YAOTM: ? Do U Use SFLA Or Make Up YABA Whn SMSing?

[Ed Hansberry]

(Translation: Yet another off topic message: I have a question. Do you use stupid four letter acronyms or make up yet another bloody acronym when SMSing?)<!><br /><br />The Thoughts news team was wondering how many here use abbreviations when SMSing or IMing on their mobile device. Being older fogies, most of us actually type out all but the most common abbreviations, like TTYL or AFAIK. How about you? Is your messaging understandable by the over 30 crowd?<br /><br />YGTI? TIA. BTW, do this WTTM. TOBG :)

[Jason Lee]

I leave out vowels some time when messaging but some string of 37 letters that could be translated to 87 different sentances is just crazy.
I also leave out words and use "poor" grammar. It helps shorten the message. Don't try to smash complete sentences into letters.
thnk bad grmmr bttr ida.
I dnt knw, cn b vry cnfusin.... shld thr b som stnrd or dictnry or smthn?

:?

[Cracknell]

w0t?

[Paragon]

YGTBK

This is exactly why I hate SMS, and IM....I have better things to do then sit around and type in stupid meaningless acronyms. :) HTGBTWN

&lt;have to go back to work now>
Dave

[Don Tolson]

I read an article on the Internet a couple of days ago about a teenager in England, I think it was, that submitted an essay written entirely in SMS. The teacher couldn't make head nor tails of it. I suspect the student was told to rewrite it, but I wonder if they new enough 'proper' spelling to be able to translate it into English???? :wink:

[Cracknell]

SMS/IM-ing will pretty soon become an english dialect.

[Mike Wagstaff]

Thankfully, T9 does away with the need to make every word an acronym nowadays. Unless, of course, you hit the chrctr lmt.

[bdeli]

Coming from Europe, with all my folks living there I get quite a load of sms messages every day - and guess what - I barely understand :roll: halve of the messages my dear siblings send me. So to be sure I understand I end up using this dictionary - http://www.mob1le.com/sms.html :lol:

[Jason Lee]

Coming from Europe, with all my folks living there I get quite a load of sms messages every day - and guess what - I barely understand :roll: halve of the messages my dear siblings send me. So to be sure I understand I end up using this dictionary - http://www.mob1le.com/sms.html :lol:

hehe that's exactly what i needed. :)


YGTBK

This is exactly whay I hate SMS, and IM....I have better things to do then sit around and type in stupid meaningless acronyms. HTGBTWN

&lt;have to go back to work now>
Dave

Of course I guess every group has their lingo.
ex:
I just got my new PPCPE with 64bit TFT LCD, 64 Mb RAM/ROM, CDMA 1XTRR, CF, SDIO, PCMCIA, and WKRP....

So I guess that leaves me no room to talk. SMS away teeny boppers!!

:lol:

[Green Dragon]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2814235.stm

[gliscameria]

acronym smckronym...

[Vincent M Ferrari]

It's not just a matter of me using them, it's a matter of the person getting it being able to understand it.

Besides, using T9 or similar, how much time do those stupid abbreviations save? In the long run, they only save on characters, and frankly if you have more to say than you can fit into a 140 character message, use the phone for its other function: Phone calls!

[Jason Lee]

It's not just a matter of me using them, it's a matter of the person getting it being able to understand it.

Besides, using T9 or similar, how much time do those stupid abbreviations save? In the long run, they only save on characters, and frankly if you have more to say than you can fit into a 140 character message, use the phone for its other function: Phone calls!


Honestly i will send an SMS over calling some one.. :lol:

not sure why.. less intrusive i guess.

[pocketpcdude1024]

My sister uses phrases like "smthn" and "u" in e-mails and it drives me CRAZY! :silly: I prefer to use full words, proper grammer, and appropriate punctuation. To me, it's immature to use these kinds of abbreviations in e-mail. :x Using such phrases to be succinct and direct in SMS, however irksome they may be, is understandable and even tolerable. :?

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I prefer to use full words, proper grammer, and appropriate punctuation.

You spelled grammar wrong :rofl:

[Sunnyone]

pocketpcdude1024 wrote:
I prefer to use full words, proper grammer, and appropriate punctuation.


You spelled grammar wrong

Oh, that made my day! Hilarious!

[pocketpcdude1024]

I prefer to use full words, proper grammer, and appropriate punctuation.

You spelled grammar wrong :rofl:

Figures. :oops: Unintentional however, and even so, it was still perfectly readable and comprehendable. Unlike SMS talk.

In my defense, I might add that I said nothing about correct spelling in my original post. :P

[bjornkeizers]

Honestly i will send an SMS over calling some one.. :lol:

not sure why.. less intrusive i guess.

Me too. I *never* phone someone with my phone. I can count the number of times I used my phone to actually call someone on one hand. I don't really *need* a phone, and those times I do need it, I just SMS people rather then call them. SMS is cheap and gets the job done. Plus, it's less intrusive and confronting then calls. If someone calls me, I have to answer. If people SMS me, I can decide when I want to read it or respond to it.

[surur]

Honestly i will send an SMS over calling some one.. :lol:

not sure why.. less intrusive i guess.
Plus, it's less intrusive and confronting then calls. If someone calls me, I have to answer. If people SMS me, I can decide when I want to read it or respond to it.

I really think this is a feature of SMS which have been underappreciated and overlooked. Its not the immediacy of SMS which makes it popular, its the off-line nature. You dont have to worry if your recipient is free to talk or not. In that way its just like e-mail, and it allows you to do 2 things at once, e.g. attend a meeting and SMS at the same time, whereas a phonecall in the same situation would be impossible.


Also BTW, I think people mistook the joke option Huh? What language pack am I supposed to have installed to understand this poll? for the YGTBK (You've got to be kidding) option, so you should probably add those 2 together, giving you a full 66% of PPC users here (me included) who are old foggies with no interest if funny new lingo :)

Surur

[xendula]

Coming from Europe, with all my folks living there I get quite a load of sms messages every day - and guess what - I barely understand :roll: halve of the messages my dear siblings send me. So to be sure I understand I end up using this dictionary - http://www.mob1le.com/sms.html :lol:

bdeli, HOW do they SMS you from Europe? Do messages get through to Canadian cell phones?

[johncruise]

Coming from Europe, with all my folks living there I get quite a load of sms messages every day - and guess what - I barely understand :roll: halve of the messages my dear siblings send me. So to be sure I understand I end up using this dictionary - http://www.mob1le.com/sms.html :lol:

bdeli, HOW do they SMS you from Europe? Do messages get through to Canadian cell phones?

SMS are standard. If your network supports SMS, you should be able to receive (and probably send) SMS messages. My folks in the Philippines are sending SMS here in the US and I send also to some to my friends in Canada.

Take note though that some company, although they advertise they have text messaging support in their network, may not be fully compliant with SMS (i.e. ATT here in US "before" can receive SMS message but not send). PCS network has their own text messaging implementation -- they can only send and receive messages within their network (i.e. Sprint to Sprint subscribers only).

So rule of thumb... if they don't say SMS ready (and says only Text messaging available), you better check again.

[bdeli]

bdeli, HOW do they SMS you from Europe? Do messages get through to Canadian cell phones?

They now work - cause up to a yr ago i could only receive. I use Microcell (Fido) as a provider. You just need to use the correct formatting in the number +1416xxxxxxx

[kfluet]

Being somewhat of an old-school Internet geek (being 33 years old and all), I would like to point out that a lot of these "sms" shortenings actually originate in the USENET News and BBS world.

I have sent and received less than 5 sms messages in my life, but I understand most of these acronyms. ROTFL, LMAO, TTYL, AFAIK, RTFM, B4, CUL8R, IMHO, OTOH, THX etc. are all much older than fancy cell phones and AOL IM.

[Jason Lee]

SMS are standard. If your network supports SMS, you should be able to receive (and probably send) SMS messages. My folks in the Philippines are sending SMS here in the US and I send also to some to my friends in Canada.

Take note though that some company, although they advertise they have text messaging support in their network, may not be fully compliant with SMS (i.e. ATT here in US "before" can receive SMS message but not send). PCS network has their own text messaging implementation -- they can only send and receive messages within their network (i.e. Sprint to Sprint subscribers only).

So rule of thumb... if they don't say SMS ready (and says only Text messaging available), you better check again.

I have been a sprint customer for 2 years and send and recieve SMS messages to and from my t-mobile, at&t, cingular, verison, nextel, and altel friends. CDMA, TDMA, GSM, IDEN.... all work with my spring phones. Very quickly too. :D

[DrtyBlvd]

I prefer to use full words, proper grammer, and appropriate punctuation.

You spelled grammar wrong :rofl:

Figures. :oops: Unintentional however, and even so, it was still perfectly readable and comprehendable. Unlike SMS talk.

In my defense, I might add that I said nothing about correct spelling in my original post. :P

Absolutely fair enough. There are a few other 'errors' that some people appear to have missed - the use of 'new' instead of 'knew' followed by suggestion is my favourite so far...

This was discussed recently in another thread surrounding 'ringing volume' - and I'll make the same point here as I did there - people do not know how to use their phones - Some people with T9 prefer to 'one key' as they don't 'get' T9 :!: They are often the same people who have no idea how to turn down the ring volume....

[johncruise]

some company, although they advertise they have text messaging support in their network, may not be fully compliant with SMS (i.e. ATT here in US "before" can receive SMS message but not send). PCS network has their own text messaging implementation -- they can only send and receive messages within their network (i.e. Sprint to Sprint subscribers only).


I have been a sprint customer for 2 years and send and recieve SMS messages to and from my t-mobile, at&t, cingular, verison, nextel, and altel friends. CDMA, TDMA, GSM, IDEN.... all work with my spring phones. Very quickly too. :D

Do you have some special service activated on your phone? 2 of my friend has sprint service on their phone and "has" text messaging enabled but couldn't receive nor send outside the network. Just curioius.

[Janak Parekh]

Take note though that some company, although they advertise they have text messaging support in their network, may not be fully compliant with SMS (i.e. ATT here in US "before" can receive SMS message but not send).
This has completely changed. Everyone has full MOSMS support on their new phones, including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, (Cingular? I haven't used it). Sprint is a slightly special case -- you must use the WAP interface to send SMS, although you can receive SMSes just fine. Intercarrier SMS has also become much, much more reliable in the last 12 months.

Oh, and I think there are SMS plans for Sprint just like any other carrier. Your friends should contact ("do battle" ;)) with Customer Care until Sprint figures out what's wrong with their setup.

--janak

[Kaber]

Just had to add my 2¢.

I think this is all just a matter of data integrity and communication efficientcy. As I type this, letter recognizer is completeing my words. So I have that luxury. But I don't want to be here all night.

If the distant end can recieve the signal w/o data loss than it is equiped to recieve. If the distant end can decode than you achieve communication efficientcy. What does maturity have to do with it?

And shorthand is a must if u want 2 comm in CS, or BF42, or UT2k3...

pwnd n00b!

UPDATE: I also have the luxury of editing.

[Kirkaiya]

&lt;snip>
Take note though that some company, although they advertise they have text messaging support in their network, may not be fully compliant with SMS (i.e. ATT here in US "before" can receive SMS message but not send). PCS network has their own text messaging implementation -- they can only send and receive messages within their network (i.e. Sprint to Sprint subscribers only).


To be completely accurate - Sprint PCS users *can* get SMS messages, but they come in the form of "Browser Messages", and have to be read thru the (annoying) built-in micro-browser from Phone.Com.

My sister has "true" SMS on whatever provider she uses (she changes a lot), and sometimes sends me SMS, which I can read by going to the "browser msg" option under "Messages" (I have a Samsung 8500).

I can also send browser-messages to her phone, and they go thru as SMS. But, to be honest, it's such a chore to get/receive them this way, if having SMS is important, you're better off doing as johncruise suggests, and using another carrier (but then, of course, you probably won't have CDMA 1xRTT, with it's 60 Kbps average thru-put, and 144 Kbps max... decisions, decisions...)

Edited - I just noticed that Janak ParekH made the same point - the WAP interface is the limited Phone.Com browser I was referring to - there I go responding before reading all the posts first...

[Jason Lee]

Do you have some special service activated on your phone? 2 of my friend has sprint service on their phone and "has" text messaging enabled but couldn't receive nor send outside the network. Just curioius.

Not that i know of.. you have to have the internet service on your phone. with my old one it was called PCS wireless web, for the new phones it is called Vison.
which ever phone you have will work as long as you pay for the internet service.

EDIT: LOL same here.. :lol:

[Janak Parekh]

To be completely accurate - Sprint PCS users *can* get SMS messages, but they come in the form of "Browser Messages", and have to be read thru the (annoying) built-in micro-browser from Phone.Com.
Hmm, I've had a different experience - SPCS supports standard "text" messages, as opposed to minibrowser messages, for incoming SMSes. I've had and sent SMSes to friends' phones (admittedly, haven't done it on Vision, but I can't imagine they'd change the behavior that much).

Sending, on the other hand, is a big problem.

My sister has "true" SMS on whatever provider she uses (she changes a lot), and sometimes sends me SMS, which I can read by going to the "browser msg" option under "Messages" (I have a Samsung 8500).
Weird. I definitely worked with SPCS phones where I didn't have to use the minibrowser for incoming messages.

--janak

[TheBacklash]

Honestly i will send an SMS over calling some one.. :lol:

not sure why.. less intrusive i guess.

Me too. I *never* phone someone with my phone. I can count the number of times I used my phone to actually call someone on one hand. I don't really *need* a phone, and those times I do need it, I just SMS people rather then call them. SMS is cheap and gets the job done. Plus, it's less intrusive and confronting then calls. If someone calls me, I have to answer. If people SMS me, I can decide when I want to read it or respond to it.

I am the opposite...

In my circle, I am probably the most technicaly wise. My Brother in law sends me SMS msgs sometimes... I almost always call him back to figure out what the hell he just sent me...
If I need to say something to someone, it takes less than 2 minutes to call, say it, or leave the msg on their answering service. It would take me longer to hit 90 keys to say the same 30+ words....

I have a voice enable phone, pick up phone, say name, say whatever to whomever after it rings about 2-3 times, hang up, and I'm done. I can do it while driving, while walking, while doing whatever. questions answered instantly.

I have to stop what I'm doing to watch the damn screen while I put in the words.... THATS annoying to me.
Then I have to wait for a responce... if needed. Questions could take awhile to be answered.

SMS will never take over my phone.

Besides, with my Axim and gomadic cable to connect through my phone to the net, I can E-mail whenever I want. 8) (if I don't want to actualy call someone)

[xendula]

I didn't mean to change the subject here, but in a way I'm glad I did. I had tried so many times to SMS people in the US .. and gave up a few years ago, because it never worked. I think it was mostly Cingular, and they only supported SMSes from other Cingular phones. (And I assume that everything works the same way in North America, whether Canada, US or Mexico, just like in Europe most things work the same way in every country...emm, cellphonewise!)

Thanks a lot for the input, means I can give it another try, FINALLY! :way to go:

And as to the actual topic, it's hard to find the patience to spell out things after SMSing for years and years.
I also have the feeling that it should be easier for guys to write and read this way, because it's so much closer to the way they communicate things, while we like to get a lot more into detail, if you guys know what I mean.................. my 2 eurocents :D

[ppcsurfr]

Hmmm... I'm not a heavy texter really... I only send on the average about 1200 messages a month. I receive maybe about double that or so... so its nt rily a prob. i got rid of sndng txt in shrthnd coz i now use my ppc for sndng txt. b4 it ws hrdr coz der ws no t9. dat ws so mch f4rt bt nw t9 is gud. i c so many pipol txtng shrtct wid t9. dey ad shrthnd txt in t9 dictnry. so now we pinoys txt fster. we use it wen we r l8t 4 mtngs, bt nt al acrnym wrks. pinoys evn txt widout lukng at d keypd of d fne. if u wnt to c supr txtrs, go 2 pinas. d txt cptl of d wrld.

Well, there isn't really any strict rule in txting . I think it depends on which country you come from... Just try to observe those who text... there are similarities but phrases that are too American don't really make it to the rest of the world.

In the Philippines, we get to mix our own Tagalog with English... hence the Taglish way of texting.

here are common phrases/sentences...

Where are you? => wer r u?
I can pick you up. => i cn pik u up.
What name should I write on the check? => wat name shd i ryt on ur chek?

And in Taglish... pik d shrter wrd 4 it... if the Tagalog/Filipino word for it is shorter than the English word... even after doing it in txt shorthand ... then use it.

[xendula]

In the Philippines, we get to mix our own Tagalog with English... hence the Taglish way of texting.
And in Taglish... pik d shrter wrd 4 it... if the Tagalog/Filipino word for it is shorter than the English word... even after doing it in txt shorthand ... then use it.

What, so if two Philipinos (?is that what you call it?) SMS each other, they mix ENGLISH into their own language?
That's very interesting, strange, but interesting!!!!! You don't see that happen over here. HELP, English is slowly taking over the world! :robot:

[Janak Parekh]

What, so if two Philipinos (?is that what you call it?) SMS each other, they mix ENGLISH into their own language?
Hmm, interesting point. I suspect a lot of languages are a bit more difficult for text entry, especially those that are accented. I'm curious what you do over in Germany about the accents -- do you omit them when SMSing? Or does T9 automatically add them?

--janak

p.s. It's "filipinos", I believe. :)

[xendula]

Janak, you probably mean the umlaute, those vowels that have two dots on top of them.
On the cellular phones here, if you keep pressing the "abc" key, you eventually get the german "a umlaut" (ä), or any other (French, Italian, Spanish) accentuated a. But sometimes people just leave out the dots. In email addresses and urls there are no "umlaute" , so we are used to replacing the dots with an e after the vowel. Sounds confusing, but it really isn't.
What I would like to know is how Chinese people manage to SMS ??!!?? With the thousands of characters they have. How do they even manage to type on regular computer keyboards !?!!!????

PS:T9 is not at all a helpful feature on German phones, I always have to deactivate it. Too bad, the principle behind it sounds great.

[Janak Parekh]

Janak, you probably mean the umlaute, those vowels that have two dots on top of them.
In Germany, yes, I'm referring to the umlaut. It gets more interesting when you have to deal with multiple accents (as in Spanish, where you have both the tilde and the forward accent, or the backward accent in French); English might be convenient in that context, where we don't have any accents (makes it impossible to pronounce, but that's a different discussion ;))

What I would like to know is how Chinese people manage to SMS ??!!?? With the thousands of characters they have. How do they even manage to type on regular computer keyboards !?!!!????
Good question. :) Isn't there Simplified Chinese for that?

PS:T9 is not at all a helpful feature on German phones, I always have to deactivate it. Too bad, the principle behind it sounds great.
Yup, in English-speaking countries it's immensely valuable.

--janak

[xendula]

What I would like to know is how Chinese people manage to SMS ??!!?? With the thousands of characters they have. How do they even manage to type on regular computer keyboards !?!!!????
Good question. :) Isn't there Simplified Chinese for that?

Are you sure there is such a thing is SIMPLIFIED Chinese? I know they "simplyfied" their characters some time ago (by leaving a stroke out here and there), but hey, they still have the same amount!!!

PS: Maybe the computer era is going to put some pressure on a lot of writing systems, I know German is already changing. What an exciting time this is :P

[ppcsurfr]

Janak, you probably mean the umlaute, those vowels that have two dots on top of them.
On the cellular phones here, if you keep pressing the "abc" key, you eventually get the german "a umlaut" (ä), or any other (French, Italian, Spanish) accentuated a. But sometimes people just leave out the dots. In email addresses and urls there are no "umlaute" , so we are used to replacing the dots with an e after the vowel. Sounds confusing, but it really isn't.
What I would like to know is how Chinese people manage to SMS ??!!?? With the thousands of characters they have. How do they even manage to type on regular computer keyboards !?!!!????

PS:T9 is not at all a helpful feature on German phones, I always have to deactivate it. Too bad, the principle behind it sounds great.

Here in the Philippines, heavy texters actually use T9 een for Tagalog/Filipino words. If you go to your T9 dictionary, you can actually add words to it. You can add a name, a contractions of a word, abbreviations, etc. Then you can text even faster using shortcuts and T9 at the same time.

You should see those SMS contests the local telcos or phone manufacturers sometimes have in their sponsored events. You get people texting at unimaginable speed without looking at the pone or keypad at all! 8O

ppcsurfr

[xendula]

You should see those SMS contests the local telcos or phone manufacturers sometimes have in their sponsored events. You get people texting at unimaginable speed without looking at the pone or keypad at all! 8O

Ha! I can do that! :P I can SMS while driving because I never need to look at the keypad any more. SMSsing is a real addiction over here, some school kids spend hundreds of dollars every month just on SMSes!!

[ctmagnus]

bdeli, HOW do they SMS you from Europe? Do messages get through to Canadian cell phones?

They now work - cause up to a yr ago i could only receive. I use Microcell (Fido) as a provider. You just need to use the correct formatting in the number +1416xxxxxxx

Telus still only receives. :(

[maximus]

Digging into old posts, aren't we ? :p

And uh, to make it back on topic, I spend a whole lot of cash on sms.
My phone bill usually consist of: 50% GPRS, 30% sms, 20% voice and others.

[Jason Dunn]

Telus still only receives. :(

Are you sure about that? I've used my wife's Telus Samsung phone to send an SMS, and it worked very nicely to another phone on the Telus network - I just put in the phone number of the other phone, and typed in the messsage.

[ctmagnus]

Telus still only receives. :(

Are you sure about that? I've used my wife's Telus Samsung phone to send an SMS, and it worked very nicely to another phone on the Telus network - I just put in the phone number of the other phone, and typed in the messsage.

It must be the fact that we're still in the sticks here. I get a Service Not Available message everytime I try to send one. But we do have digital coverage.

:confused totally:

[karen]

Thankfully, T9 does away with the need to make every word an acronym nowadays. Unless, of course, you hit the chrctr lmt.

I agree! I had to use someone else's phone in a pinch and it didn't have T9. I can't imagine trying to SMS without it. No need for all cryptic crap.

K