Oh man this is a huge pet peeve of mine. When somebody decides to ask you for something and says 'do this 4 me plz' I immediately think - not only is this person a moron, they don't even respect me enough to type out the entire word. How many characters did that really save? Why am I not worthy of you taking the time to type correctly?

I feel sorry for the hunt and peck typists out there, especially the young ones, but that doesn't excuse taking at most an extra second to type the word please instead of plz or for instead of 4.

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Tru3r w3rdz w3r3 n3/er 5p0k3//.

If you are going to ask anyone for help, show some dignity and respect, and formulate complete sentences. And yes, start with a "hello" or an "excuse me."


By the way, if anyone hasn't read that wikipedia thread on leet speak, it is worth your time.
Hilarious, and very in-depth article.

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Ok, I know I'm gonna catch heat for this but in the same article you flame people for shorthanding "please" but tell them to know and use LF2M... It's pretty much the same thing man. Now by no means am I saying those idiot "OMG I'm soo Ub3rz I r0xx0rz ur s0x off" peeps are right... far from it they're damn annoying, but I've been chatting since BBS' in the 80s and "pls" "tks" and such are just part of the online lexicon now. Yeah I can type at 70wpm, but that doesn't mean I want to type a novel to get a port. Usually it's " 'scuse me, could I get a port to Darn pls? " to isolate abbreviation is a bit absurd, but feel free to let loose on the 1337sp33k kiddies.

Just my $0.02

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I wouldn't flame you, but there is a big difference between "DM LF2M" and "Scuse me plz."

Abbreviation in the LFG channel helps to keep clutter down, and is generally accepted as the norm. The names of instances, and often long, and complicated. Also, when advertising, you are not just asking a specific person for help, but offering a spot in your group.
Also, it is expected that people ask for groups and players in that channel, so it is not just some random request.

When you run up to someone and say "scuse, wtb pr0t plz" you are directly targeting them with a request. You could just use the courtesy to ask in a more polite manner. You will get a positive response much more often when you ask that way.

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Having been a part of the internet since about 1992, and BBS Boards before that, I can put up with a lot of crap online. For some reason though, I want to choke people out when I see them use '4','U', 'R' as words. I don't mind some time saving abbreviation, but most of the little dorks out there using leetspeak also dialog like they are 3 years old. "roflcopters...u r fuNnNnnNny!".

Go Die.

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Don't address me as Dwarf, or hey Hunter, mage or whatever I am playing. At lease use my characters name, thats what it is there for.

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Hey Chris, personally I do call people by their classes. If your name is Aethor or Ziiemba, I don't want to sit there and type the whole thing. I'd rather say "taunt war", or "sheep mage", especially in a battle where time is of the essence.

Then again, now that I've heard your point I'll try to use names more often. I guess I never gave much interest to my own ingame name-- I have no issues with just being called by the class I play.

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Oh during battle is one thing, example of when I don't like it. (Hey dwarf we are bla bla bla join us) calling me sheep mage during battle would just make me laugh, lol

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that annoys me as well. my mains name is admittedly difficult, mahoutsukai is difficult for most westerners to pronounce and time consuming to type, but there is no reaosn not to use maho. people use name shorthand in real life, so no reason not to feel comfortable with them in game, and i often ignore anybody referring to me as mage.

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I do like when I am referred to by my character's name, its a little sign of respect. I myself try to always be polite when asking a stranger to join my instance group or for anything actually, and it's taken me quite a ways!

And if you say please, you can have some dumplings!
http://murlocdumplings.com

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my guild has 2 rules. this is rule 1:

Vowel discrimination is forbidden. No use of plz, thx, ne1 or u allowed.

some may think this is over the top, draconian or just plain harsh (and yes, it is enforced to a degree) but i personally think it's one of our best features. :)

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All my base are belong to this!

See? That was sort of l33t(ish), and yet it's still readable! I seem to be fine with however people talk, as long as they arn't trying to kill me or something. Italso seems fine to hear, "Hey, . We need a heal for WC, can u come?", or even, "Yo, WC? need tank."

One of the worst phrases I have ever heard is, "OMG DUDE WC NEEDS U! WE GATZ TEH TANKZ! U COMEzzzzzzZ!!!one11E1!ERONFwfas!" That is way over the line (I later explained how caps lock did not increase vocal range). Not only did I deny the person, I beat them in 3 duels :P

As for Argent; I disagree to that. It is nice to be able to read what other people are saying, but if you're multitasking, "u" "ne" "1" "r" and "y" are REALLY handy.

So basically, yeah grammer is great and all, but SO WHAT? Without being a moron, you can easily use "acronyms" or "l33tsp34k".

"LF2M WC NEED PRIEST PLZOMG HELP NUBS PLZ"

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%t is my friend when im typing peoples nick (those i can see in front of me that is) dont know how many know this but %t basicly types out the name of whatever you are currently targeting.

but yeah, friendly requests go a long way, even a:
Hey! last spot for dstrat wanna come?
or b) Hey! last spot for dstrat, need your imba healing!

goes a long way, tho i prefer b since i like compliments ;-D

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I think you guys are taking the game a little too seriously. On an RP server this stuff matters a lot, but on any other type of server, it doesn't. If you need a personalized Hallmark card just to join a group, then people shouldn't group with you in the first place. On the matter of LFG, those who don't like listening to spammers have the option of ignoring the spammers. I know from experience that anyone on my server that complains about LFG spam has their head bitten off by at least five people. It's part of the game, if you don't like it, don't play.

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Actually, it's good that some people sound like morons when they ask for stuff. It gives a very clear warning about what will happen if you group with them.

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Oh, and it's not that we take the game too seriously. I expect courtesy in daily life and prefer intelligence in my friends.

Someone asking a stranger to do them a favour in any scenario with no courtesy and in an incoherant manner would get the same response.

I think the issue is that most people spend most of their lives surrounded by people who have the same standards of behaviour that they do, and when they play a game like WoW, they are exposed to people who's standards vary wildly.

The people who ask in the way described first in the article probably don't think it's rude at all, and that typing everything out correctly and politely is totally pretentious, wanky and uncool.

As I said just before. How someone speaks is a good way to guage if you're going to have anything in common.

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You know, I'm a hunt and peck typist.

Well, actually, just a peck now, since I'm so used to hitting the keys I already know where they are...but I still have to look down a the keyboard. I'm relatively fast, though. I do make a LOT of typos, but I either fix them as I'm typing or if I notice them I correct it. A simple "[previously misspelled word/phrase now correctly spelled]*" suffices.

To the point, chatspeak and leetspeak is unbearable. I'm 14, I peck. Yet I don't type like a slobbering imbecile. Honestly, I don't know how massive typos and shorthand became the thing to do. It doesn't make sense. People sound infinitely more idiotic when doing so.

Thank you for this article.

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