I was going to node this under TLA until I dug around a bit and found this term 'netism', which is better. I think the difference between a good and a bad netism, and likewise with an emoticon, is that a good one should add and qualify content without having to be understood to get the basic idea. For example, if you see
- QLPZ the Cray 4 Electronoggin is a crock of poo \;*=
you should be able to read this, and get the
gist of the other person's idea, by reading it without the unknown
gubbins, viz
- The Cray 4 Electronoggin is a crock of poo
Most of the familiar netisms don't seriously
subvert the essence, they just impart some
hesitation or note of
hearsay or mental distancing. You can do this with
- IMHO the Cray 4 Electronoggin is a crock of poo ;-)
- FWIW the Cray 4 Electronoggin is a crock of poo :-(
- IIRC the Cray 4 Electronoggin is a crock of poo 8)
- AFAIK the Cray 4 Electronoggin is a crock of poo :-p
To ensure your netism are
transparent like that seems to me a nice piece of
netiquette, and absolves you of using
jargon. (In contrast, I particularly dislike the incomprehensible
YMMV.)