A Call to End the Use of “Lol”

I thought "lvml" sounded like a markup language, but it turns out that emotionml already exists and should fit our needs. http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/emotion/XGR-emotionml-20081...

Therefore, to fight back against the vagueness and possible misinterpretation of Internet slang, I propose that in the future "lol" be replaced by something like the following:

  <emotionml xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2008/11/emotionml">
    <emotion>
      <modality mode="face"/>
      <category set="everydayEmotions" name="amusement" confidence="0.8"/>
      <link role="experiencedBy" uri="file:john.vcard"/>
      <link role="expressedBy" uri="file:johnsParty.avi" start="10s" end="15s"/>
      <link role="triggeredBy" uri="file:guestList.xml#numberOfGuests"/>
    </emotion>
  </emotionml>

There is actually no other word in literary language that conveys the full meanings of lol. It is here to stay!

lolz, if anything "lol" is gaining traction among the internet generation. I work with a bunch of geeks my age or younger, and several of them actually say "lol" irl when they think something is funny, usually accompanied by actual laughter.

Even better than this article is the author's call in the comments to stop using "fag" and "faggot" and replace it with "sag" and "saget"; references to the Full House character.

"You're such a saget"

I could get used to that.

I have spent way too much time in ironic internet communities and "lol" is still popular. Tone is mainly an issue of character development. The cool people will understand when you are being ironic based on knowing who you are. This is only possible in actual communities with a limited number of regulars where people pay attention to usernames, avatars, and individual posting styles. In places like Reddit or HN where you are effectively just another anonymous poster, that character development is sort of impossible, restricting your communication options to something generic and official. If there was any interest in changing this, allowing us to add an icon next to our posts would dramatically increase user recognizability on HN.

On the SomethingAwful forums, only the lame (but very popular) boards such as "General Bullshit" require that you type with proper capitalization and punctuation, and will actually punish you if you use "lol". The relaxed and more communal boards typically type in all lowercase and acronyms are common. Yes there's a hint of irony in even using the acronyms but they are still not going anywhere.

Back in '95 when my wife and I were dating, we didn't have a lol. Most of the campus was vt220s hooked up to a VAX, local chat was done with a DCL command called 'phone'. To simulate laughter we would mash random characters from the home keys. The longer the string, and the farther out from the home keys, the harder the laugh.

I don't know, I still think it's a more expressive way to laugh in a terminal.

You do not, and you ABSOLUTELY DO NOT question tradition. Today it's 'lol', tomorrow you'll want to end christmas.

Am I the only one who finds LVML weird ?

I lol'ed when it was still cool.

lol

tl;dr: lol -> lvml

lvml

roflmao

At first I was like huh? But then I LoL'd!