If you're only concerned w/ "with" & not "without" or "within" then I would agree that there's very little difference. However, for the sake of consistency I prefer using the "/" w/ all of them.

On the subject of contractions I would just like to point out that there are a multitude of reasons for using them when typing (efficiency being one of them).

Now I'll just think that my awesome last post was ignored.

Yeah but this is an internet forum. How you type is how we hear your voice in our heads. When you say "w/" I hear "wi-" with a kind of glottal stop after a "w" sound and it makes you sound like an idiot it my head. I realize this is my issue and not yours, but then again, welcome to society.

BobTheMasher is crazy. I don't hear voices when I look at internet.

The only voices I hear are from the leprechaun statues in the garden that tell me to burn things, but they're crazy and don't know what they're saying.

I'm quite perplexed. Are people that unfamiliar with the abbreviation w/? I guess you'd be even less familiar with s/ for "without," then? I also would love to hear some explanation of the meaning of the phrase "linguistically legal."

I'm unfamiliar with both of those.

I know w/, but I've never even seen s/. I always see w/o instead.

I assume it stands for "sanz", as in Horatio Sanz.

linguistically legal is the makeshift term I thought of because I can't find the right English word for 'legal to write in a language without being frowned upon by grammar Nazis'... 'linguistically legal' sounded really, really awesome.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty awesome too.

When I'm writing notes I abbreviate with to w/ and without to w/o too. I also use a symbol that looks like 1.1 to mean between, cf to mean compare and contrast, req^d (superscript d) to mean required and a host of other (somewhat esoteric) abbreviations.

I wouldn't use them when communicating or any other form of longhand typing/writing though - they're just for brevity in note taking; a form of personal shorthand.

SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL MOFOS?

w/ = with
w/o = without
w/e = whatever

It's still ****, no matter how you look at it.

w/ is dumb. I have no problem with the others though.
w/e.

Any of you guys ever been on a bus and had an obnoxious teenage girl kick the back of your seat, and when you turn around and ask her to stop she says "Get over it!"

I dont know, something about this thread just made me think of that.




You use shorthand in a manner that is of sound reasoning. Mentat does not.

That's pretty much the skinny of it.

and then someone forum-searches a bunch of old posts where i used "whatev" :O q.e.d ***** got told

Oh ok. That was pretty easy.

You may prefer typing everything out on a mobile device (or any device for that matter) while carrying on half a dozen or more conversations at once & you may even find it offensive (apparently that's the case w/ half the people here) that someone would have the audacity to try & be as efficient as possible w/o interrupting the flow of conversation (notice that I only use shorthand when it's something that's so common that everyone understands it immediately) but that doesn't make my choice unreasonable. Even if efficiency wasn't my goal & I simply preferred "w/o" to "without" for purely aesthetic reasons, that still wouldn't make my choice unreasonable.

What I find unreasonable is for so many people to care enough about something so insignificant (thus was my reason for posting this thread) that they'd bother to mention it in the first place (& even argue against it). I'm going to continue using "w/" & "w/o" & anything else that I deem necessary until I'm either banned from doing so or there's been an argument that convinces me to do otherwise. This sanctimonious bull**** is ridiculous & does nothing to strengthen the small community that we have left. Accept the way I type by getting over it, ban me for doing so or go **** yourselves.

I think I've discovered the source of the problem. It's not that you guys hate me or my use of W's. It's just that every time a "W" stands out you have flashbacks of the Bush presidency. I think I'm starting to understand.

And what about those of us that are foreign and don't hate you?

Anomalies.

y u ragging on Bush? w/o him we'd be overrun w/ terrorists. u should kno/ better.

Truedat.

Actually, isn't that more commonly written as f/u?

The deal is I don't want you using those words on my internet you get me tough guy?

The internet's not big enough for the 2 of us! There's pretty much only one way to settle this.

Quoth the server: 404.

2 problems:
1, We're discussing talking on massassi, not mobile phone chat in genereal, and here in massassi you don't seem to use short-hand with anything at all, making your use of it for w/ strange.
2, it does break the flow of the conversation



This is Massassi, it's a forum, and most forums end up with discussions like this. Sure, the reactions of maybe one or two people about your use of w/ is over-the-top, but most of these people aren't being angry, offended, or anything else that you might be thinking./quote]



I agree, but I'm talking about you here. In your own words, get over it.

I like turtles.

Turtles are cool

lol turtles

I was thinking more of the teenage mutant variety but ok >_>

I don't even type the / I just write stuff like

I got a cheeseburger w fries

Okay my userscript works for real now

https://dl.dropbox.com/s/8nt34wnyc4xkzxo/mentatfixer.user.js

Here's my gaijin 2 cents:

W/ YOU!

Doesn't work fully