Feb 13 2008l337 Eye Chart Isn't Haxor Approved

FIRST!

that's pretty cool

5|nce wh3n !5 7h|5 133t? s7|_|pid @n462@ms 423 n0t 1337. 1337 5p3@k !5 a f42 diff323n7 7h|ng 3nt!231y 4nd |f @ny0n3 c@n r34d 7hi5, 7h3n joO 4r3 1337. no7 if jOo knOw wh@7 oh my god, wha7 73h f|_|ck, 5h|_|7 7eh fuck |_|p |s. j33z. wh47 t3h h3ll !5 thi5 w0rld c0m!ng 7o?

I'm just saying. That's not leet.

I'd get one...or rather, I'd just make one myself since it's pretty neat.

I agree with Sarah, that is not "Leetspeak" it is just a bunch of acronyms.

That eye chart just got pwnd.

Matt

"since when is this leet? Stupid anagrams are not leet. Leet speak is a far different thing entirely and if anyone can read this, then you are leet. not if you know what oh my god, what the fuck, shut the fuck up is just what the hell is this world coming to?"

Um, I hope that didn't take you too long to write...so the eye chart says "if you can read this then you are leet" Not "leet chart" or anything. Jeez, learn to read.

Actually guate6 it is called the "l337 Chart" so maybe you should read.

Dick

murk loar.

#6: Since you want to be technical, ok it's called the "l337 Eye Chart." My point wasn't the title, but more so its content...it has nothing to do with leet at all, except some connection between leet speak and the internet. The chart itself isn't leet. You should learn to pick your battles sir. Dick.

" s7|_|pid @n462@ms 423 n0t 1337. 1"

There aren't any anagrams.

Close, Guate6, close, but not quite. Look over it one more time and try again.

As for the chart, my comment is that just because you can read anagrams does not mean you are 1337. 1337 is not about anagrams. It's about using symbols and numbers in place of letters. It's not a 1337 eye chart. It's an internet anagram eyechart.

And no, it took me about five seconds to type it. And yes, I get laid. And I'm a chick who plays video games. I'm like--every nerd's wet dream.

This is stupid and bad.

Sarah, you sound like you would be SO hot.. if only you didn't replace letters with numbers from time to time. Sigh.

1@m3

The quality of comments on this post leaves much to be desired.

I think you mean acronym not anagram.

wet dream = trew dame

I know my example isn't spelled correctly, but hopefully I can be excused for altering my form to get my point across - plus it actually works in the context.

as 15 pointed out this has NOTHING to do with anagrams. These are not even acronyms these are initialisms so leet that! The chart itself is not labeled the l337 chart at all. Just because the writer at geekologie calls it the l337 chart doesn't mean it is so everyone yelling at each other to read just shut up (oh sorry STFU). Now that being said I can't get to the original sight that this came from but the chart does not have a label on it that says this is the l337 chart does it??? No geekologie man calls it that.

This is the saddest and dorkiest comment thread i've ever seen.
I cant believe this actually spawned a debate.
The fact that any of you even know what a "Leet" is, is absolutely pathetic.
And then to actually have a spirited debate about something so stupid!
Good luck losing your virginity, geeks.

@16
I checked the site (sp) and it's called a leet chart. to be specific, the "The new and improved 1337 (leet) eyechart."
http://www.2flashgames.com/f/f-Eye-Chart-5142.htm

glad to see that someone else knows what is and isn't an acronym.

Meh, more like AOL kiddi3speak!

#10, sorry to burst your bubble, but you're not every nerd's wet dream. If you're playing video games, who'd be takin' care of the kitchen, cooking, kids, cleaning eh? Sorry but you fail my "wet dream woman" test.

#16: you're right about them not being anagrams (or acronyms) (as well as everyone else who pointed this out), but if you see the chart, that's the actual title...it wasn't a geekologie writer original.

definitely not anagrams (word puzzles) but i think these are considered acronyms

A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC for Women's Army Corps, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acronyms_and_initialisms

@21 - "but i think these are considered acronyms"
you think wrong. the link you gave clearly explains (with examples) the difference between acronyms and initialisms. so unless you pronounce OMG as "oomug" or something like that, it's not an acronym. when you pronounce it be reading each letter individually (omg = 3 words "oh em gee") then it's initials.

@21 (and @myself)

plus, wikipedia doesn't even give full credit to acronyms. it claims that radar isn't an acronym, because it's not made up the only the first letters of words. well, once again, wikipedia is crap.

http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_/acronym.html
acronym - a word formed from the initials or other parts of several words

and "word" is defined as "a meaningful sound or combination of sounds that is a unit of language or its representation in a text".

so again, the sounds "oh em gee" is not a word, and therefore cannot be an acronym.

I think your distinction between words and not words is a bit narrow. C.D. is a meaningful sound or combination of sounds that constitutes a unit of language. It is no longer a representation of the words compact disk, it is itself a word. In fact one is more likely to associate the words compact disk with C.D. before the physical object. So perhaps it is a question of frequency of use.
A couple more concrete examples - because I feel the above is a bit more subjective than a proper one should be. Although technically initialisms, LSD DNA, and IUD are usually used as stand alone words. OMG and LOL are creeping their way into spoken language, and are really developing identities of their own, independent of their explicit constitutions. Text messaging and the new generation seem to be accelerating the plasticity of our language. But then again, every generation seems to be left behind by the language of the new - it just seems that form is being altered more with this turnover.

The technical distinction between acronym and initialism is being a bit overblown here. Acronym has sufficed for quite a while, and is certainly a far more prevalent word even today than initialism. It's a bit like using kleenex instead of tissue, or ski-doo instead of snow mobile. But I guess it's debates like this that help us towards a better defined more unified language.

Haha LSD and DNA were bad initialism examples. But I think they suffice for the sting of letters as words argument.

well I'm glad to see an intelligent debate formed over acronyms vs initialisms and we got away from 203-4thguw 3-0942utgoefdhnjl speak. I think I just cursed someone off there but I don't know what the hell Sarah said so I sure as hell don't know what I just said. The problem is people blur the definitions of words through repetitive use but that still doesn't make them correct. For example using the word accent instead of dialect.

"Although technically initialisms, LSD DNA, and IUD are usually used as stand alone words" no these are not used as stand alone 'words' in this case they are used as standalone initialisms. You still pronounce each letter individually there for negating the possibility of it being a word.

Carl,

I agree that it's a fine line between "word" and "not word". after all, what is "a meaningful sound or combination of sounds that is a unit of language or its representation in a text", really? somewhere in africa, there's people with plates in their lips (saw it in a movie). and they speak by making a series of clacking noises (and the occasional shattered dish noise). but those sounds are indeed words to those people.

But I still think CD, LSD, DNA, ATM, are all initialisms, because they are initials, and unlike true acronyms, they're pronounciation is identical to the spelling of their individual letters. besides, I always thought CD was "certificate of deposit".

oh, and it wasn't "my distinction", it was the dictionary's.

Carl,
I KNOW that LSD is not an acryonym, because guate6 once showed me half of a math equation proving that it was IMPOSSIBLE! Ha! In you face!

damn luddites I saw the other half of guate6's equation and it said LSD was an acronym or maybe it said LSD was fun or maybe it was LSD is wow look at the aliens coming down to talk to me and the giant flowers growing out of the damnit LSD

Boredom,

I think that blurring the definitions of words through repetition does make them correct (eventually). I'll try a few examples,

The word gay for a very long time had nothing to do with homosexual tendencies, nor did queer. One can see how the word's meaning has changed over time from definitions. Gay used to be a descriptor of lightheartedness or joy, it was also used to describe someone "Addicted to social pleasures and dissipations" or euphemistically of someone "of loose of immoral life". Queer likewise was fore something peculiar or out of the ordinary. Given that homosexuality (or at least people's commitment to the lifestyle) is less common than that of heterosexuality, and given popular stereotypes we hold as a society (as any sit com and many dramas will attest to) it is easy to see how these terms were brought to their current meaning.

A word that is currently being bastardized is nuclear. It is common for people to say nucular. I'm not saying that the word will morph, but there is no such thing as a nucular power plant or submarine - but try telling people that. We will see how it goes.

Many letters are actually words as well - a, b, c, r, t, o etc. Each with a single (given context) idea attached. Most words are a collection of letters with a singe idea attached - CD ATM don't differ that much. But given the current popularity of using LOL or NP in spoken language I am sure they will be appropriated and accepted at words. But I don't think that it will necessarely require that they are spelled out any more than they already are - iemoh.

I like guate6's equations. They help me focus :)

yeah, sure the meaning of a single word can change over time. as can it's pronounciation (harassment is my favorite). but those changes do not change the definition of an acronym or a word. the number 9, which written with the character I just used, is a number, not a word. "nine" is a word, "9" is a number. it doesn't matter that they both convey the same idea (as does IX).

"Many letters are actually words as well - a, b, c, r, t, o etc". I'll spot you "A" and "I", but not the others. using "r" as shorthand for "are" is simply shorthand. it doesn't make "r" a word. it's more similar to a contraction without the single quotes - like the "R" in toys r us, which is really spelled toys 'r' us, but people forget the single quotes and we allow it. now maybe the letter "r" will morph into the word "are" eventually. but that's because they're pronounced the same. "CD" is pronounced "cee dee", not "cud" (or something along those lines). and that's why CD will not morph into a word.

and just because people don't understand the difference between acronyms and anagrams, that doesn't make them interchangeable. likewise, when people no longer know what ATM means (most don't already, which is why they say "ATM machine"), it still won't be a word. unless they start to pronounce it like that kid in the american express commerical. the american couple were on vacation in the middle east (I think), and they lost their money, and some street urchin was going to help them by taking them to ahteeum. turns out the kid took them to an ATM. now, in that scenario, ATM, pronounced ahteeum, is an acronym. so when 100% of english speaking people (that's right, I'm looking at you Canada!) start pronouncing it ah-tee-um, then ATM will be a word, but not until then.

Lol - wow, that is the first time that i have ever typed that...and yes, i did feel real stupid doing it. i wonder how long it takes to get over this hanging lame feeling?

The point wasn't that letters are words. The point was that they sound the same.

You will never get 100% of people accepting the same things as words. Lots of people us different words (slang is the easiest example - it changes from region to region but we don't deny the wordness of it). My grandmother doesn't acknowledge the word fuck - but that doesn't make it any less a word - in fact many would argue that it gives the word power. To get back to the point, "initialism," although a word that has been around as long as acronym is not in the popular vocabulary (yet) and while a distinct idea from acronym, due to its prevalence, it is a more useful word to use in many situations where initialism is more appropriate (you have to speak to your audience - "postmodern idealism" isn't a phrase you throw at a child). It is even more irresponsible to discount potential words because people don't pronounce them the same. England doesn't speak poorer English because they don't speak the same way the all powerful americans do - that would be a pretty ridiculous thing to say.

With your example of 9 you are mixing up your signifier and your signified - both nine and 9 signify the same thing , the number nine (an abstraction) both the symbol and the word are the same it's just that one has been found to be more efficient and is used as such. Think about how they translate into your head when you read the two different version of the same thing - both are "nine." When you say it out loud are you saying "9" or "nine?" You could do all your math by spelling out every digit, but it's easier to use symbols. Spoken words are still words, we are just arguing about representation. It can't really go anywhere - cause we both draw different lines, or are trying not to draw those lines.

Anyways, the point of language isn't to be right, it's to communicate, and that's my point. We all knew what Sarah was trying to say, we were just correcting her on the specifics. Her communication was successful.

'acronym, due to its prevalence, it is a more useful word to use in many situations where initialism is more appropriate (you have to speak to your audience - "postmodern idealism" isn't a phrase you throw at a child).'

oddly, I would throw that term at a child, if it was the proper term to use. I don't believe in dumbing it down just to get others to understand.

"Because, if it were really like Othello nobody could understand it, however new it might be. And if were new, it couldn't possibly be like Othello."

DO WANT!

Know what's funny? It doesn't even take that long to learn l337, you guys are arguing over the silliest thing, I swear it takes one day just to learn to read "hardcore" l337 and maybe a few more to write it "well."

& I don't know if someone already said this but OMG is obviously an acronym for Oh My God/Gosh, not Ohh Emm Gee or any other nonsense.

sorry sammy, but OMG is not an acronym. it's initials. you pronounce it either as "oh emm gee", or you actually say "on my god". you don't attempt to pronounce it as a word, therefore it's not an acronym.

"Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name." -wikipedia

where does it say anywhere that you have to be able to pronounce the word? A.M. is an acronym that stands for Ante Meridiem, do you know anyone that pronounces it "am"? No. Know why? Because it is pronounced by the individual letters, just like O.M.G. go figure.

sam,

1) wikipedia is a piece of shit. it determines what's correct by popular vote, not by intelligence.

2) I previously posted the definition of "acronym". definitions come from dictionaries, which is where I found it. an acronym is "a word formed by ...". that means it must have the traits of a word. and I posted the definition of "word" right below it - "a meaningful sound or combination of sounds that is a unit of language or its representation in a text".

3) back to your precious wiki (since you consider it to be a valid source)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acronyms_and_initialisms
acronym = an abbreviation pronounced as a series of constituent letters
initialism = an abbreviation pronounced wholly or partly using the names of its constituent letters

4) A.M. (Ante Meridiem) is an initialism.