Ok, so I play games on the internet. Lots of games. Playsite, prizegames.com, popcap, etc. The thing that drives me nuts more than anything (and bad grammar on the web being so rampant does drive me nuts too) is when you go into a game room and someone will say “hi! a/s/l”. If you want to know about me, then talk to me! Ask me real questions in real words and at least make some sort of attempt at conversation (if you don’t want to talk that’s fine, don’t talk). When someone says a/s/l to me I feel like they’re just trying to pick me up or something. So maybe they’re not, but firstoff, why does it matter what gender you are for those games? Is it mostly men or women who do this, or is it mixed? Why do people say this instead of having a real conversation? Sure, it saves time, but you’re going to be in the game for a while anyway, and whenever they do that and I’m feeling particularly generous and answer my location or my age, then that’s the end of the conversation. Most of the time I just ignore it and wait for them to write it out in words if they really want to know.
It’s mostly males who do it, and I’d bet a lot of them troll the online-games areas looking for fresh meat. If your screen name doesn’t make it obvious that you’re male, then you’ll get a message just like that …
Lots of women do it. Trust me on this. (Maybe not so much in online games, since those are probably more likely to attract men, but in general purpose chatrooms I’ve found that women are at least as likely as men to do the a/s/l thing, or to bluntly ask for cyber.)
If I’m in chat, I’ll sometimes ask a/s/l, and I freely give it (20/gm/Montreal) . It’s just a way of breaking the ice and figuring out whom you’re playing with. If you don’t want to give out your asl, don’t answer.
Oh wait, nevermind. There was this one time back a few months ago, where some girl 'a/s/l’ed me when I was on #straightdope. It was weird. She said she was from the town I’m in, and wanted to talk.
She ended up publicly threatening me on #straightdope, and someone banned her (I would if I knew how :smack: ). Thus, she proceeded to pile it up on me, thinking I could pull some strings to un-ban her.
Feh, yeah right.
Tripler
That’ll teach you. I am higher than the ‘Shirt’.
I usually say something like 57/male/Denver or something else complete false. That usually drives 'em away since they’re usually teenybopper types looking for girls.
I know a lot of people do it to break the ice, but like lolababy, if they say that then they just come across as teenage or chick-cruising. I usually just ignore it, but it still bugs the hell out of me. I’ll more than happily talk to them if they talk to me normally.
Yeah, I mean if you’re talking to someone on the Internet, their age, sex and location is really important. Because I won’t chat online to old people or Americans, and I’m scared of girls. We need something genuinely useful to initiate conversations like b/w/n (boring? whiny? opinion on the innate evil of Nickelback and Chad Kroeger?)
