SMS Abbreviations and Chatroom Netiquette: "Textish" 101

Have you ever tried to read a message from someone that looked like this:

HRU? ICBW BTA, ICBB! OMG, PXT IM YOU SENT YESTERDAY! *ROFL* YGBKM! WAYF? LOL. AAR, DQMOT BUT AFAIK IT WAS NBD IYKWIM. GG, SUITM (AEAP...) HAGN!

Yeah, me neither, but it's been getting real close lately... Translated, this message says:

"How are you? It could be worse, but then again, it could be better! Oh my god, please explain that instant message you sent yesterday! *Rolls on the floor laughing* You gotta be kidding me! Where are you from? *laughs out loud* At any rate, don't quote me on this, but as far as I know, it was no big deal, if you know what I mean. Gotta go, see you in the morning (as early as possible...) Have a good night!"

I know this is a pretty extreme example, but the size difference is staggering! For one thing, the shorthand text version will fit in one cell phone message, but the grammatically correct version will not. This becomes especially important when one is talking forever without really saying anything at all... which brings me to my next topic... chat rooms.

You've gotta love 'em. High speed BS factories driven by coffee shop prophets, sidewalk commandos and teen age know-it-alls, and polluted to the point of near meltdown by drunks, trolls, and newbies... Yet, for some reason, I frequently find myself conversing in my favorite "chatbox" for goodly chunks of time, for no good reason, other than boredom relief through the rampant exchange of ideas and, of coarse, humor! If you stay loyal to one chatroom, you will even undoubtedly develop a decent rapport with at least a couple of like-minded friends, which makes the experience more rewarding. (Now you can gang up on the drunks and trolls...)

A troll is, by his or her very nature, too scared to engage in open dialogue in any meaningful manner, so they hang back, waiting for the random moment when they can interrupt a real thread of conversation with some unintelligible or inflammatory remark... usually simply because they lack the mental capacity to think of anything thought provoking to say, but sometimes it is to proudly flare out their chest and display their simple minded bigotry or "Freudian envy" to the world, then they just as quickly disappear back under the bridge from whence they came, only to re-emerge later at some equally random moment. Usually site moderators will don their troll hunting gear and seek to silence them for good, but the troll is slippery, mind you, and often does it's bidding unscathed.

Another favorite violation of "netiquette" in chatrooms, usually by newbies who just didn't know any better is YELLING. Typing in all caps, for some reason, really annoys the daylights out of some of the chat community, and is as frowned upon as excessive vulgarity. Some sites are stricter than others, and will ban anyone who uses ANY foul language, but most sites give you the option to plug the level of filtration you personally want on your screen into your preferences, right from the beginning. This kind of self censorship is great if you have young ones around... All that pops up on your screen when people cuss is $#%& and &#!@, instead of... well, you get the picture.

Some newbies get intimidated by the speed of the conversation, and if you stare at one of the more frequented chatboxes, you can certainly understand why. It is definitely getting harder and harder to get your point out before the thread of remarks you are responding to disappears off of the bottom of the screen, unless you type like a secretary. For the rest of us evolved "hunt and peck" wizards, some amount of abbreviation is a very good idea, and has also become a small matter of etiquette in and of itself, as no one really wants to see an eloquently worded essay pop up on screen in a chatroom or on their cell phone... It takes too long to read! Save that for your forum posts and hubs, where it will stand still long enough to be digested! Here is a list of some of the most widely used text and SMS abbreviations to date:

Common Abbreviations and Their Meanings:

AAR At any rate
AAS Alive and smiling
ADN Any day now
AEAP As early as possible
AFAIK As far as I know
AFK Away from keyboard
AISB As it should be
AOTA All of the above
ASAP As soon as possible
A/S/L Age/sex/location
B4 Before
B4N Bye for now
BAK Back at keyboard
BAU Business as usual
BBIAF Be back in a few
BBIAM Be back in a minute
BBL Be back later
BC Because
BCNU Be seein' you
BFN Bye for now
BOL Best of luck
BRB Be right back
BTA But then again
BTW By the way
CMIIW Correct me if I'm wrong
CMON Come on
CU See you
CUA See you around
CUL See you later
CUL8R See you later
CWYL Chat with you later
CYA See ya
DEGT Don't even go there
DIKU Do I know you?
DQMOT Don't quote me on this
DTS Don't think so
EMA E-mail address
EOM End of message
F2F Face to face
FISH First in, still here
FOMCL Falling off my chair laughing
FITB Fill in the blank
FUBAR F**ked up beyond all recognition
FWIW For what it's worth
FYI For your information
GA Go ahead
GAL Get a life
GB Goodbye
GFI Go for it
GG Gotta Go
GIAR Give it a rest
GMTA Great minds think alike
GOL Giggling out loud
GR&D Grinning, running and ducking
GTRM Going to read mail
HAGN Have a good night
HAGO Have a good one
HHIS Head hanging in shame
HRU How are you?
HTH Hope this helps
IAC In any case
IB I'm back
IC I see
ICBW It could be worse
IDK I don't know
IDTS I don't think so
IIRC If I remember correctly
ILU I love you
ILY I love you
IM Instant message
IMHO In my humble opinion
IMNSHO In my not so humble opinion
IMO In my opinion
INAL I'm not a lawyer
IOW In other words
IRMC I rest my case
IUSS If you say so
IYKWIM If you know what I mean
IYO In your opinion
IYSS If you say so
JAC Just a sec
JIK Just in case
JJA Just joking around
JK Just kidding
KOTC Kiss on the cheek
KWIM Know what I mean?
L8R Later
LD Later, dude
LMAO Laughing my a** off
LOL Laughing out loud
LTM Laugh to myself
LTNS Long time no see
MorF Male or female?
MUSM Miss you so much
NBD No big deal
NIMBY Not in my back yard
NMH Not much here
NOYB None of your business
NP No problem
NRN No response necessary
NW No way
OIC Oh, I see
OMG Oh my God
OO Over and out
OOTD One of these days
OTOH On the other hand
OTTOMH Off the top of my head
PDQ Pretty darn quick
PLMK Please let me know
PMFI Pardon me for interrupting
PMFJI Pardon me for jumping in
POAHF Put on a happy face
PTL Praise the Lord
PXT Please explain that
PU Peeuw, That stinks!
RL Real life
RME Rolling my eyes
ROTFL Rolling on the floor laughing
RSN Real soon now
SMHID Scratching my head in disbelief
SOMY Sick of me yet?
SPST Same place, same time
SOTMG Short of time, must go
SSDD Same s**t, different day
STW Search the Web
SUITM See you in the morning
SUL See you later
SUP What's up?
SYL See you later
TAFN That's all for now
TAM Tomorrow a.m.
TC Take care
THX Thanks
TIA Thanks in advance
TLK2UL8R Talk to you later
TMI Too much information
TMWFI Take my word for it
TPM Tomorrow p.m.
TPTB The powers that be
TTFN Ta ta for now
TTTT These things take time
TTYL Talk to you later
TTYS Talk to you soon
TU Thank you
TY Thank you
TYT Take your time
TYVM Thank you very much
UGTBK You've got to be kidding
UW You're welcome
WAM Wait a minute
WAYF Where are you from?
WB Welcome back
WIIFM What's in it for me?
WTF What the f***
WTG Way to go
WTH What the heck?
WU? What's up?
WUF? Where are you from?
WWJD What would Jesus do?
WWYC Write when you can
WYSIWYG What you see is what you get
YBS You'll be sorry
YGBKM You gotta be kidding me
YW You're welcome

Just like verbal slang in any language, the dialect people use differs from region to region, group to group, chatroom to chatroom, but by and large the basic list is the same at the core. The best advice I can give is to grab onto just a few of the lines you find yourself using the most, use them when you can, and let the rest come to you by SMS osmosis, while keeping a printed list near your computer... Even if you are the type of person who would never be caught dead in a chatroom, you might find this very useful for communicating with your own children, or any teenagers in your life, as the texting trend for them has almost replaced verbal communication entirely... but that's another hub! KWIM? CWYL... BOL!

©2010 Steven G. Curry, All Rights Reserved