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Communicating with Idiotic Abbreviations
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There's nothing I enjoy more than playing a game with someone online and when it's over, having them thank me by way of typing "gg" [good game] or -- even better -- "thx" [thanks]. This allows me to take out my old Little Orphan Annie decoder ring and translate their idiotic shorthand into real human language.

Of course, it's completely understandable why these people don't spell out their words the way the rest of us language-based people do. It takes an incredibly long time to type each of the letters required for "Thank you for the game", whereas "gg" is a matter of simply tapping the G key twice. And with all that extra time, these individuals are assuredly seeking cures for major world diseases, composing beautiful works of art, and making their community a better place.

Now, for those who don't understand irony:

HEY! Lazy morons! Write out your words! Typing "thx" is supremely insincere -- you might as well not bother "thanking" the person at all. Show some respect!

Grumpy Old Mr. S

NP! [no problem]

LOL!! [Laugh out loud]

Brevity is the soul of wit.
-- William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
-- William L. Safire, Great Rules of Writing

It's a damn poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word.
-- Andrew Jackson


unkx80: I think I would prefer to know as many abbreviations as I can... GL! =) [good luck].


Nando: Well, I can't agree with you about abbreviations. For one, they are usual in many online communities like IRC for instance and I've never found them to be considered impolite. Second, when I type "thx", I'm always sincere. Otherwise, just as you mentioned, I'm even a lot more lazy, I just don't type it at all. And after all, the developers can easily add some auto-completion/alias thingies in the software clients (just like in mIRC) and there you go: you will see the complete sentences, sure, but the guys still only typed 2-3 chars. So what now?

I often feel some "frustation", though. IMHO (do you know this one? ;p "In My Humble Opinion"), "thx" is the strict minimum, but it's simply not enough. The problem is more the complete lack of any sort of comment about the game when it's finished. I always feel kind of sad in such cases. It's not like I would want to have a deep post-mortem analysis for each of my games, but a simple "fun fight" or whatever comment about an important sequence in the game would be quite nice. Of course, the problem is often that you can't communicate with your partner/opponent, because he or she simply doesn't speak any of the languages you know.

Keep cool and be a bit lenient :)


Scartol: The comments about decoding the messages were hyperbole -- I was exaggerating for comic effect. Of course I know what tftg [thanks for the game] and imho and cul8r [see you later] and all the other cute tricks and trinkets and whatnot.

And you're right -- macros are just as bad. If you're really grateful for the game, take a few seconds and express it with actual words. If not, don't say anything at all (or maybe tell the person why you're not grateful). Typing in abbreviations is like only sending your mother an online card for her birthday.

If speaking in abbreviations isn't considered rude on IRC or bulletin boards, maybe it's because the people in them are just so used to them and so they have become a custom in their own right. However, that's not the case in online Go, and IMHO it's rude to assume that your opponent will understand and/or appreciate them.

Grumble.

MrKoala: I agree it can be considered rude to use abbreviations, but it is not always a matter of "I don't really mean to thank you but I have to in order to be polite". It can also be a matter of time. I mean I can afford to type "Thank you for the game", but some people don't type as fast as I do, and it sometimes takes a lot of time to even click in the edit box and then let the mouse go, look for the 't',... There are times some people spent something like one minute to type a nice thanking note. So abbreviations can be useful, sometimes.


Gag, I hate having to reply to people's "Thanks for the game" and "Good luck have fun". At first I repeated the same to them. But every opponent says those exact same words before and after every game it becomes so redundant. I feel like not responding to them at all and just completly ignoring them but that would be "rude". So I just use the "gg" and "thx". I could be upset by people who actually think that I should not respond to them at all. But how can using the same acronyms be more insulting than using the same phrases. Am I supposed to feel gratitude by the extra keys they had to type. I could care less if they thank me for kicking their cyber-butts.

Scartol: I think this comment shows a severe lack of respect for the traditions of Go, and for the people you play. When you "kick their cyber-butts," you are doing something for them, and they are doing something for you -- you are each helping the other hone his/her Go skill. I'm shocked by the callous attitude that you don't owe your opponent either respect or gratitude.

Now, I recognize that there isn't too much difference between typing "thx" (or executing a macro) and typing "Thank you for the game". But there is a difference. I think those of us who are part of this game's noble tradition owe it to ourselves, each other, and those who passed it along to show it the proper respect.

Heavenguard: When I started playing Go some time ago, I was very humble and with a lot of humility (due to my lack of skill and knowledge) and so I would say "Thank you for the game" with all sincerity. Now that I've played a touch more, I still say it, because it doesn't matter how good I get at it, if it weren't for that person playing with me, I wouldn't have played that game! I've come to expect it at the end of the game and I feel sort of offended if the other doesn't say thank you; I find it impolite.


Nobleness, respect, humbleness... yeah, whatever. This game is going the way of the dodo for a reason. We need to scrap these humble asian traditions of "enlightnment." and get some trash talking going on. Word to 'ya mother sux0rZ [suckers].


Yesterday I played a game on KGS with a guy in the Hikaru-fanclub room. This guy used all the possible emoticons you can imagine. I told him I didn't understand half of it. He asked if I did IRC. I said "What's IRC?"

It was all very sympathetic but then you see that even this self proclaimed net addict has trouble keeping up the pace.

-- Dieter

Madoka: IRC stands for Internet Relay Chat. It's not a new thing at all; AFAIK [As far as I know] it's as old as e-mail. With the advent of IM [Internet messaging] however IRC has to be relegated to a place where people trade warez [pirated software] and other illegal material.

Karsten: Even though there is warez trading on IRC (mainly on Undernet), it is not a major aspect of IRC. Dating back as far as 1988 ([ext] http://www.ircnet.org/History/jarkko.html), it is a community with a culture where knowledge exchange is just as important as chatting with friends. Sadly, to the new generation of internet users, IRC is mostly unknown or just another IM service. Seems like IRC shares Usenet's fate there.

Confused: IRC misses being as old email by some 20 years. The IRC protocol standard (RFC 1459) was defined in 1993, whereas the first standards concerning e-mail date back to 1971-1973 (RFC 196, 524, 561 etc.). SMTP (RFC 821) came quite late in 1988.


I believe another reason, especially in places like IGS, is that the vast majority on the server either do not know English at all or not well enough to feel comfortable with the wording and therefore feel the abbreviations are safer. When I was active, if I played a Japanese player, I would type "Domo Arigato", the Japanese for thank you. -- Tim Brent


On a general point, isn't it interesting that when people complain about things like gg and thx for being abbreviations/acronyms, they never stop to think that saying thanks is infact an abbreviation in itself? How many people say "I give (my) thanks to you" after the game? ~ian~

Well, no, it's not interesting. It may be marginally ironic. ISIADOYPOV. Charles

Dieter: Wild guess: In summary, I am disagreeing on your point of view ? M, C, YDRHRYOAY.

Charles The intended reading: I suppose it all depends on your point of view. OC, if languages other than English are allowed too ...

At least, thanks is an english word which can be properly pronounces, unlike *gg*, thx and similar character clusters. Confused


Search for [ext] acronyms


Benjamin Geiger:

IMNSHO, acronyms aren't bad, if they're used as part of a longer dialogue. I spend plenty of time on IRC, and I can't be bothered to type out "in my not so humble opinion" every time. However, it does irritate me when, after a game, I say "Hey, nice game... you really had me scared in the upper left, what did I do wrong?" and my opponent responds with something like "kthxbye". Grr.

Tristan: I know what you mean but often online your opponent cannot understand much English and so doesn't have any idea what you are talking about. If they respond with "thanks" and "bye" then at least they're trying to be polite. Perhaps we can say that the golden rule for 'net chat is give the other person the benefit of the doubt.

amc: I think the main problem at issue here is not the use of abbreviations per se, but the lack of patience and sincerity they often carry. I couldn't care less if someone tells me "gg, thx" and then spends 5 minutes with me talking about it. To me, that simply meant a use of shorthand to reflect genuine enjoyment. It's the unwillingness to learn and teach that bothers me. It's the arrogance of thinking that you have nothing to learn with a weaker player. For the record, my last game on KGS was against a player even worse than me. I mean, the guy tried to save stones in atari on the second line facing the wall. Still, teaching him at the end, discussing variations, showing him critical points, was probably the most enlightening experience I had in there. Still, we both "thx"ed each other ;)



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This is a copy of the living page "Communicating with Idiotic Abbreviations" at Sensei's Library.
(OC) 2003 the Authors, published under the OpenContent License V1.0.