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17 July 2009
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Help! What does all this chat jargon mean? Print this article

Chat room users often type in abbreviations, slang and emoticons to save time and express themselves better.

It's critical to know what they mean or you could end up getting very confused.

For example, if you didn't know 'BRB' meant 'be right back' you might think everyone had stopped talking to you mid-chat!

Some of the most common ones used on the BBCi chat rooms include:


Abbreviations

Abbreviation What it means
A/S/L age?/sex?/location?
B4 before
BRB be right back
CYA L8R see you later
IMO in my opinion
IMHO in my humble opinion
LOL laughing out loud
ROTFL rolling on the floor laughing
TY thank you
U You
WB welcome back


Slang

A lot of slang is also used in chat rooms which can be a little confusing if you don't understand it. For example a newbie is someone who is new to the internet.

Slang What it means
troll people who visit chat rooms for the sole purpose of annoying other chatters
mods moderators - people who check the chat rooms for bad behaviour, and kick offenders out
spam duplicate or off-topic messages posted time after time, in order to disrupt a chat room
flaming being nasty to other chat room users in order to start an argument
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