Avocation
What is 1337, where did it originate, and how useful is it? The 1337 alphabet is nothing more than creating words and sentences with the use of American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) in a way that is different from its correct usage. One theory of leet’s origins states that, leet/1337 was originally used for conversations on boards. They would be used to converse about topics that were not allowed on the host sites Bulletin board system (BBS). But the whole Leet system is mostly used to make fun of other people. The people who are made fun of are mostly people who are new to the community, forum, board, thread, or game. So the original use for leet was much more useful then it is today.
If I were to write the first two sentences in leet they would look something like this:
“Wh@+ 15 1337, WhErE D1d 1T or1g1N4+3, @nD H0W u53fUL 15 IT? +Eh 1337 aLpH48et I$ N0TH1NG m0R3 +h4N Cr3A+1N9 wOrd5 anD 5enT3NCe$ W1Th +H3 u5e oF 4M3RIc@N st4nD@Rd c0De PHoR INpH0RM4TI0N 1NTeRcH4n93 (45ci1) 1N @ W4Y Th4+ 1$ DiFPher3NT fR0m 1+5 CORReCt u$4gE.” So how long did it take you read that, or could you not read it at all? The main problem with leet is this: it usually takes longer to write and it definitely takes more time to read. So why would someone take the time to write out sentences like? The only reason for using leet is for its original terrorized purpose, to be used in boards, threads, or community’s as a way to talk about topics that are not allowed by the administrator.
There are many ways to write in leet, it all really depends on the person typing/writing. the main reason for this is that there are many different ways to type in leet, an example of one way would be like this, “1 I$ 5p34K1Ng iN l33+” another way to say this in leet would look like this “1 I5 5pe@kI|\|G 1|\| LeEt”. Each letter has more than one way to be written in leet. The letter N, for example, has more than 14 ways to be written. |\|, ^/, //\\//, /\/, [\], <\>, {\}, []\, // [], /V, ₪, []\[], ]\[, and ~ are some of the ways you can type out the letter N in leet.
Leet users have also created their own suffixes. These include –xor, -age, -zorz, and sometimes the word “and”, or any word containing the word “and”, is replaced with and ampersand (&),“B&/band” this is an example of “&” being used instead of “and”. An example of -xor would be or “Hackxor” the suffix xor is the same as the suffix -er in the English language. The suffix –age is used to change any verb into a noun “ownage”. –zorz, is the final suffix of the leet writing system is strictly only supposed to be used with words that have been generated on the internet, the suffix is used to make a word plural, it can also be used to strengthen the words meaning.
Other ways people use leet is also influenced by bad grammar due to poor translations. One example would be the term “All your base are belong to us” is a good example of bad translations. The term was mocked and made fun of all over the internet, and so using bad grammar like the phrase became a joke or phenomenon, and people would purposely use bad grammar as a way to create humor. But not only is bad grammar used but bad spelling is often used as a way of enjoyment for the person typing. The main focus of spelling a word incorrectly is to spell out the word in a way that would be incorrect but if said would be the same word. The best example for this would be “teh” being used instead of “the”.
The original use for leet was much more useful then the way it is used today. When leet is used on the internet it only causes confusion. Using leet doesn’t make the writer cool or better, all it really does is segregate people. Not everyone uses leet and if you try to use it, you just might have to explain what you meant to say, or you might just be ignored.
