The Tyranny of Twit Writing: Facebook Twitter Char Limits and SMS Abbrevs

By Xah Lee. Date:

So, i needed to post to my social network sites…

Preface

Full Version

Here's the text i wrote that i want post:

Today's Wordy English: miasma noxious putrescent hospices. At 〔http://wordy-english.blogspot.com/2011/07/miasma-noxious-putrescent-hospices.html〕.

• Remember, you don't know a word unless you can give a reasonable definition in writing.
• And, you don't fully know the word if the sense used in the context isn't the one you know.
• And, you haven't mastered the word unless you can easily think of all its major senses and pour forward usage examples, and can judge the degree whether other writers used it properly.

518 characters.

Facebook Version

Today's Wordy English: miasma noxious putrescent hospices. http://goo.gl/KrLLU

• 'member，u dont know a word unless u can give good def in writing.
• and u dont fully know the word if the sense used in the context isnt the one u know.
• and u havent mastered the word unless u can easily think of all its major senses and pour forward usage examples，＆ can judge the degree whether other writers used it properly.

406 chars. Limit is 420.

Twitter Version

Today's Wordy English: miasma noxious putrescent hospices. http://goo.gl/KrLLU Remember, you don't know shit.

109 chars. Limit is 140.

Facebook, Twitter, and SMS Abbrevs

Screw facebook 420 chars. Can't post the above to Facebook without drastic measures.

then there's the text messaging conventions, for example: “4=for” but am not sure i want that. Afterall, i still want a sense of proper abridgement.

Here's a partial list of SMS abbreviations from Wikipedia on SMS language: