Friday, March 30, 2012

Case Study: Internet Forum


We will now use Internet forum as an example for electronic communication.

What is an Internet forum?


It is an online discussion platform in which the conversation is carried out by posting messages. The topics for discussion vary from computer, fashion, investment, current affairs, sports, family, to travelling. In some forums, users share online resources like songs, pictures and video clips.

Internet Jargons

As such form of electronic communication functions just like a network society, the users have created a set of Internet jargons for the convenience of communication.

Action jargons
These jargons are used to describe the actions confined to the context of online discussion forums.

潛水 (tsim4 seui2)
Literal meaning: ‘to dive’
Actual meaning: means to disappear for a long time after making appearance
Derivative:
浮上 (fau4 seung5)
Literal meaning: to rise up to water surface
Actual meaning: to reappear after a long time of disappearance

洗版 (sai2 baan2)
Literal meaning: to wash the board
Actual meaning: to post meaningless and off-topic replies to flood the discussion board
Variant: Mainland China > 刷屏 (shua1 ping2)

Function jargons
These jargons contain little or no contents in themselves but are used to reply to a post in order to achieve a certain aim.

(teui1)
Literal meaning: to push
Actual meaning: to reply to an old post so that it will reach the first page of the forum
Variants: Push

+1
Literal meaning: plus one
Actual meaning: to agree to the message posted in the previous thread
Variants: x 1 (times one)

CC
Literal meaning: homophone of ‘see see’
Actual meaning: to see the hidden post which requires a reply message containing at least one character
Variants: CCCCCCCCCCCCCC (hidden post which requires more than one character to see)


Martian language

Chinese character combining 多(do1) and 謝(dze6), meaning 'Thank you'
Martian language, as opposed to 'Earth language', is the Internet language that is created in the cyberspace based on Chinese characters. It could be difficult to understand to first-time users. Due to the Internet censorship, some vulgar or sensitive words are written in Martian language to avoid the banning of posts by the forum administrators.
 
Mandarin-accented Cantonese

靚 (leng3) > 令(ling6)
meaning: beautiful, fancy-looking

好(hou2) > 巧(haau2)
meaning: very

Form-altering Chinese characters
肥(fei4) > 月巴 (yuet6baa1)
meaning: fat

賤(dzin6) > 貝戈戈(bui3gwo1gwo1)
meaning: nasty, despicable

Half- and Full- sized characters and symbols
HELLO!?  > HELLO!?

Cantonese Romanization
你做咩唔打電話比我?(nei2dzou6me1ng4daa2din6waa2bei2ngo5)
> nei dzo meh ng da din wa bei ngo?
meaning: Why didn't you call me?

Meaningless symbols
★,,** ;;; ...++   "miki豬bb >﹏<」╳×*  (豬 = literally pig, here means dear)
 ▄▉▋▎▊暗戀=痛苦?[▎____* (暗戀, 痛苦 = unrequited love, pain )

Image:
http://clrvirtualconnection.com/unusual-places-to-find-clients-online-forums-and-mailing-lists/
http://evchk.wikia.com/wiki/%E5%90%88%E9%AB%94%E5%AD%97


Reference:
http://www.videojug.com/interview/internet-communities-and-forums-2#what-is-an-internet-forum

http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/207496?tid=1 

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