Right.
Please don't reply to this thread in leet speak because I find it irritating and unreadable, but I am curious to know how the stupid non language came about in the first place. Does anybody know?
Where did leet speak come from?
Right.
Please don't reply to this thread in leet speak because I find it irritating and unreadable, but I am curious to know how the stupid non language came about in the first place. Does anybody know?
It's not a language, it's an orthography and a dialect. And many times, more consistent than English orthography itself.
Kinda fascinating, really. It must have started with things like the number-puns "4ever" and so forth - and gone further than that, finally replacing common letters for numbers that resemble those letters - 3 being one of the more profilic ones.
That's the orthography part - it goes further than the 3 as time goes by - but the dialect comes from the people who use it. Probably multiplayer FPSers.
All in all, quite fascinating.
Yes. Quake. Nerds. So I hear.
yes, it mostlikely started in early multiplayer first-person shooters. early number things like Nait pointed out, probably start in very early chat rooms when the internet got popular.... along with other short phrases like "lol" or "brb"
/\/\0-/\/3|2cy
Leet was fun for a while, yes.
A few things that helped lead to the god-awful 'leet' speak, and they aren't all online:
1) AOL, Y!M, Hotmail and other such ID-related things that thousands upon thousands of online users are a part of. "I can't register Daniel? That sucks. Hmm, maybe if I do what I did with my number plate and make it D4N13L... yeah, that'll work." Another way these large companies influence such things is by restricting character length. "I want to be Daniel Forever but I can only have ten characters... I know, I'll use 'Daniel4eva'!"
2) Customised number plates, as stated above. The ID's people use were the first things to have 'leet' speak, you see, and it branched out from there.
3) Text messaging. Again, shortening words to fit into a restricted character length. People get used to it a little too fast.
4) Hackers/Porn sites/etc: They try to get around search filters and firewall filters by typing in 'leet'.
5) Real-time online gaming: People type shortened words so they can get back into action faster. Don't want to get shot while you're typing and all. This is for those who are slower typers, too.
6) Slow typers: Some people are bloody slow typers and this speeds things up dramatically for them.
7) Imbociles: Well, you know.
Customised number plates are in my opinion the first things to bring about mass 'leet' usage.
EDIT: On a sidenote, the article for 'leet' in Wikipedia made me laugh so much. The oh-so-formal attitude displayed is, to me, a hilarious contrast.
Last edited by Loony BoB; 08-02-2004 at 03:28 PM.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
Language is a serious matter. In ten or twenty years, people will be writing this stuff up. Like it or not, l33t is a part of the history of the Internet, a part of the history of the English language.
As BoB implied, much of l33t springs from the medium. Constraints are a challenge, and people take up those challenged different ways. l33t is one answer to the need of uniqueness, to the constraint of length, and so forth. And it took a life of its own.
BoB - thanks for the Wikipage. Fascinating stuff. Kids, this is your history, remember it well.
L33t (spell it properly) originated from geeks who where tired of people speaking in bianary so they made l33t, but the thing that got it so popular was www.megatokyo.com which is a great web comic thatis the origin of l33t
A quick search on the internet tells me that megatokyo began in 2000. 'Leet' (which is the English translation of 1337, while l33t is merely a mutated mixture of the two) was around long before then.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
megatokyo only made it mainstream
I heard it was invented to hide h4x0r sites from search engines, like Bob said...
I forsee a time when people all over the world speak Leet. If you ever become one of those people, I suggest buying yourself some fire-proof clothing.
I really, really don't like Leet-speak.
"The most important and recognize player in the history of the country."
Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if I were as great as Paulo Wanchope.
Interesting stuff, no doubt.
Thankfully, the "Craze" seems to have died down somewhat in recent times.
"As the days go by, we face the increasing inevitability that we are alone in a godless,
uninhabited, hostile and meaningless universe. Still, you've got to laugh, haven't you?"
i am also in agreement with this. If u read Gallagher's rant on the first |337 ep. of MT, it does indeed state that the episode was an acknowlegement of |337 and not its creator...also backed up by the book which includes many other Fun Facts of MT.Originally Posted by cactuar_12
~~~Megatokyo
*Sigh* i hate the new episodes. Its mention here brings back fond old memories of the Webcomic, originally about a pair of gamers and best friends... but now...grweggg...URGE TO KILL RISING
Oh some Ritalin!
Ahhhh....The solution to all life's problems. Ritalin
I really can't understand why people are so annoyed by 1337 speak. Personally, I find regular internet slang to be far, far more annoying, such as lol, lmao, and of course the ever so annoying "meh" (can there be anything more annoying then meh?)
And this of course, is Man of the Year:
http://www.princeton.edu/~pauper/02-01-28/leetspeak.htm
To hell with Battletoads and Double Dragon.
THIS is the ultimate team.
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