Do you, uh, rofl?

[Mazer]

Hey, kids, stop killing the internet. I can understand people having their own slang, inside jokes, jargon, and whatever else, but this is getting ridiculous.

j/k = just kidding (I'm not even going to get into how stupid this one is)
lol = laughing out loud
rofl = rolling on the floor laughing
roflmao = rolling on the floor laughing my ass off
[etc]

Now, let's work our way up from the bottom. "roflmao"? How exactly does one laugh ones ass off? Is it painful? Is it permanent? Oh, sure, it's a figure of speech. You can argue that the events coinciding with your "roflmao" are so intensely funny that you are unable to do anything but laugh. I find that difficult to believe.

"rofl"? This kind of goes with the other one, but it's obvious anyways that you aren't rolling on the floor laughing unless you have a wireless (and small) keyboard and you're incredibly good at typing or you've got some sort of ['r', 'o', 'f', 'l'] macro built in. No, I know what you meant. You meant to convey the fact that you just read or thought something especially funny. Or did you? Do you ever read something, and then try to guage how funny it is before remarking on it or do you just pull something randomly from a pile of acronyms?

"lol". Don't get me wrong, I use this one sometimes. There are times that I'll read something (yes, even on this message board) that will in fact make me laugh out loud. But reading some posts it seems like with the frequency of your "lol"s everyone around you must think your insane. Either that or you're just insincere.

Personally, I don't think "lol" gets anything across now. I rarely use it. It's like some kind of space crystal that's been used so much that all power has been drained from it. If somebody sends me a message with something funny I have to respond with "LOL!" to truly make it clear that they are, in fact, entertaining me.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can't help but wonder, do you really mean it?

To a lesser extent, the same can be said for emoticons. Using a few can easily get a message across, but for the love of all that is English: don't use them as punctuation.

Also, "j/k" doesn't really fit in for this, but the way I see it: if you are kidding, people should be able to get it or you need to work on your communication. And just in case the problem is on your end, I'm not kidding about this. I really want to know what's going on.

[Mazer]

And don't get me wrong, I'm not some dark empty emotionless shell of a person anymore (I used to be when I was younger, it was friggin' great). I'll smile when I'm happy, I'll laugh when it's funny. Hey, I've actually got a sense of humour. Because, apparently, people think I'm funny.

But there's a line. I won't laugh at anything, because in my opinion not everything is funny. And you?

[NikG]

i use lol often i guess. occasionally i use j/k too. The others have never really made sense to me (just as Mazer said... how DO you laugh your ass off, especially while rolling on the floor?)

I disagree about "j/k" though Mazer. I think it's normal and perfectly fine. You're sayin people need to work on their communication if they have to use j/k, but the fact of the matter is that online communication is NOT real communication. More often than not, you will not get that true feel of how the other person is communicating (as you would when talking face-to-face). Because of this, the fact that you're "just kidding" might not get across easily, thus warranting the "j/k"

[Mazer]

You know what? I think you're right. I was pushing it with the "j/k" comments, and as I said it wasn't really related. I guess my reasoning is that when I see "j/k" it's often in a post littered with "lol"s "rofl"s and otherwise nothing that can be understood or worth reading.

[NikG]

Haha, well that's true, and I agree, it IS turning out to be a serious literacy/laziness/general stupidness problem.

Edit: I wonder if I just added to the problem there with my "Haha." I may have found Mazer's post above amusing, but I can't honestly say that I really did laugh... maybe a small smirk...
I guess I also use those things without thinking about it too much, though obviously not to the same level as most people out there.

[codemage]

I'd wager that LMAO is a bastardization of "laughing so hard that my ass falls of my chair." After all, it's hard for your ass to come off while you're sitting on it. Having only done this a few times in my many years, I'd agree that its use is likely quite exaggerated. The time sequence shift makes it a bit easier than stating LSHTIFOOMCBIBATKN. (Laughed so hard that I fell out of my chair, but I'm back at the keyboard now.)

Which reminds me of the ever-present FPS acronym, AFK. If you're away at the keyboard, then who just typed that? Creepy. Clearly, there *is* someone at the keyboard, and it's ok if I shoot you.

Last year I had a few (3 or 4) 1st year college essays that contained "LOL". I actually thought to warn the students not to use internet acronyms beforehand - so needless to say, they failed.

Emoticons are great if it's hard to express a particular sentiment with just writing. Sometimes sarcasm is difficult to convey without a lot of context. Emoticons help out greatly in those contexts, you frickin bunch of morons.

[Andy]

i think AFK is pretty legit in the sense that most people use it as "oh sorry, I was AFK". but yeah acronyms do kinda suck.. i try to not use them as much as I used to

[Amailer]

I think, I'm not sure- I think I only use LOL, AFK and BRB

[rizzix]

Mazer wrote:

I won't laugh at anything, because in my opinion not everything is funny.

You suck! j/k j/k j/k.. rofl.. lmao..

Anyway.. i've used "lol" a lot.. and umm it's like this for me: It is something that is sort of funny but not really worth the effort of laughing out all that much in reality... But just to show my appreciation for the effort put in making the humorous comment I'll throw in an "lol".

But, if I do find something really funny you'll see it in all caps, like "LOL" followed by "that's funny" or "funny stuff" or.. "ROFL!" followed by "I can't stop laughing".. or "LOL" followed by "Not" which implies "just shut up and cry, I'm not in the mood of laughing"

[md]

I use lol, and brb. Most other acronyms I don't use very often at all.

I might use lol more then most... but then I am also a most jovial person... and more then a little crazy

[MysticVegeta]

I use lol, rofl, jk, and thats prettty much it, cause words are harder to follow otherwise

[Cervantes]

Only use 'lol' in IM (and of course, 'IM' is a different kind of acronym) conversations, and rarely there. I'd prefer to try to spell out my laughter; that's a lot more reflective of the truth of the exact way I'm laughing ('heh', 'haha', or 'MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA' etc.).

Acronymns in forums (or the wiki; people throwing 'lol' into a wiki post that is supposed to be serious... Ugh.) is a no. Except here. But this doesn't count.

[[Gandalf]]

Sigh... Wait... Did I just sigh? Guess not.

Personally, I almost never use acronyms like those you referred to on forums and things like that (wiki, etc). Really, only on IRC. These things aren't meant to annoy (usually), they just add another method of expressing yourself using text. If I say "lol" am I actually laughing out loud? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But you still know I found your post/message amusing. They fit more into an IRC channel where there is mass kicking going on than a good forum. Either way, nowadays I do what Minsc described more often than lolz0rz.

And yes, I admit that I do probably overuse smilies on IRC.
Please forgive any incoherent sentences above, it happens.

[Cervantes]

[Gandalf] wrote:

Either way, nowadays I do what Minsc described more often than lolz0rz.

Who's Minsc?

[rizzix]

hey Minsc!