What are your favorite and least favorite abbreviations?

Abbreviations strike me as rather bad manners. It is insulting to me if you can't be bothered to say what you mean in proper English. Even if I understand the abbreviation, it is rare that it adds any value in the context. I will not squander my time trying to decipher someone else's rudeness. The rudeness alone tells me all I need to know.

When people use abbreviations (other than between close friends who share them), it tells me that the writer is disrespectful of their reader, has poorly developed social awareness and may not be the brightest person on earth. That would affect their perceived suitability for employment and, on Yahoo Answers, my willingness to consider answering their question.

Good manners are so easy yet so important. It would be a great shame if the 'couldn't care less' or 'what we can get away with' attitudes were to prevail.

Let's face it, abbreviations used in texting are almost a necessity. You don't have a lot of characters to work with, and really, it isn't much different than the speed-writing that was always advertised in the magazines we grew up with. For forums like these, I like to use proper English, except for very specific and well-known abbreviations, like LOL or IMHO (in my humble opinion). When reading the comments sections of my favorite websites, I sometimes don't know the abbreviations people use and have to google them. There are many websites that explain them well.

Favorite: salts (Smiled a little then stopped)

Least Favorite: YOLO (You only live once and you should kill yourself)

1. I think they are the same for everyone, though the salts one is more of a recent joke.

2. I have higher respect for people who don't use 'netspeak'

3. This isn't a question. How do I give you references for made up abbreviations?

4. If it's a particularly odd one, or a long one, I'll go the extra mile. Otherwise I make up my own for them.

I don't text very much, but when I do I type out the whole word. I don't like abbreviations and I don't like when people abbreviate words when speaking either. I think Australians are very guilty of abbreviating words.

I think it all start with the young when cell first came out parents hit the ceiling and blew their stacks with phone bills beyond crazy so the kids invented a kind of short hand to keep the bills down. I have a cell phone, but barely know how to use it as is. I don't use text on it.Ido use LOL OR ETC on here., but that is about it.I prefer just good old English and even that is hard for me

I'm not keen on abbreviations at all and use them only if I'm running out of characters.

My friend insists that lol means lots of love whilst my daughter says it means laughing out loud, so if there are others with dual meanings there might be some very confusing messages going around.

I don't like any abbreviations really and I don't text but I like using {etc} a lot!

I don't tend to use abbreviations too much Dede as like you I don't know what half of them mean. If that makes us 'old school' then so be it.

This isn't really what you are referring to but my most hated abbreviation is 'ect' used instead of 'etc' for etcetera.

Never use them!...