# Pet hate - txt spk



## baldyman27 (21 Apr 2009)

Have been looking through a few threads here on AAM and the abundance of text speak really annoys me. I can understand people using it on mobile phone texts, even though I don't myself, for economic reasons but to use it on forums is really frustrating. It costs nothing extra to type a full word. Not to mention grammatical laziness...


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## orka (21 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> Not to mention grammatical laziness...


Almost as annoying as sentences with no subject.....


baldyman27 said:


> Have been looking through a few threads here on AAM


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## Bubbly Scot (21 Apr 2009)

It drives me nuts when it appears in forums and I've been known to avoid replying to such posts. Don't mind it in texts and find it quite funny when, for example, the usually staid boss sends a text saying "c u in 5 wats up?".

I'm not so pedantic as to critisize the small grammatical or spelling errors (I do many myself) but so long as a post is written in plain english, is somewhat punctuated and makes occassional use of paragraphs my blood pressure remains healthy 

Yes, I do make exceptions for different levels of education and the possibility of dyslexia etc. It's downright laziness and disregard from the reader (who such people are usually trying to get advice from) that gets me.


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## Welfarite (21 Apr 2009)

bubbly scot said:


> ... *critisize* the small grammatical or spelling errors (i do many myself) ...


:d


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## Smashbox (21 Apr 2009)

Baldy, I too hate 'Text Speak'. In any of my texts I spell everything out, perhaps I make spelling mistakes but its never intentional.

Online, I would never use it, I would actually never use it anyway. My brother is awful, some messages he sends me, I haven't a clue what he's saying. I'm not massively older than him, but I still don't get it.

I send hundreds of texts a week, but I always spell everything out. If you can't take the time to talk to a person properly, what's the point?


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## Caveat (21 Apr 2009)

Smashbox said:


> I send hundreds of texts a week, but I always spell everything out.


 
Yeah me too - another text hater here.  

In fact, I'm so bad that not only do I spell everything out, I actually punctuate properly in my texts too - always use full stops, commas even...semi-colons 

I'm probably just sad.


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## DavyJones (21 Apr 2009)

Smashbox said:


> I send hundreds of texts a week, but I always spell everything out. If you can't take the time to *talk* to a person properly, what's the point?




Eh? You could try ringing them.


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## baldyman27 (21 Apr 2009)

Caveat said:


> In fact, I'm so bad that not only do I spell everything out, I actually punctuate properly in my texts too - always use full stops, commas even...semi-colons
> 
> I'm probably just sad.


 
Well that makes me sad also! Just had to text my sister the list of Irish Lions and it took an age with capital letters, spelling out each name, punctuation, etc.


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## baldyman27 (21 Apr 2009)

orka said:


> Almost as annoying as sentences with no subject.....


 
Accept your points.


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## Smashbox (21 Apr 2009)

DavyJones said:


> Eh? You could try ringing them.


 
I do that too. I have a large phone bill!


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## liaconn (21 Apr 2009)

The thing that really drives me mad on this board is when people type paragraphs using no commas or full stops, so that you have to read their post several times to get their gist.


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## Smashbox (21 Apr 2009)

I usually skip those


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## Kine (21 Apr 2009)

liaconn said:


> The thing that really drives me mad on this board is when people type paragraphs using no commas or full stops, so that you have to read their post several times to get their gist.


 
that _really _irks me too. bloody hell, imagine having a wall of text with no punctuation or fullstops or commas etc. next thing you know, words will start appearing side-by-side with no spaces in between them. i think everyone just thinkstheyarealljamesjoyce....


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## Caveat (21 Apr 2009)

Like Smashbox I just completely ignore those rambling types of posts.

I don't think I've ever read even one in full.


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## Smashbox (21 Apr 2009)

I just can't get through them at all, I lose interest after the first line and so I usually click off them and don't return!


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## Bubbly Scot (21 Apr 2009)

Welfarite said:


> :d


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## gebbel (21 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> Have been looking through a few threads here on AAM and the abundance of text speak really annoys me. I can understand people using it on mobile phone texts, even though I don't myself, for economic reasons but to use it on forums is really frustrating. It costs nothing extra to type a full word. Not to mention grammatical laziness...


 
It is against the Posting Guidelines to use text speak on this site. Therefore I don't find it very prevalent here. It is, however, a very big issue on Boards.ie, and one that is not very well moderated.


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## mathepac (21 Apr 2009)

liaconn said:


> The thing that really drives me mad on this board is when people type paragraphs using no commas or full stops, so that you have to read their post several times to get their gist.


that fecker james joyce has a lot to answer for hasn't he the little git wait til i see his mammy i'll give her a piece of my mind the piece i have to spare which is more than what she has in total the auld bag and as for blazes boylan and him in the tower in sandymount or in the boozer...


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## baldyman27 (21 Apr 2009)

gebbel said:


> I don't find it very prevalent here.


 
No, it's not prevalent here which makes it glaringly obvious and twice as annoying when it does occur.


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## ajapale (21 Apr 2009)

This is the posting guideline.



> Please take a little time to write your post carefully. Use complete sentences. Use paragraphs for longer posts. Do not use Text Speak.


I find posts which use three full stops (...) instead of one to be very annoying.

A lot of posters use it and i wonder whether it has anything to do with the device being used to post.

Some posters use the "at" sign to address other posters for example @Baldyman etc. Why not just use the posters name? Again perhaps this is a convention somewhere on the internet.


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## Purple (21 Apr 2009)

ajapale said:


> I find posts which use three full stops (...) instead of one to be very annoying.
> 
> A lot of posters use it and i wonder whether it has anything to do with the device being used to post.


It's called an Ellipsis and can mean a few things but mainly a pause (longer then a full stop) or an omitted word.


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## juke (21 Apr 2009)

liaconn said:


> The thing that really drives me mad on this board is when people type paragraphs using no commas or full stops, so that you have to read their post several times to get their gist.



I read the first few words then phase out - like Smashbox & Caveat



mathepac said:


> that fecker james joyce has a lot to answer for hasn't he the little git wait til i see his mammy i'll give her a piece of my mind the piece i have to spare which is more than what she has in total the auld bag and as for blazes boylan and him in the tower in sandymount or in the boozer...



Zzzzzz



Purple said:


> It's called an Ellipsis and can mean a few things but mainly a pause (longer then a full stop) or an omitted word.



I use this. Often. To mean "I'm not of sure my answer and I am still thinking" or "correct me if I'm wrong" or "wait for it..."

Text speak doesn't annoy me as much as abbreviations that make me resort to urbandictionary.com. 

Then I think I am old.


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## MandaC (21 Apr 2009)

ajapale said:


> Some posters use the "at" sign to address other posters for example @Baldyman etc. Why not just use the posters name? Again perhaps this is a convention somewhere on the internet.



I did not understand what that meant and was reading it as (at) 
Did not understand why people would  be saying saying "at Baldyman" etc and it was quite annoying.

My boss uses text speak in his e-mails and it is the talk of the Company.  Some people are disgusted.  Not sure how to break it to him though


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## Bubbly Scot (21 Apr 2009)

ajapale said:


> I find posts which use three full stops (...) instead of one to be very annoying.
> 
> A lot of posters use it and i wonder whether it has anything to do with the device being used to post.



Ah, now I do that...it's not designed to be a full stop (in my case anyway). It's actually intended to be...a pause...to enable the reader to take a moment and digest the words fully. 

Note:when I do it, there is not a capital letter following

I could explain where this technique came from but it would take took long but suffice to say it's a form of creative writing I used to do (online) years ago.

Will try and temper it a bit, just for you.


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## ajapale (21 Apr 2009)

Purple said:


> It's called an Ellipsis and can mean a few things but mainly a pause (longer then a full stop) or an omitted word.



Im familiar with the Ellipsis and can understand how a poster might use one occasionally every ten posts or so. What I find annoying is users who use the Ellipsis or (..) or even (....) at the end of absolutely every sentence.

Can you imagine if newspaper articles or business reports were written in this fashion?



juke said:


> I use this. Often. To mean "I'm not of sure my answer and I am still thinking" or "correct me if I'm wrong" or "wait for it..."



This is the usage I find annoying.


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## LDFerguson (22 Apr 2009)

ajapale said:


> Some posters use the "at" sign to address other posters for example @Baldyman etc. Why not just use the posters name? Again perhaps this is a convention somewhere on the internet.


 
I'm not sure of the origin of this convention, but it is how Twitter recognises a username within a tweet.  (Twitter has its own dialect in which a post is called a tweet, which is a little bit sad.  What's even sadder is that I'm familiar with it.)     

@LDFerguson


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## juke (22 Apr 2009)

ajapale said:


> This is the usage I find annoying.


Noted. I'll take your opinion on board before using it again. However, I would be interested in other opinions.


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## Padraigb (22 Apr 2009)

juke said:


> Noted. I'll take your opinion on board before using it again. However, I would be interested in other opinions.



I use ellipsis a lot, usually to indicate a passage omitted in something I quote. Occasionally I use it as a device to imply that I am leaving out something that I might say myself, as a sort of biting-my-tongue suggestion. 

For pauses, I use the typist's em-dash (--).


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## Smashbox (22 Apr 2009)

I use it too. Oh well.

LD, yes, Twitter does use the @username. However, I would only ever use it on Twitter, not on this forum where it doesn't have any significance.

If I was speaking directly to a user, I would start the sentance with their name.


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## baldyman27 (22 Apr 2009)

I would also use the ellipsis a bit at the end of a post, sometimes instead of pointing out the glaringly obvious, other times to imply my wonderment at a poster's lack of cop on, basically to avoid insulting them outright.

For example, if a poster (and there are a lot who can't figure things logically) asks;

'I got a watertight written quotation from a reputable builder with excellent references to build my house for E50/ft2. Is this good value?'

(I'm exaggerating here to make my point) I would reply with;

'What do you think yourself...?'

This to me is better than saying 'Take an hour to ring around other builders for quotes, find out the prices of materials, do a couple of simple sums and you'll very quickly figure out that it is of course good value, you lazy dumbass.'

The ellipsis is much more civil and polite.


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## samanthajane (22 Apr 2009)

have to say sorry as i often put in...... ( or now i can use the correct word ellipsis ) you can all just skip my posts. 

It annoys the hell out of me text talk, mainly cause i have to read it a few times before i might understand it, maybe i'm just getting old. My 9 year old son talks to his friends on msn using text talk and half the time i have no idea what they are actually saying to each other. There seems to be a new text word for something every day. 

As for the spelling i always make loads of spelling mistakes i cant help it, i just cant spell very well. It would help to have a spell checker on this site. If there was i would use it. Often i have to google a word to get the correct spelling, and even then sometimes google doesn't know what i'm on about.


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## Smashbox (22 Apr 2009)

samanthajane said:


> As for the spelling i always make loads of spelling mistakes i cant help it, i just cant spell very well. It would help to have a spell checker on this site. If there was i would use it.


 
Sam there is! Click on the tick with ABC on it when you're writing a post and follow the instructions!

Its with iespell.com, and everytime you write out a post, click on the same button after installation and it will spell check it for you!

As you can see, I don't use it too often either, but I know its there!


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## baldyman27 (22 Apr 2009)

samanthajane said:


> sometimes google doesn't know what i'm on about.


 
Now that's funny.


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## Smashbox (22 Apr 2009)

Aw baldy don't be so mean to her!


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## samanthajane (22 Apr 2009)

yeah *baldy*man27 dont be mean to me lol I'm a bit dyslexic. 


Smashbox i've never noticed the spell check on here before, will help me out loads. I've even copy and pasted my post onto word and spell checked it that way before. Takes me longer to go through that, than to write the post in the first place. 

Just tried to do it but it wont let me, i have to download it first.


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## baldyman27 (22 Apr 2009)

Sorry girls, no offence meant.


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## Smashbox (22 Apr 2009)

Yeah Sam, you have to download and install a program first but its well worth it.

Shame on you bald man.


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## Purple (22 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> Sorry girls, no offence meant.



Don't mind them, speak your mind man!


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## baldyman27 (22 Apr 2009)

Purple said:


> Don't mind them, speak your mind man!


 
I can't. I'm a bower to the real power! (This is, of course, reverse psychology!)


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## Caveat (22 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> I can't. I'm a bower to the real power! (*This* *is, of course, reverse psychology!)*


 
But then actually _saying_ that makes it a double bluff which then means...

ah I'm lost.

(Do you see what I did there AJ? )


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## Lipstick69 (22 Apr 2009)

What surprises is is why people use text speak when it is quicker to use predictive text and write normally using proper spelling. 

I must admit to being somewhat of a pedant regarding proper use of spelling and grammar. My pet hate is the amount of people using this site that have tennants and tenents rather than tenants!


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## baldyman27 (22 Apr 2009)

Cav, yes, its an infinitive conundrum designed to baffle.


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## baldyman27 (22 Apr 2009)

Lipstick69 said:


> My pet hate is the amount of people using this site that have tennants and tenents rather than tenants!


 
Or are after too much Tennents.


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## Smashbox (22 Apr 2009)

I dont like tennents.. or tenents..


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## samanthajane (22 Apr 2009)

No offense was taken baldyman. I'm well used to it by now. 

I quite often make a plonker of myself. I was in a supermarket a while ago looking at eggs, my mum was with me and i asked her "what are monk egg? are they a breed of chicken? Are they better than normal eggs?"

Well she couldn't speak she was laughing so much, so was the stranger also looking at eggs who managed through his own laughter to say to me " thats the company that makes them"


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## Chocks away (22 Apr 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> Or are after too much Tennents.



Hey baldyman27, you're slurring your spelling! You possibly mean _Tennants_. Or 'lunatic soup' as it is affectionately known by the student lushes across the Irish Sea.


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## baldyman27 (22 Apr 2009)

Chocks away said:


> Hey baldyman27, you're slurring your spelling! You possibly mean _Tennants_.


 
Oops, sorry and thanks. Too much Budwooser last night.


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## zag (22 Apr 2009)

samanthajane - chickens (among other things) make eggs, not companies.  So you can laugh right back at them.

z


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## samanthajane (22 Apr 2009)

Ha zag, well if i ever say that again ( although hope i wont ) i'll remember to say that back to them. 

He might not of actually said "make them" that could be me being a plonker again, but it was along those lines anyway.


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## Latrade (22 Apr 2009)

samanthajane said:


> I quite often make a plonker of myself. I was in a supermarket a while ago looking at eggs, my mum was with me and i asked her "what are monk egg? are they a breed of chicken? Are they better than normal eggs?"
> 
> Well she couldn't speak she was laughing so much, so was the stranger also looking at eggs who managed through his own laughter to say to me " thats the company that makes them"


 
Way off topic, but reminds of buying some budget "Glue free" laminate flooring in B&Q only for an indignant better half to ask the cashier when exactly are we going to get the "free glue" that is supposed to come with it.


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## samanthajane (23 Apr 2009)

haha latrade, thats something that i would come out with as well.


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## Welfarite (23 Apr 2009)

samanthajane said:


> ... I was in a supermarket a while ago looking at eggs, my mum was with me and i asked her "what are monk egg? are they a breed of chicken? Are they better than normal eggs?"
> 
> Well she couldn't speak she was laughing so much, so was the stranger also looking at eggs who managed through his own laughter to say to me " thats the company that makes them"


 
So when did monks start laying eggs then?


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## Smashbox (23 Apr 2009)

Wonder if the monk layed this one?

[broken link removed]


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## baldyman27 (7 May 2009)

Another thing I've noticed that is particularly annoying - people using exclamation marks after their thread titles when there is no need for them. An exclamation mark should be used after an exclamation.


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## becky (7 May 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> Another thing I've noticed that is particularly annoying - people using exclamation marks after their thread titles when there is no need for them. An exclamation mark should be used after an exclamation.


 
I agree on this (text spk doesn't bother me that much unless there's too much of it).  

There is a girl who emails me on 'work' issues.  She can use up to 3 of them in one email which is very informal for a work email.  I don't really mind the informailty but the exclamation marks drive me mad.  


When I reply I do it very formally and what do I get back.

thanks!!!


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## Vanilla (7 May 2009)

baldyman27 said:


> Another thing I've noticed that is particularly annoying - people using exclamation marks after their thread titles when there is no need for them. An exclamation mark should be used after an exclamation.


 
How do you know it's not an exclamation? To you it might be just another thread about the price of glass bricks, to them it might be-' the cost of glass bricks!'


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## baldyman27 (7 May 2009)

Vanilla said:


> How do you know it's not an exclamation? To you it might be just another thread about the price of glass bricks, to them it might be-' the cost of glass bricks!'


 
It was a post not dissimilar to that which caught my eye today. If I saw the title which you have exampled, I would presume that the poster had got a nasty shock when they found out the price of glass bricks. Quite often though, I open threads like that to find that the poster is just wondering how much they might expect to pay for same. In that instance, an exclamation mark is both incorrect and unnecessary. A question mark would be appropriate.


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## Welfarite (8 May 2009)

Perhaps the poster is using an exclamation mark to try and draw more attention to the thread?


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## Firefly (8 May 2009)

Welfarite said:


> Perhaps the poster is using an exclamation mark to try and draw more attention to the thread?


 

Really?!!


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## Caveat (8 May 2009)

...and since the thread is about pet hates, have you noticed that increasingly a question mark is now being referred to as a 'question tag' ?

I find it hard to articulate exactly why it annoys me or how annoying it actually is, but put it this way; anyone who says this should have their eyes removed with a fork.


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## baldyman27 (8 May 2009)

Caveat said:


> the thread is about *pet* hates
> 
> 
> anyone who says this should have their eyes removed with a fork.


 
Whoah there soldier, that's no pet hate you have there.


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## bren1916 (8 May 2009)

My pet hate is 'the shoop shoop song' by cher! - oh and red-scousers..


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