This is a little old, but I found it quite interesting:
An amusing exercise
It is a discussion thread over at Typophile about what chat shorthand (lol, wtf, rofl) might look like as symbols, much as ‘at’ has ‘@’, or ‘and’ has ‘&’. Though most chat shorthands are acronyms instead of single words, it is still a very neat topic with some great ideas. I prefer the one pictured to the right of this post for LOL, submitted by gmckenzi.
I also have been pondering a discussion I had with someone at work about how we do not *usually* laugh literally “out loud” when we type lol, or actually fall out of our chairs when we type rofl (how would we type it if we were?), although there have been times when it has happened. Instead, maybe we should use an alternative, and leave LOL for more hilarious outbursts. You could just take the acronym of out, producing LIL (Laughing In Loud) but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, plus it looks like an abbreviation of little.
Perhaps LI or LIW, for Laughing InWardly, would work. Or we could spark a whole new term like TVF (Thats Very Funny) as in “That’s very funny, a fly marrying a bumble bee… I TOLD YOU I’D SHOOT! BUT YOU DIDN’T BELIEVE ME! WHYYYYYYYY DIDN’T YOU BELIEVE ME?!?!“. God I love that show.
In lieu of LOL, I tend to use “heh” when I find something funny, and “heheheheh” when it is funnier still. Note that I mean this as “heh heh heh”, as in a chuckle, as opposed to “he he he”, a feminine giggle…
So what do you all think? Do you like LIL, LIW, TVF? Create your own and post them here. I would love to hear your input on this!
PS: *bonus points for a symbolic for “OMG WTF BBQ” that is not just letters run together.
B 10:17 am on 8/1/2008 Permalink
shit i dunno
I usually just use the default one in notepad2 (apparently Lucida Console) and such, the only thing that has bothered me with it is variables in php files – the italics looks like crap, pixelated, unless you enlarge the font size.
I think the Consolas looked fuzzy in notepad2.
I definitely do like that Bitstream Vera Sans Mono except for the enlarged vertical spacing. If i was going to switch it would probably be to this one.
B 10:20 am on 8/1/2008 Permalink
so might as well comment now that i notice it
When you enter the comment area (posting or viewing) your links to the previous/next post at the top and bottom disappear. the named links in the middle are still there and link to that post’s comment section.
just an interestin note