The Great Debate: Y = Yes or Y = Why?

[scdogg44]

pointing out something like 'using 'txt-speke' makes you appear moronic' is quite a lot different than harping on grammar, or actually calling someone an idiot for using that manner of typing. Appearance and fact are different, although technically this is another language nitpick as I am talking about the nuanced definitions of words.

example: You used three references of the word "There" when you should have used one "Their" and then "there" and "there" (the second and third reference were used correctly).

pointing it out makes me look like a robot, and pretty stupid myself, as I often make grammatical, capitalization or punctuation mistakes when typing. I'm sure there are plenty of mistakes in this post of mine.

example 2: if someone were to respond 'y u no typ lik dis? It ezier.'

its a logical assumption that the individuals keyboard is broken, they have a language impairment, or they appear to be a moron.

Guy... You forgot to capitalize your letters in the beginning of your sentences.

Y U SO LAZY!

[Gheld]

I am guessing your level of intelligence is just so high that even when you speak you have a hard time understand what you just said?

Did I hit the nail on the head?

Why would I have a hard time understanding what I said? Or do you mean to say that "one" would have a hard time understanding what I just said?

If that is the case then no; people have absolutely no trouble understanding what I say; and that is the basis of effective communication.

So when somebody says "Y" and there is the potential for a debate over its meaning then that would be a good indicator that it's not effective communication.

[BLCalliente]

Quite apparent??

Go read all my posts, I have not shortened any word and I am on a cell phone.

I just don't sit here and bitch like you people do. It doesnt bother me if people make mistakes.

What bothers me are the people correcting those people who CHOOSE to be that way.

Yes but it's quite apparent I'm a dumbass in real life. You guys figured me out!

Honestly, you said you were not here on this site to prove how smart you are, but all of your last 5 posts or so you are trying to do exactly that.

So which is it? Do you care or don't you care? Are you here to try and look smart or not to look smart?

We're dying for clarification.

[jamshid666]

Y = yes
Y = why
no = yeah baby

[BLCalliente]

Guy... You forgot to capitalize your letters in the beginning of your sentences.

Y U SO LAZY!

Because the lack of capitalization doesn't lead to ambiguity.

[pocky_rin]

The only thing that's more annoying to me than bad spellers and grammar Nazis, are people who take a thread where the purpose is to respond if you think y means yes or why, and decide instead to fight about grammar. This is also an online game we're talking about, where English is not everyone's first language. Automatically assuming a foreigner is stupid because of grammar rules you like to live by is ridiculous. Honestly both sides look as stupid as each other. I imagine the grammar Nazis have a guild where the guildchat is like this:

How are you today John?
I am fine thank you bob.
I'm afraid you forgot to capitalize the b in my name John, I'm going to have to put you on ignore now.
Sadface.

[Adam Jensen]

Guy... You forgot to capitalize your letters in the beginning of your sentences.

Y U SO LAZY!

There's a difference between making a few typos and intentionally misspelling every single word in a sentence just to make it shorter.

[Deleted]

i assume it means yes. though i never say it, i just say "ye" its one letter more, seriously, why cant people do that to save the confusion.

[Illuwin]

Guy... You forgot to capitalize your letters in the beginning of your sentences.

Y U SO LAZY!

Responding like that while quoting something that says pointing out common capitalization/spelling/punctuation errors is dumb but that there is a big difference from that than in moronic txt-speke is either hilarious or A++ trolling.

[Gheld]

The only thing that's more annoying to me than bad spellers and grammar Nazis, are people who take a thread where the purpose is to respond if you think y means yes or why, and decide instead to fight about grammar. This is also an online game we're talking about, where English is not everyone's first language. Automatically assuming a foreigner is stupid because of grammar rules you like to live by is ridiculous. Honestly both sides look as stupid as each other. I imagine the grammar Nazis have a guild where the guildchat is like this:

How are you today John?
I am fine thank you bob.
I'm afraid you forgot to capitalize the b in my name John, I'm going to have to put you on ignore now.
Sadface.

We're discussing the debate; the original assertion being that neither "Yes" or "Why?" are correct meanings for the letter "Y" due to the fact that it creates enough ambiguity for there to be a debate about the meaning in the first place; thus making text speech an ineffective form of communication.

I have no problem with short hand (but real industrial standard short hand) because it is non ambiguous and effective communication. But most people don't actually know proper short hand.

[Reeve]

The only thing that's more annoying to me than bad spellers and grammar Nazis, are people who take a thread where the purpose is to respond if you think y means yes or why, and decide instead to fight about grammar. This is also an online game we're talking about, where English is not everyone's first language. Automatically assuming a foreigner is stupid because of grammar rules you like to live by is ridiculous. Honestly both sides look as stupid as each other. I imagine the grammar Nazis have a guild where the guildchat is like this:

How are you today John?
I am fine thank you bob.
I'm afraid you forgot to capitalize the b in my name John, I'm going to have to put you on ignore now.
Sadface.

People making mistakes while typing is normal. People intentionally typing in leetspeak just makes me think they're lazy or really young. I don't generally bother to correct them, but I don't think there's anything wrong with mentioning in a thread about leetspeak how my perception of leetspeak is.

[scdogg44]

There's a difference between making a few typos and intentionally misspelling every single word in a sentence just to make it shorter.

Oh god thank you for clearing this up. I'm much happier now.

I didn't know I was aloud to do this without repercussion.

[pocky_rin]

Why don't we all just compromise and agree to all just turn our hatred on tHoSe WhO tYpE lIkE tHiS iNsTeAd

-took me longer to type than typing normally too lol

[BLCalliente]

The only thing that's more annoying to me than bad spellers and grammar Nazis, are people who take a thread where the purpose is to respond if you think y means yes or why, and decide instead to fight about grammar. This is also an online game we're talking about, where English is not everyone's first language. Automatically assuming a foreigner is stupid because of grammar rules you like to live by is ridiculous. Honestly both sides look as stupid as each other. I imagine the grammar Nazis have a guild where the guildchat is like this:

How are you today John?
I am fine thank you bob.
I'm afraid you forgot to capitalize the b in my name John, I'm going to have to put you on ignore now.
Sadface.

The initial question asked in the thread is absolutely worthless, since the only answer is to use context clues.

You could have saved your time typing that post, because we're talking about english speakers, not foreigners.

Stop trying to derail this important thread please with your talk of foreigners.

---------- Post added 2012-02-17 at 11:33 AM ----------

Oh god thank you for clearing this up. I'm much happier now.

I didn't know I was aloud to do this without repercussion.

"allowed" please

[Adam Jensen]

Oh god thank you for clearing this up. I'm much happier now.

I didn't know I was aloud to do this without repercussion.

And I assume you typed "aloud" wrong on purpose in order to pedantically make your sarcastic point.

I said "intentionally" for a reason. Normal people don't intentionally make typos. If someone was to intentionally make a typo, they'd look pretty illiterate.

The key word here is "intentionally."

[Reeve]

The initial question asked in the thread is absolutely worthless, since the only answer is to use context clues.

You could have saved your time typing that post, because we're talking about english speakers, not foreigners.

Stop trying to derail this important thread please with your talk of foreigners.

---------- Post added 2012-02-17 at 11:33 AM ----------



"allowed" please

Yeah, if anything, leetspeak is probably more confusing to non-native English speakers.

And I'm pretty sure he was just baiting you with that "aloud" thing.

[pocky_rin]

Stop trying to derail this important thread please with your talk of foreigners.

No offense but I'd hardly class this thread as "important", and how is my opinion any less valid than yours :>
Also I never once saw anyone talk about specifically English speakers, it's about how people judge each other online in the game, you can't tell if they are English or not, even if you are talking about American servers. I wasn't trying to derail the thread, my point is simply that you have to be more tolerant of people and not judge them immediately when you know nothing about them. Which is a good lesson for anyone at any time.

[Reeve]

No offense but I'd hardly class this thread as "important", and how is my opinion any less valid than yours :>
Also I never once saw anyone talk about specifically English speakers, it's about how people judge each other online in the game, you can't tell if they are English or not, even if you are talking about American servers.

Don't think anyone said this had anything to do with being in game specifically. I was thinking mostly in terms of forums, emails, and text messages, personally.

[Gheld]

The initial question asked in the thread is absolutely worthless, since the only answer is to use context clues.

You could have saved your time typing that post, because we're talking about english speakers, not foreigners.

Stop trying to derail this important thread please with your talk of foreigners.

Most of the people I know, work with or are friends with are ESL and I find ESL people are far more likely to write or type things clearly and completely than EFL people; because they learn the language properly; which goes to show that it's actually lazy EFL speakers that are turning the English language into a void of colloquial garbage.

Also, most cultures consider it mandatory to be respectful of other peoples cultures and languages and it really shows through with working-class immigrants because they put in such a massive effort to get the language right. Obviously not everybody is a linguistic genius but it's very obvious when somebody is at the very least trying. I would feel like a douche bag if I went to Paris and deliberately butchered the french language instead of making a concerted effort.

In fact I have a friend who is ESL and a complete grammar nazi with the English language.

So the "foreigner" argument is completely moot.

[Zecora]

Y = Y. Why = Why. Yes = Yes.

This. Y=Y, nothing else.