 | Doug Tidwell (dtidwell@us.ibm.com), Cyber Evangelist, IBM
Leah Ketring (ketring@us.ibm.com), Web Manager, IBM
Sera Lewis (sera@us.ibm.com), Production Editor, IBM
March 11, 2003 In recent months, two of our favorite sites, The Onion and SatireWire have published lists of little-known chat room abbreviations. At this point, you might think that all of the chat room abbreviations in the world have been documented somewhere. Well, in our constant drive to keep dW readers informed of everything they need to know, our own Doug Tidwell, Leah Ketring, and Sera Lewis have uncovered a few abbreviations that other sites have missed. Read on...
When we launched the lol:> column last year, our senior leadership team thought it was great. Except that they didn't get the name. "What does one-oh-one stand for?" they asked. Since then, instant messaging has taken off inside even the upper realms of management, which means that they know when we are working, they know when we're awake, they know when we've been bad or good ... And they feel completely comfortable IMing us, for example, while we're connected using battery power during an ice storm and telling us to drive into the office so that we can post "urgent" content while they sit in the warm comfort of another state. (Not that we're still holding a grudge about that, BTW.)
Needless to say, we get many, many messages. And they often include arcane abbreviations that force us to ask for explanations or send us scampering after search engines. After extensive research, we're proud to present the following list of little-known instant messaging abbreviations:
- "
olim"
- Oh, look, it's morning
- "
iwdso?"
- Is Wendy's drivethru still open?
- "
smcjldotk"
- Sorry, my cat just lay down on the keyboard
- "
robdilu"
- Restraining order be darned - I Love You!
- "
ebhak"
- Error between hair and keyboard
- "
bbb5"
- Be back, Babylon 5 just started
- "
lolih"
- Laughing out loud, in horror (precursor to fcol and wol)
- "
fcol"
- For crying out loud
- "
wol"
- (After lolih) weeping out loud
- "
wah"
- Working at home. Or, weeping at home, depending on the hour and the closeness of the deadline.
- "
a3]2[d,5/z01=1\bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb"
- Sorry, my cat just lay down on the keyboard
- "
?"
- Got coffee?
- "
ding"
- Got coffee.
" "- Hi, I'm not sitting at my computer right now.
Use caution when employing these abbreviations; overuse can cause atrophy of the little finger, which can lead to pain and suffering when use of the shift key is required.
About the authors
 Doug Tidwell heard about these chat room abbreviations from friends, since he clearly never uses his IBM-issued laptop for anything other than management-approved activities. You can reach him at dtidwell@us.ibm.com. |
Leah Ketring scoffs at the idea of putting autobiographical information on the Web, where anyone can see it.
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 Sera Lewis once typed a very very bad word into a messaging window that turned out to be her conversation with her boss, rather than the friend she was complaining about said boss to. She has learned to use care both in her descriptive language and in where she's typing.
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