up still.

[Tirrock]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

Okay. After reading those things written by Jarre's neice, I'd like to take back what I said about me being able to read this stuff without trouble.

I could understand all but the bolded words...

"skul wz bad 2day, maths exam wz terrible!! sis iz bn a pain 'gen & her bf iz makin me 7k how luvvyduvy he iz."

At first I wondered if she was talking about a head injury. Then wondering if her boyfriend and her played FFXI and got her a bit of gil...

And...I don't understand the point of "iz". Takes the same amount of time to write, and you're not saving any space either.

That converter is pretty neat, except for it's random mistranslations. Like trying to translate "her" gets you "here". Sort of funny how it plows through the terrible words, but gets stumped on a correctly spelled word.

[Taskmage]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

I'm not a cultural linguist or anything, but in that regard I don't think this is any different than slang or syntax changes that have seperated previous generations of kids from their parents' language. They're still being taught correct spelling and required to use it in school, so the language will be preserved. When they become adults and have to communicate professionally with other adults that may not be from their generation they'll use normal english.

Whenever I'm writing text messages on my phone, I always type out my words, because my phone checks the numbers I'm inputting against a dictionary and tries to predict the word I'm trying to type. So if I put in 4663, it gives me a list of words starting with "good" and "home" and stems of longer words that start with 4663 to choose from. If I wanted to say "gud" I would have to manually select which of the three corresponding letters I meant for each key I hit, and it would actually be a lot more trouble.

[Neo Geo]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

Leet speak to make your life taste better. Why even bother? lol. I personally think "leet speak" and all other shortcutted words ("d00d dun u wana spek nrml m8") are something for kids trying to proove something. Perfect grammar is also overdone... like people in game doing their very best to use punctuation even though that's not really their writing style.. also something for kiddies. Not really important, and doesn't make you look better either.

[Taskmage]

Re: So... what the heck does this all mean?

They both have their uses. Good grammar is easier to read and internalize and helps you to be understood and taken seriously, especially important if you're trying to explain something difficult or make a successful arguement. I tend to take people who consistently use correct syntax more seriously because it gives them the impression of being more intelligent and in charge of their thoughts. It is strictly appearance and not necessarily true—I know at least one person who's opinion I value deeply that sounds like a raving idiot in text—but we make generalizations because they play out to "generally" be true.

Likewise there are contexts where abbreviated speech is much more appropriate. "gob ag slep plz" is much more likely to save your butt if understood than "Hey guys, there's a goblin hitting me. Could one of you—oh nvm, I'm dead."