AW-tiquette, part TWO : Abbreviations and Accessories.

Abbreviations
Abbreviations are primarily used to speed up things. After a while, however abbreviations start to live a life of their own. A "LOL" has another meaning than "hahahaha". LOL (laughing out loud for those who still wonder) is context sensitive. It gets his meaning from what has been said or is going to be. It's also an indication of appreciation (and it suggests you understood the joke) if you lol @ somebody : lol@Simon.
When you really hilarious there's all the variations based ROTFL (rolling on te floor laughing). The degree of hilarity can be expressed by using additions : i.e. ..... MAO (my a.. off).

Names of citizens are abbreviated very oftenly. That started as a way to save keyboards but now it has a deeper meaning too. If you abbreviate someones name "correctly" it indicates a certain familiarity, cosiness and affection for this person. You got to watch out however, not to loose the citizens uniqueness by abbreviations. If you use "Black" to address  i.e. "BlackBird", "BlackHawk", BlackQueen", "BlackBurn", "BlackCrow", "Black Rose", "Men in Black" and "BBQ by Gramps", you could create a lot of misunderstandings. 

Names can be deformed to express affection : "Hi Simon" versus "Hi Simonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn". The latter is like you were tasting the name.... mmmhhhh. 

Be Right Back : try to add the reasons why you'll be right back (i.e. fb : for beer, btkjci : because the kids just came in, aiatconawmhbiwtkmkbc : after i answered the call of nature and washed my hands because i want to keep my keyboard clean). Ten your conversation partners don't have to wonder if their avatar smells offensive or something. Needless to say that the same remark could be given for AFK, BBL etc....

Always say "back" when you are. First of all, you don't wanna be a lurker and it's always fine to read the wb's. And try always to say wb (welcome back) if somebody is.

Again, use this creatively and combine it with some of the formulas of last weeks courtesy article.

Accessories

:), :-), 8-), 8oD, :-b, >:-(, }:-} or  ) :o .  All of these and many more can be used to add to your text. Familiarise yourself with the different emotions that are normally attached to braces, brackets and colons. And use them to express emotion. 
Wanna "punch" somebody? :o(G=. Not on the facial side but equally loaded with emotion and very context sensitive : (_|_). 

Never had the feeling you wanted to give someone a little present in AW? Well go ahead : @-)-- or offer someone a drink : C|_| (coffee mug), a cigarette : ~~~\\\===== (take care with cigars!). Some cits even "offer" fish : <o/////>< . Oh, the list is long...... endless even, because think what you can do with the special characters that are residing under key-combinations of ALT + ..... etc...

Textual accessories : *pant* *pout* *sigh* *giggles* need no explanation.
*G*, *EG* and *VBG* are variations on the theme of grinning, with a little friendly threat added.
*plop* : opening a bottle of champagne, *ploploploploploploploploploploploploploploploplop* you're probably working at this party opening all the bottles of champage.

These accessories and the correct use of it make it possible to open up to your conversation partners. Whatever the emotion is, it's only good taste to clarify as much as possible what your saying or just clarify how you feel. Again, if you don't, you don't.
 
 

 Next week : announcing a poof.