Redeem your 
Dear Ms. Netiquette,
I am a Pogo Club member and have been for quite some time. I have something to say pertaining to a subject about which some hold their noses up in the air.
I have dealt with some interesting characters and interesting situations. Some good, some bad, some exciting, some terrifying. I have laughed my heart off, cried with such sorrow, played games for fun and played games for badges. Pogo is an amazing community with an amazing way to share in fellowship with each other. A portal with which we can exist in a blind or a deaf person’s world, still socializing with real people no matter the computer screens or amount of mileage that separate us.
I am a writer and an artist. I also have physical disabilities I was born with. This makes me slow in my typing sometimes. I sometimes get people mad at me for being too slow or for thinking I am ignoring them when in fact I was typing and they were not wanting to wait. I took it upon myself years ago to learn Internet Lingo so my typing could be faster and thus turn what could have been a sour situation into a happy one. I find that typing ‘ty’ in place of thank you, ‘hagd’ in place of have a good day, ‘gb sds n tccic’ in place of goodbye, sweet dreams and take care cause I care and many more acronyms show I got their message, care that they took the time to write to me and am responding to them is much easier on the feelings.
I try to pay attention to the person conversing with me. Are they using actual American English in their chat? Do they type as though English is not their first language? Do they have a problem with spelling? Do they not know which words to use? Do they use Internet Lingo? I use that to determine how I chat with them. I use Internet Lingo in the departing text because I know I am slow sometimes at typing.
Some people also may be familiar with shorthand because of their jobs. I read in your previous postings by others that people think teens type with acronyms and I even read that one said she won’t talk to anyone who uses this method of typing. When I was in school, one mandatory class to take was shorthand. People may not want to embrace this chat, but it’s very much on the rise. What about Americans whose lack of education or whose ethnic roots had them living elsewhere before the USA? What about senior citizens who are starting to forget how to talk or write? What about people who aren’t American but would like to converse with us and the Internet Lingo is familiar to them?
Do I use Internet Lingo in my writings and artwork? No. I use it in a public chat room where people might not be so kind toward those handicapped. It is for reasons like this that those of us who use Pogo to have fun keep quiet about our handicaps and only tell those who are kind towards handicaps and those who have handicaps.
If these people want to close off their hearts from making new friendships all because of typing they don’t approve of – which is bizarre because typos also fall under the same category but I didn’t hear them rant about that – then they should not point the finger at others but instead themselves for judging someone.
Like you also said, some also use acronyms because the game is so time-paced, the people playing the game can’t afford to type out whole phrases. And to who said it takes the same amount of time to type ‘thank you’ as it does ‘ty’ needs to look again. TY and thank you don’t even have the same amount of letters. There’s no way it can take the same time.
I hope people will use this as an eye-opener to not discriminate against typewritten formats. I hardly chat in main chat rooms save one or two for the reason of I get hurt by people for my slow typing and I would just as soon not deal with that anymore.
Thank you for your time in reading and sharing, Ms Netiquette. I greatly appreciate it.
Blossoming Beauty
| Dear Blossoming Beauty,
Thank you so much for your reminder. It’s true, we don’t know what any player’s situation is behind the monitor, and by acting impatient we may be hurting the feelings of someone with a medical condition that prevents them from typing quickly. Unfortunately, it does fall upon the person with the disability to either communicate that fact and ask for a little leeway, or to accept the fact that on occasion people may not act with kindness. And most people who know about another’s condition will actually go out of their way to be supportive. On occasion, you’ll run into a ne’er-do-well who takes any opportunity to be cruel. Those people, we are wise to remember, must live with themselves and their cruelty, so admonishing them rarely works. The punishment they inflict upon themselves by behaving so unkindly is greater than any punishment we could dish out. You might consider posting your condition in your Pogo Profile so that others, when looking, will see what to expect when chatting with you. Furthermore, you might look for some of the “Slow Typers” rooms we have in many of our games. |
Dear Ms. Netiquette,
I have heard in several rooms that Pogo is shutting down in April for good. I am just wondering if this is just a rumor or an actual fact. I know that the jackpot prizes have been removed and wondered why about that also.
I enjoy Pogo and I am handicapped so it gives me some pleasure playing the games. Please tell me Pogo is not going to shut down.
Is it True?
| Dear Is it True?,
Pogo will not be shutting down in April, as is being reported by the rumor mill. We did change our prize system so that more players win smaller prizes. You were right to be wary of what you hear people talking about in the chat rooms. If we have any sort of major announcement, you’ll see it in the Pogo News. |
Dear Ms. Netiquette,
I was wondering why some player’s set their profiles to private? Is it because they are children and their information is blocked? I usually only come across this when I’m looking up a profile because this person seems just a little bit strange and i want to see what’s in their profile – but it comes up private. I asked this question in Kenopop tonight and the person with the private profile left immediately.
I’m just curious why someone would have a private profile.
Thank you,
Why So Private?
| Dear Why So Private,
There are quite a few reasons why someone may choose to keep their profile private. And all of them are legitimate. Here are a few possibilities: the player in question is a very private person; the player allows only those on his friends list access to his profile, the player has been dealing with ne’er-do-wells and is doing his best not to be found; and the list goes on. I know some people take it personally when they see that a profile is blocked. You shouldn’t. Players on Pogo are given many controls over their information, including the ability to change how public they want to make their profile. |
