subject: Translating Chatroom Speech on the Internet [print this page] Translating Chatroom Speech on the Internet
For someone who doesn't often participate in online chatroom or forum discussions, keeping up with the chat in your online Bingo game can be quite confusing. Rather than take the time to type out what they want to say, players often use slang and acronyms to talk to you, which is basically jibberish to someone not familiar with online terminology.
To make your online Bingo more enjoyable, and hopefully help you understand what people are saying to you, I will try to define some of the most commonly used Bingo acronyms here for you in this article. It really isn't that difficult to decipher online chat, once you know what all the acronyms and slang really mean. One of the easiest ways to spot an online newbie is that they don't have a clue what you are saying when you type something like WTG, or ROFL. If you think about them long enough, you can probably figure out what they mean, but how many numbers are you missing by sitting there staring at lines of chat? You could win the game and not ever even know it, because you are so engrossed in what is being said.
Many of these acronyms are used in everyday chatroom talk, not just Bingo chat. A few of the easier ones are: AFK (away from keyboard), ASL (groan, age, sex, location, often used by teenagers), the dreaded ASLP (ASL plus picture, again a teen thing), BC (be cool), BRB (be right back), LOL (laughing out loud), NM (nevermind), NP (no problem), F2F (face to face), GG (good game), GL (good luck), SS (so sorry), PPL (people), and OMG (oh my gosh).
If you see someone type 1tg, 2tg, 3tg, etc, they are telling you how many more numbers they need to get in order to call Bingo and win the game. There are many more acronyms used frequently in chat rooms, too many to list here in one article without putting you to sleep. These are the basic ones that you will see, and if you one that is unfamiliar, look it up online, or just ask someone else in the room. Most people will be happy to tell you what the acronyms mean, however, you will on occasion meet someone who might be rude about it.
You should be familiar enough with online Bingo lingo now to not stand out so much in the chat room, and to be able to keep up with most of what is being said, so you should be G2G, (good to go)!
