Chat
<chat, tool, networking, messaging> Any system that allows any number of logged-in users to have a typed, real-time, on-line conversation, either by all users logging into the same computer, or more commonly nowadays, via a
network.
The medium of
chat is descended from
talk, but the terms (and the media) have been distinct since at least the early 1990s.
talk is prototypically for a small number of people, generally with no provision for channels.
In
chat systems, however, there are many channels in which any number of people can talk; and users may send private (one-to-one) messages.
Some well known chat systems to date (1998) include
IRC,
ICQ and
Palace.
Chat systems have given rise to a distinctive style combining the immediacy of talking with all the precision (and verbosity) that written language entails.
It is difficult to communicate inflection, though conventions have arisen to help with this.
The conventions of chat systems include special items of jargon, generally abbreviations meant to save typing, which are not used orally.
E.g.,
re,
BCNU,
BBL,
BTW,
CUL,
FWIW,
FYA,
FYI,
IMHO,
OTT,
TNX,
WRT,
WTF,
WTH, <g>, <gr&d>,
BBL,
HHOK,
NHOH,
ROTFL,
AFK,
b4,
TTFN,
TTYL,
OIC,
re.
Much of the chat style is identical to (and probably derived from)
Morse code jargon used by ham-radio amateurs since the 1920s, and there is, not surprisingly, some overlap with
TDD jargon.
Most of the jargon was in use in
talk systems. Many of these expressions are also common in
Usenet news and
electronic mail and some have seeped into popular culture, as with emoticons.
The
MUD community uses a mixture of emoticons, a few of the more natural of the old-style
talk mode abbreviations, and some of the "social" list above; specifically, MUD respondents report use of
BBL,
BRB,
LOL,
b4,
BTW,
WTF,
TTFN, and
WTH.
The use of "
re" or "rehi" is also common; in fact, MUDders are fond of "re-" compounds and will frequently "rehug" or "rebonk" (see
bonk/oif) people.
In general, though, MUDders express a preference for typing things out in full rather than using abbreviations; this may be due to the relative youth of the MUD cultures, which tend to include many touch typists.
Abbreviations specific to MUDs include:
FOAD, ppl (people), THX (thanks), UOK? (are you OK?).
Some
BIFFisms (notably the variant spelling "d00d") and aspects of
ASCIIbonics appear to be passing into wider use among some subgroups of MUDders and are already pandemic on
chat systems in general.
See also
hakspek.
Suck article "Screaming in a Vacuum" (http://www.suck.com/daily/96/10/23/).
