Welcome to Gaia! ::

No, I don't think I shall take you up on that. I prefer to surround myself with people that I like, or least can tolerate, whether that be in real life or online. Hence why I joined this guild. I'm not a Grammar-Nazi. I just prefer to be in an environment that I enjoy. If they choose to txt-talk out there, so be it.

I don't think I could stand that. D;

Good luck, though! ^^

Honestly, I think an hour in the GD is just as effective. And not as scarry as chatterbox

Is it actually a tolerance for 'txt tlk' that you're looking to build up, JUST INspire me? It sounds more like what you want to do is build up a tolerance for the people who use it.

If you're looking to give people the benefit of the doubt, to expand your experiences to the point where you aren't thinking "illiterate idiot" every time you see someone using 'txt tlk', then I definitely don't think you'll want to spend time in the Chatterbox. I think that spending time in the Chatterbox will only reinforce your current opinions and not lead you to form new ones.

The problem I see with going to the Chatterbox is that, in order to overcome your preconceptions, you'd need to be exposed to someone who is not an idiot and yet still uses 'txt tlk'. Now I know many people who are both intelligent and who use 'txt tlk'; however, these people are unlikely, in the extreme, to use Internet abbreviations when engaging in serious discourse.

Why don't they? Because they realize that if you want to show that you are taking a discussion seriously, then you should also want to show that you are putting time and consideration into your responses. Using 'txt tlk', given that it came into use to speed up written real-time conversations that were taking place on-line or via phone, hardly shows that time or consideration are going into your responses. In fact, even an intelligent response, if written in text-talk, will seem hurried and unconsidered - often coming off as though the author is just regurgitating things they've heard elsewhere instead of formulating their own opinions.

Are we uptight? Of course we are. Anyone who holds tightly to any belief is going to seem uptight to people who either don't hold the same beliefs or who harbour a more moderate view on the issue. I'm willing to allow a certain amount of text-talk in specific situations, especially if time is a factor in responding to what people are saying (IM sessions, cell phone text messages), but I definitely do not believe that it deserves a place on Gaia. If that makes me uptight, so be it. Then again, I'm probably uptight about a lot of things: my views on rape, child molestation, my belief that kittens are the best snack food ever.

Tolerating people is one thing; tolerating people while they're doing something I disagree with or believe to be wrong, that's something else all together.

Everyone takes their grammar differently. I personally don't go around trying to correct everyone I meet because I do feel accepting of the way others choose to type online. Sure, some things really bother me, but I'm sure I do things that other people find annoying as well. It also depends on how we all treat others. Honestly, I'd prefer to befriend a nice person who talks "lyke this" than a jerk who types with perfect grammar. As long as we don't go around degrading others, I don't think it's really a problem. I don't look down upon people with bad spelling and grammar unless their personality gives me a reason to.