I noticed this a few years ago - the different dialects of IM.

The different shorthands... *action* vs /action, LMAO vs ROFL, sweeet vs sweEt vs sw33t. Not to mention the l33t sp34k that some people use.

It would be interesting to do a study - try to pin-point these dialects TO something. ICQ vs IRC habits as a teenager. Social environment now (OSS people vs Windows vs Mac users). Speed of typing now (or speed of typing now).

I tend to use the variants: *action*, ROFL, sweeet, with only a little l33t sp34k. And a lot of abbreviations, 'cause the 30-40 words a minute i type usually isn't fast enough.

And, of course, I have to Link H3r3

And This Version of the Lord's Prayer Is it blasphemy? Or just the funniest thing i've read on "Slashdot" in a long time? Both, more then likely