Figure 3: Extract from The Official AFI & DF Message Board, 27/4/2007
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RabbitMoth (04-27-07 02:39 AM)
help me out
earlier today i found a thread or a blog (i forget, hence why i need everyones help) that was pretty much a detailed desciption of hunters mytery video, so was wondering if someone could help me find the thread or blog i read
amanda.mp3 (04-27-07 02:41 AM)
SEARCH BUTTON.x
Source: http://board.despairfaction.com/printthread.php?t=99161
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By analysing the times ascribed to each post here, we can see that only a few minutes elapsed between RabbitMoths initial message and amanda.mp3s reply. While two minutes is a very brief gap for a BBS, on IRC (and indeed, a spoken conversation) it would appear particularly large.
The non-standard grammar and spelling abundant on IRC is often attributed to the speed of conversation and the need to reply quickly to avoid losing power, and indeed, being left behind by the rapidly-moving flow of discussion. On BBS, then, it is harder to explain the spelling and grammar choices made by RabbitMoth, given the fact that he/she had comparatively unlimited time to compose and send the above messages. We can account for this using the nature of the internets looser standards in the fields of spelling and grammar. These rules are relaxed somewhat in favour of ease of communication, and users do seem to recognise that they would not communicate this way in offline written media. While a minority do exist who attempt to use CMC features like abbreviations and acronyms in examination scripts, it seems most CMC users are aware of the divide and know when to use the correct approach.
The first reply to this thread is by amanda.mp3, whose reply SEARCH BUTTON.x appears mystifying to the novice. Pragmatically, she is suggesting that RabbitMoth should have used the search function to find the answer to his/her question, since it has been covered at this particular BBS many times. The x at the end of the post may be mistaken for an affectionate kiss, but in fact this is present for a more technical reason. The software used on this BBS converts posts made wholly in capital letters into lowercase. When a user wishes to get around this limitation, a trend has developed in which the user includes a lowercase x at the end of their post in order to defeat the software. This kind of ingenuity demonstrates the flexible nature of CMC users and their adaptation to different environments. Likewise, the brevity and pseudo-aggressiveness of amanda.mp3s message is unlikely to be found anywhere else beyond CMC.