ot: netspeak

[OSusannah]

We are working on some revisions to the Board Rules and netspeak is one of the issues that will be addressed. There is no rule against netspeak; however, most of our members prefer the regular long English spelling.

In the FAQs is a list of common abbreviations that are used on the board. These are the only ones that are generally used because of the confusion and irritation the others cause us "older-than-computer" members.

This board was begun by Ann, founder of SOAGC, for collectors out of the normal target age range for AG. Although a person of any age may join, the AGFMB has attracted a large population of adult collectors. It is a fairly recent development that so many younger girls have joined.

Basically, we don't use netspeak because we don't want to use it ourselves and we don't want to have to "translate" when reading a post. When the rules are revised, it still won't be against the rules to use netspeak, we will just ask everyone to be considerate of others by following the precedence of the Board and not use netspeak.

[dornroeschen]

Originally posted by dianasmama:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">When members from other countries are on the board the board is seen in their language, if their language can't translate the words they are missing maybe a great post.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Miki.....where are you....?????

Is this true? Your English is just impeccable and I thought you read this board in English, or are you really reading it in German?

Laurie</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Here I am, Laurie!!!!

I don't translate the messages into German. I sort of have a 'switch' and when I read/speak English it's in English and I don't need to translate it into German. I've actually had the problem already that I didn't notice in which language I was actually talking/reading until I was asked a couple of times that I've not been understood as I used the 'wrong' language.

Originally posted by caroloto:
...The English language is the hardest language for example in English to say: "Hello, how are you?" is 4 words in German it's translated into 3 words....

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Caroloto, you actually picked one of the few sentences that doesn't need many words for a German translation. However, if you would say it the 'proper way' you would still need five: "Hallo, wie geht es Dir/Ihnen?" - collequial it just uses three words: "Hallo, wie geht's?".

Usually English sentences are much shorter and also have shorter words. How about this for a job-title:

Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapit?n

That's a real job!

I've done plenty of translations to know that written English is so much shorter and to the point.


As to netspeak and various abbreviations: Some of them are fine and I've gotten used to them as they're used frequently, like the ones listed in the FAQ's and even a few others. If there's something new and I can't work it out, I'll post and ask. The abbreviations that make me mad are those that use numbers in a word and you should work out that this is part of a syllable like: l8er or sk8er.

[aggirl479]

I often use Netspeak when I'm chatting on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) or text messaging someone on my cell phone, but it really is a pet peeve of mine when I see someone use it on a message board. Spelling and grammatical errors (I know, I do it to [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) are also big pet peeves of mine. It really bothers me when I see someone on the board write with all lowercase, all capitals, or without correct spelling, grammar, or punctuation. I'm not targeting anyone here, it just seriously bothers me [img]redface.gif[/img] .