Do you consider "bot comments"....

[Feather Kana]

This is a subject I feel is a bit more open to debate than being blatanly branded "txt tlk".

Bot comments.

A lot of them use poor grammar, bad spelling, some text talk (such as "ORLY? 10!"), mixed in with general english, but computer-generated mix-'n-match phrasing.

Still, it is the appropriator of the bot scripts that allow such phrasing to run wild in, say, the Arena. (I am in the Arena this week and found a new twist: Three bot comments are already in my Profile. Go and look if you want to know what I mean.)

Do you consider the horror of Bot Comments a variation of "text talk" and bad grammar then? For example, "Hmmm....much awesome!"

(If you do not and thus consider this thread to be out of place, then please delete it. I was simply curious as to how the rest of you feel about the placing of bot comments as bad grammar and text talk.)  

[Tezur]

If you want a history lesson, bot comments seem to derive from "1337", or "leet" speak, which is still common yet more age-old than you might think. Computer-hackers during the 80's used it to prevent agencies from cracking down on them, online on early forum prototypes with green text. Now that methods of hacking have evolved most have no need for leet-speak, so it boiled down to just a common language among forum-goers.

Of course "leet" has several variations. Bot comments I'm sure are intentional to keep other users from recognizing whoever is typing them. Again, it's part of the whole "hacker" ethos.  

[Feather Kana]

Hmm. No, I never knew that, although I have seen that sort of speak before.  

[Zealot of Insanity]

If you go onto the chat system "www.meebo.com", one of the languages on the bottom is actually "leet". I signed onto my AIM on that, and god, I felt like splattering my brains onto the screen so I wouldn't have to see the horrors.

I think the creators just put it in as a joke.