That won't be the only reason to use such words in NG. I think,
people use it because they think it is acceptable. Sometimes I would
tempted to use such short words in email to my friends all because to
save the time 'coz in public Internet cafe the charge will be based on
the minutes slab for example 0 to 20-Rs.10, etc., and so saving a
second itself is saving money.
True. This point also echoes the oft-repeated war between the
"code hacker" and "designer" perspectives. Some people like to sit
down at a screen and type away, with the backspace key to cover their
mistakes, until they have a good product. Others will sit down first
with pencil and paper, or just their brains, and design the product
from the top down until they know *exactly* what they're going to
type... and then five minutes of typing later, they're done.
Me, I'm the "code hacker" type. But I know several pencil-and-paper
"designer" types, and that way works for me sometimes too. Sometimes
it works better.
Anyway, it seems that if you replace "code" with "Usenet post"
and "keyboard" with "kiosk," you'll have the same dichotomy in
Usenet styles. And so we get the guys who pound out quick replies,
and the guys who sit quietly until their ideas are fully-formed
before responding (just like in a real conversation). But if you
add a limit on "kiosk time," then the "Usenet-post hackers" end up
using lots of "u" and "thx" and whatnot, in order to conserve their
valuable time. Less time typing, more time thinking.
Which problem can of course be solved -- if only those guys would
think *before* composing. But it's often hard to plan a whole
response without writing down a little first -- I know I didn't
write *this* one without a lot of incremental revision!
Hmmm... but through the media I see still people in western
countries publicly use "u" in T-shirts, posters, especially in the
rally against war or in sports.
Exactly.
To borrow a metaphor from "Family Guy," there are the
people who watch "Frasier" and then there are the people who watch
"Jenny Jones." People who wear T-shirts with the "word" "U" on
them, or dress up in costumes to protest military actions, or carry
"John 3:16" posters into sporting events... forgive me for saying
so, these people often fall into the "Jenny Jones" category.
Misspelled words such as "U" and "da" (as in "da bomb") have also
found a home in hip-hop "culture," which is not exactly the pinnacle
of Western civilization either.
Also, through MTV, I see still "u" is
cool and trendy in those western countries itself.
You do realize that MTV is basically a vehicle for Ashton Kutcher's
self-love and the butt of SNL skits otherwise, right? "Those western
countries" don't watch MTV -- they let it sit unwatched inside the
TV until it's time to export it to unsuspecting foreigners. Same
goes for Lifetime and BET. ;-)
I know, the clc is
community is formal, upper crest community that comprise members of
ACM, ANSI, etc. But, still new visitors may not aware of those
netiquettes. At this point, I'm not arguing or starting any
flames---but I just conveying my thoughts.
Sure. Luckily, there exist fairly conspicuous FAQs as to proper
netiquette, as well as a large, *large* body of Prior Art. Surely
those newbies do notice that everyone else on these groups speaks
proper English -- can't they take a hint? (Most of them do, of
course, but I will never understand why some of them apparently
can't.)
OTH, I find the regulars' abbreviations and idioms (or phrase)
are so uncomfortable to me. There was a time when most of the people
in clc used "C&V", I searched a lot in AcronymFinder.com, STANDS4.com,
Wikipedia.org, OneLook.com, and even Google. But, finally after couple
of months I came to know it's just "Chapter and Verse"---and
immediately I added it to those sites.
Interesting. ("Chapter and verse," of course, is a clc'ism meaning
roughly "Do you have a reference from the Standard for that?" I highly
doubt that it's used anywhere else on Usenet.) Incidentally, are you
fluent enough to pick out possible meanings by repeated exposure to
the non-abbreviated form? I mean, the non-abbreviated "Chapter and
verse, please" form must be used much more often than the abbreviation,
and a speaker such as myself can easily match up the "expected" response
to the initials, almost without thinking. It seems plausible that a
non-native speaker would find this difficult.
The samething happend to me
when today RJH used MMDNV---which was not available in any online
dictionaries/Wiki, but fortunately I found it in Google itself and
added the meaning to other sites too.
"My mileage does not vary." In the case of YMMV/MMDV/MMV/MMDIV/MMDNV,
there is a kind of pun going on -- all initialisms contain the digraph
"MM", which is a "key" that a native clc'er may instantly associate
with the "Your mileage may vary" cliche (which is itself a punning
reference to a popular automobile-ad phrase, BTW). So I think, "Aha!
Richard is responding to 'YMMV'; he's saying 'My mileage ... ...
var[y|ies].' What fits 'DN'? Aha! 'My mileage does not vary.'" And
there it is.
BTW, I couldn't understand the double-standard between accepting
abbreviations Vs. accepting "u". Now, that I understand abbreviations
are used by upper crest intellectuals whereas "u" is used by idiots in
western countries.
While technically correct, this is a rather cynical way of putting
it. A more thorough analysis might reveal that successful initialism
"slang" usually is either an abbreviation of a phrase or reassurance
usually hurriedly spoken (e.g., "BTW", "HTH", or "AFAIK") or is a
pop culture reference, usually humorous (e.g., "YMMV", "HAND", "STFU").
In the first of these categories, the writer uses initialisms to
"dispense with the formalities" quickly, to move on to the meat of
the message.
In the second, the writer is not attempting to be helpful [harsh
but true]. Rather, he's engaging in a kind of "in-joke" with the
group at large. One who writes "HTH - HAND" is tipping his hat to
his fellows in the group, who have enough Western culture under their
belts to recognize the "Have a nice day" smiley face hidden inside
the acronym. In the same vein, ISTR someone in this very group
calling someone else a "warthog-faced buffoon" recently -- or was
it a "miserable vomitous mass"? To which somebody else replied to
the effect that the former was no better than a pile of fetid dingo's
kidneys. Which might sound quite uncalled-for, unless you are a
member of the "in-group" consisting of all those people who've seen
"The Princess Bride" or read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
In-jokes are used precisely because they're fun -- it's nice to
unwind a little now and then with people with whom you share interests.
And that's all the second category is about -- it's about fun.
"Indian" abbreviations [pardon the terminology, but there's little
else one could call them] such as "u" and "proggie", by contrast, are
*not* usually in-jokes (by your own analysis, they're usually parroted
from "idiot" sources), nor quickly spoken -- in fact, one of the most
annoying things a Usenet newbie can do, IMO [see?], is to abbreviate the
*key* *word* in his question or sentence. E.g.,
i'm having some probs making my c compiler compile a tu.
any1 hlp plz!
This [hypothetical] post abbreviates the key words -- "problems,"
"translation unit," "can anyone help please?" That makes it very
difficult to parse quickly. On the other hand, a clever Usenetter
might write
I'm having some problems compiling a translation unit.
Help!
While still an awful plea for help (the writer doesn't give any
details about his problem), at least he's maintained the key words
and phrases intact. And I bet the second writer would get a lot
more help, in this or any English-speaking group.
HTH, and yes, HAND,
-Arthur
