I just got an e-mail from my friend’s teenaged daughter. She uses some of that crazy internet short hand that I’m not hip enough to understand.
What does “<3” mean?
She uses it to say goodbye. 
I believe it’s meant to show a valentine’s style heart sideways… in smiley fashion. connect the edges of the less than sign to the top and bottom of the 3 in your head and you should see it.
What you do about it, on the other hand… 
Thank god! I almost thought she was mooning me! :eek:
Yes, valentine hearts are very much her style. This would make sense.
It’s too bad more people aren’t using Unicode. 
FYI, that heart shows up for me quite well on the board, but in the thread subscription mailer I got at yahoo mail, it shows up as three different symbols one after each other:
- a lowercase letter ‘a’ with a caret accent on it.
- a superscripted ‘tm’ (presumably for trademarks)
- A capital ‘Y’ with some bars across it, possibly the Yen symbol
you know i always thought that thing was a clown hat or a slice of pizza.
probably could have gotten laid if I would have known the truth 3 monthes ago.
(Y)
Uh, um, thanks, Jenaroph. I think.
Damn, that’s a flat ass.
That <3 thing confused the hell out of me the first time I saw it. I was talking to my girlfriend via AIM, and as we were finishing up…
Her: I love you! <3
Me: ???
Her: What?
Me: You love me less than three?
Her: Huh? It’s a heart.
Me: Oh. Well, still. I love you >3. So I win.
…she was not amused.
I think we can only go so far with this, we can <3 and (Y) all we want, but uh add some o 's to the the moon and I think we get a little uh… non PG rated.
Didn’t someone claim that was the origin of the ‘heart’ shape? I can’t remember if there was any truth in it though.
Logical: If somebody <3’s you, that person’s feelings ™ can be decribed à la having a yen for you!
Awww. Sweet and geeky, all at the same time! How could she not have been amused? Why don’t you send her a rose:
@-----
Amateur. Back in my IRC days, roses were more like @>}—--,------. I was also known to give out daffodils, carnations, tulips, bachelor’s buttons, and a variety of others, but then, I was a bit more enthusiastic than most at ASCII gardening. 