Monday, December 4, 2000		Article

Keyboard shortcuts to chatting on the Net
by Gaurav Sood

THE Web is becoming more and more alive. The days of the static pages are numbered and with the introduction of online applets, the Web is becoming increasingly dynamic. According to a definition, chatting on the Net means real-time communication between two users via computer. Once a chat has been initiated, a sender can enter text by typing on the keyboard and the entered text will appear on the receiver’s monitor. Most networks and online services offer a chat feature.

Imagine two persons. Two persons who have discovered the power of the Internet. One is a retired father living in Chandigarh, the other, a taxi driver in Australia. Through the magic of their computers, these two men have made a connection, and although their lives are very different, they are forging a wonderful relationship. Twice a week at their scheduled time, they hook up to chat about what they normally talk about — their lives, jobs, hopes, dreams. This mode of communication has all advantages of a telephone conversation — it's instant, convenient, and fun — but something is missing.

What is that? The benefit of facial expression, a look at the communicator's body language — all these things help understand what is really being said in a normal conversation, and complete the picture. When humans communicate in person, they often use body-language to help colour the meaning of their words. Facial expression, in particular, communicates a great deal. In chatting, however, one loses this vital link to each other's thoughts. A sentence that is spoken with a smile and wink in-person may be humorous, the same sentence written in a chat message may look irritated or angry to the recipient who has no other clue to go by. So one often wonders how do to fill that void while conversing on the Net?

This can be done by using what is commonly called "Cyber Lingo." These are some characters made by typing a few strokes on your keyboard.

While chatting in any sort of text chat, one would probably see a bunch of letters like ASL, BRB, ROTFL, LOL, BAK that seem gibberish. What may be the most disconcerting thing for you is that everyone else seems to understand these cryptic letters!

ASL— One of the most popular acronyms in cyberspace — age, sex, location

WB — Welcome back.

LOL — LOL is Laughing out loud.

ROTFL — Rolling on the floor laughing. Note that you will undoubtedly see ROFL as well, which means the same thing, only the T is dropped from the acronym. You will also see RO(T)FLMAO, standing for Laughing my a** off.

AFK — Away from keyboard.

BAK— Back at keyboard.

BRB — Be right back.

c-ya — A quick'n'easy way to say "seeya".

<g> — This stands for <grin>. Variations on this theme include <eg> for <evil grin>, <beg> for <big evil grin> a

AKA— Also known as.

ASAP — As soon as possible.

GMTA — Great minds think alike. Variations include SMTA: Simple/sick minds think alike

IMHO — In my humble opinion. There's also IMO (In my opinion) and IMNSHO (In my not-so-humble opinion).

IRL — In real life, meaning the life you lead when you're not logged on to the Internet.

j/k — Just kidding. You may also see this without the slash separating the letters.

NM — Never mind.

OTOH — On the other hand.

TTYL — Talk to you later.

WTG — Way to go.

k — ok (yup, we're lazy)

ttfn — Ta ta for now

atm — At the moment

b/c — Because

bf or b/f — Boyfriend

gf or g/f — Girlfriend

cwyl— Chat with you later

d/l — Download

dgt — Don't go there

focl— Fell off chair laughing

fwiw — For what it's worth

fyi — For your information

gtg— Got to go (Bye)

h&k— Hug & Kiss

itmohe— If the monitor only had eyes

iyd— In your dreams

m/f— Male or female?

omg— Oh my God!

pls— Please

sup— What's up?

thx (thnx) —Thanks

Then, of course, are the smiley faces. No doubt you've seen them. Some examples: :) =) :D :( :/ :P :Þ ;) :-) ;-) This may look complete gibberish. Tilt your head to your left. Now you can make out the faces.

:-) — Your typical smiley face.

=) — Another happy face.

:-D — Wide smile.

:-( — A frown.

:/ — A confused look.

:P — Tongue sticking out.

:Þ — Another tongue. (to do this, hold down ALT, and then on the number pad part of your keyboard, type 0222 and then release ALT)

;-) — A winking smiley.

As you can see, the rules are pretty simple and almost anything goes. For the sake of clarity, though, a straightforward smile is universal.