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Leet appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on June 17, 2004.

Archives
August 2002 — September 2005

I removed the right box from the article. It is a hoax. SYSS Mouse 02:42, 26 July 2005 (UTC) error: ISO 639 code is required (help)[reply]

Should ISO 639-2 designation in the language box on the version of the article page really be "art" as it is now? An artificial language is one "whose phonology, grammar and vocabulary are specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages." l33t started off as a way to avoid text filters, and evolved into its current form over time as a part of Internet Culture, and is still evolving. As such, it should be a natural language. Specifically a primarily written dialect of English, similiar in relationship to Ebonics (although not genetically related.) Or perhaps an encoding of the English language, but alone it is certainly not any form of standard English. Perhaps someone with a greater knowledge of linguistics can better classify it?

It should also be noted that I do pronounce some of the new forms introduced through l33t speak along with some AOL speak when speaking with someone who'll know what I'm talking about. So, l33t is not completely written despite what the article may say. Particularly, I can use -x0rz [zowrz] and -4g3 [æʤ] or [əʤ] as a productive affixes in certain contexts. Examples of things I can sometimes be heard saying: h4x0rz [hækzowrz], pwn3d [pʰːownd], lol [lowl], brb [biːɑrːbiː], keke as a series of velar affricates I don't know how to transcribe, etc. With the exception of new forms unique to l33t, in my experience l33t is usually pronounced the same as the original English it encodes. --j0no 18:47, 18 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The letter translations jumped the shark

I'm not sure if the above comment is referring to what I'm referring to, but the I find the "Kusachu" table not very visually comprehensible (some columns are randomly squished). Perhaps a <dl>-style list would be better? Decklin 13:35, 8 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Make sure you are using the default text size on your browser. It looks fine to me on both IE and Firefox. Changing the text size (which can easily be done accidentally) can screw with the appearance and layout of highly formatted pages such as W--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 02:45, 19 December 2005 (UTC)ikipedia.[reply]

ähm?, is the & really above the 7 in american keyboards? i didn'T knw that, till yet. THX LOL

Yup it is. the ^ is above the 6

Someone took the time to convert the entire article into Leet. Here 's a link http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leet&oldid=21226208 to that revision. Lisiate 02:33, 18 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I'm sure they just used an automatic translator. God damn vandals. --cheese-cube 09:32, 18 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've played through the game and asked on the forums and no one recalls that happening. Can anyone confirm the validity of this? --Phoenix Hacker 06:55, September 11, 2005 (UTC)

I notice there is a sentence "Brian Bell is gay" contained within the article. Is this some sort of an in-joke or graffiti?

The section greeklish doesnt belong in that article. It came about as a means to be able to comunicate in Greek since most electronic devices have a poor support for the Greek language. Almost all Greek speakers who use technology (most people) have had this problem and therefore especially in the early days of the net needed to invent a way to communicate. Presumably the only similarity except from the fact that it is a transliteration is it´s use of numbers for characters that doesn exist in the "correct" Greeklish, for example the use of 8 in place of "theta" (θήτα) or the use of 3 in place of "xi" (x pronounced like the x in exodus, Ξί in Greek). It is not a way to create an elite, and it came about presumably by some form of trade war on protocols and standards of the kind that occured at the time that DVDs and CDROMs were to be standardised, hence the Greek codepage can be either ISO-8859-7 or "wingreek"(win-1253) or MacGreek (don´t ask). There was an effort to standardise with Unicode but this seems to be ignored by most software makers even nowdays.

--Vousmanos 08:10, 5 October 2005 (UTC) "Common sense is what makes you think that the world is flat"[reply]

An anon IP (User:65.33.207.254) contributed this (now first) chapter of Leet. I fail to see any relevance (read: 1337|\|355) of this Doomish fact for the article. Anyone else agrees that "First Usage of Leetspeak" should be made an e><ample of and promptly o|3137eo|? --Misza13 ^(Talk) 19:04, 8 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• Deleted

Noobishness

I've reverted quite a bit, (be bold) First was for the most recent edit abotu the math. That was unimportant, irrelevant, and unhelpful. Leet can also be used to make fun of his mom, but we don't add that in here.

Also, I've reverted a bunch of additions to the noob section. (which actually reverts over a vandalism revert). First I think that these kinds of remarks belong in the article for noob. Only but the most basic comments regarding noobishness belong here. Second, it didn't seem very accurate (original research only?). As far as I can tell:

• noober is used either to rhyme with uber, or with an -er modifier for noob.
• nubian is possibly real, but given the edit history of this user on this article, I've decided to blanket revert for safety. It could very well, just be used to describe the things noobs do, not referencing the noobs themselves.
• nubnuts 0 google hits (I was expecting at least something)
• noobnuts appears to be a username on several forums. The first google hit might be something, but seems very much a neologism.

So if you've any questions about any of this, feel free to contact me, but I (for the moment) stand my ground). McKay 03:02, 10 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Frequent misspellings

This list is long, redundant, and hard to verify. Can we just list the extremely common ones (e.g. teh, pwn), and say that adjacent letters are commonly transposed for effect (like->liek, lame->laem)? With a constantly evolving language like leet where the emphasis is on generalization, it seems silly to list frequent misspellings, since any word can be turned into leet by deliberate misspelling. e.g. any person familiar with leet would know waht I maent if I wroet thsi, but it doesnt maen we haev to list "waht", "maent", "wroet", "thsi", "maen", and "haev". Kjl 18:44, 11 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

• I've done this and more McKay 07:30, 12 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Stuff changed today

Paragraph on misspellings in Overview removed words without value:

• fuxored (self explanatory)
• l@@k (self explanatory)
• l4m3 (self explanatory), l3m (not notable, doesn't even appear in UrbanDict, most related hits are WikiPedia),
• rape (self explanatory, not L33t)
• üb3rly 1337 (duplicate)
• r0x0r, suxx0r (already a -x0r section)

removed comment on w00t. Discussion on the word should go there. edited the "jaja" stuff. Batman Begins -> Batman Begins (video game)

As soon as the early 90's, word formations involving substitutions of "8" for "ate" (such as l8r, gr8, and so forth) were already part of BBS message boards; thus, such words should not be considered a part of "AOL/IM speak", as they are not an invention of the AOL community. It has been thus edited.

• I'll vouch for having seen "l8r" as early as the mid 1980s on Commodore BBSes Murple 20:28, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have not read the article very thoroughly, but I haven't seen mentioned that these days almost everyone uses 1337 for its comedic value (well, except those annoying 12-year-olds in multiplayer games). I think that the majority (myself included) uses it to annoy and joke about than for any of the reasons in the article. Poromenos 00:23, 16 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

'/34/-/, !7 |2311'/ (4/\/ |33 /-/!14|2!0|_|5. Feel free to add stuff. Matt Yeager 05:07, 16 October 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I added "The term "r0x0r j00r b0x0r" itself probably relates to hacking itself, with a person being able to gain access to and, from there, "rock their box". It is also possible that it is a derivation from ".

I'm pretty sure that "r0x0rz j00r s0x0rs" didn't come in until way after *"b0x0rz". But I left the other explanation because I don't think this can be proven.

-Fishdinner 10.21.05

Is there a way to fit in the fact that it's a scandanavian j? i.e. it's pronounced like y, as in j00r -> your.

Should this article mention the time on Jeopardy that a CMU student wagered $1337? --NeuronExMachina 02:17, 12 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Either redirect from 1337 or move to 1337 with a redirect in place. What do you think? Poorsod 11:39, 12 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

You know 1337 was a year, right? I think it takes precedence.--Alhutch 08:02, 29 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Plus, there's already a disambig in place at the top of the year 1337 page that leads people to this article if they want.--Alhutch 21:06, 30 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

some languages use number combined with special characters in addition to charachters to provide readable non-latin languages, for example, in arabic 9aba7 instead of the similar prounciation " sabah " or " ba6i7' " instead of the similar prounciation "batikh" which are the words صباح and بطيخ respectivily. it is usually used to represent sounds that dont map correctly to the sounds of english: 2(a') 3{A'a) 6(Tta) 6'(Th'a) 5(Kh'a) 9(Ssa) 9'(Dha) 3'(Gha') 7 (H-ha) $ (Sh'a) are examples, what article matches that? (Unattributed comment)

I suggest that you go ahead and add a section on Arabic under the heading "leet in other languages", next to the subsections on Japanese, Cyrillic and Greek practices. --Slashme 07:32, 13 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Recently the label of cryptography as a setting for 1337 was removed. I replaced it along with a comment instructing anyone wishing to change it to see this page first. The reason for that is that it does appear to qualify under the current definition, as layed out in Cryptography. Cryptography does not require any form of Encryption. It is simply a method of either authentication information, or limiting the number of people able to interpret the message. 1337 does just that.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 16:59, 16 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

You're missing something here. Leet is used for fun (mostly). Now imagine that someone starts writing lojbanic (for example) - also just for amusement. Under your interpretation this would also qualify as cryptography (not many people speak lojbanic), but is it really? I guess the actual question is whether Leet is a constructed language. I wouldn't say it is - in which case the cryptography-argument would be valid - some people think different though. --Misza13 ^(Talk) 18:51, 16 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Leet is used by spammers as a constructed language to fool spam filters (as per article) _→AzaToth 18:58, 16 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, thats what I'm going at with this. In this article, it states that leet was essentially direived from the English language for the purpose of bypassing filters and for being able to talk essentially in front of someone without them knowing what it means.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 19:21, 16 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've been thinking... if Leet is a constructed language, then why shouldn't we have a Leet Wikipedia? (1337 \/\/ | |< | P 3 |> | 4) After all, major websites like Google already have a leet translation. Uncyclopedia, a website inspired on Wikipedia, has articles on leet as well. What do you think? Who joins me? |-|4|1 j00! Ruela 01:26, 27 Dec 2005 (UTC)

It's not a spoken language. It's like latin--though many people can speak it, it's not used, for practical purposes. Second of all, there is no regulated spelling of leet words, so there wouldn't be an easy way to regulate it. In my opinion, a leet wikipedia would just be difficult to regulate and messy. authraw 04:29, 27 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Well, we *do* have a Latin wikipedia. However, Wikimedia is less accepting of constructed languages in general. It might link to a l33t-language Wikipedia if you hosted it independently. -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 04:41, 27 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, maybe it's not a good idea... but if anyone has any interest in a Leet Wikipedia, contact me. Like Tim said, it could be hosted independently (Wikicities already hosts a Tokipona Wikipedia, which was locked as a regular Wikipedia). There has been a request for a Pig Latin Wikicity, but it was denied because it should be at Conlang Wikipedia, so probably a Leet Wikipedia should apply there. Happy new year everyone! Ruela 14:44, 28 Dec 2005 (UTC)

The main point, I think, is that leet isn't a language at all. Not even a constructed one (like Esperanto, for which we do have a Wikiepedia) or a mainly written one (like Latin, for which we also have a Wikipedia). It's simply written English, with some fairly rule-based orthographic changes applied. Same goes for Pig Latin, and I suspect this, too, is why it was denied: It's not a language at all. We already have Wikipedias for the conlangs Esperanto and Klingon, so there's no precedent for denial on that basis alone. It's even less of an argument in this case (as well as Pig Latin, which seems to be good for comparison), since neither Leet nor Pig Latin are really constructed per se. EldKatt (Talk) 14:02, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect that another contributing source for the term 'elite' in this context will have come from the Elite series of computer games.

There is a wikipedia article covering the series here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Elite_%28computer_game%29

Elite is perhaps not as well known now but was one of the best selling and most highly respected games of the 8 bit home computer era.

The scoring system of Elite assigned the player a rank. The starting rank was 'harmless'. After the first couple of succesful kills, the player received a rating of 'mostly harmless' (HHGTTG refs). The final player rank was Elite.

It is quite common that a phrase can have more than one source. For example, the phrase 'saved by the bell' is a boxing expression but also has an earlier origin connected with the practice of burrying people with a bell. The bell was included so that a person who had been inadvertantly burried alive could signal for help.

Be careful of such folk-etymologies. Check this out

--Slashme 10:15, 29 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I recall seeing the term "elite" before seeing the game Elite. It was generally used to describe BBSes where you could download warez or talk about hacking and phreaking... or on general purpose BBSes, there would be hidden elite message boards. I seriously doubt the Elite games are the origin of the term. Murple 20:33, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What town has the zip code of 31337? Based on the numbering, it's somewhere on the East Coast. Have tech companies settled there to slowly grow it into "The Silicon Valley of the East" due to its ZIP Code's meaning? --Shultz 05:16, 5 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

According to US Postal Service: The ZIP Code you entered could not be found in our database. --Misza13 ^(Talk) 18:47, 15 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Isn't 'spelt' a British term? Seeing as the rest of this article is written using the American spellings of various words, shouldn't we be using 'spelled'? authraw 01:43, 7 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• spelt. No. Uncle G 21:27, 12 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

error: ISO 639 code is required (help) I removed the infobox becuase it's plainly silly to think of this as a language unto itself. I see it was removed once (see above) but was reinserted at some point without discussion. -- Netoholic @ 22:41, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(italics are message copied from talk pages)
Whoa, there. That's unilateral. Could you maybe try to gain consensus before acting like that? It's a significant change to the article. And you said "see talk", but left no comment. You can probably tell from the talk page therein that there are several people actively watching that page. Avriette 22:43, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First of all, don't use the word "unilateral" -- This is a wiki, get over it. Besides, I did post on the talk page, and the language box has been removed before. At some point, it was reinsered "unilaterally". -- Netoholic @ 22:44, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

By that logic I could blank the page, "unilaterally", and tell you to just "get over it." What harm was it doing to the page? For that matter, what information was it contributing which was not worthwhile to the article? Avriette 22:47, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Blanking a page is vandalism, making a good faith change to an article is not. What harm was it doing? When I saw it, I was immediately struck by a sense that Wikipedia was it was a joke. Discrediting Wikipedia is a bad thing to do for teh funny. Please follow-up on the talk page. -- Netoholic @ 22:50, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I disagree strongly with your removal. I don't think it harms anything by being there. I might change the 'nativename' parameter. However, I don't feel that it is a "joke," as you contest. Certainly the entire purpose of the dialect may be taken as a joke. As it has been in use for twenty years or more, evolving, I think it rather deserves to be recognized as such. I am initially inclined to point out Singlish and Hawaiian Pidgin -- neither of which use an infobox -- as examples of languages which do have recognition ("official" or otherwise) in the wikipedia. It seems to me that there is some bias against it on your part here. While you may feel that it appears to be a joke, I contend that it is precisely because of your lack of experience or immersion in the communities which use the dialect. Note also, within the article that several other languages have included elements of it, making this a polyglot as well. I take umbrage at your categorization of the article as a joke, and your actions to deprecate it here.

As for unilateral, consider the argument "I am right, and if you disagree with me, you are wrong." Your actions were indeed unilateral. As an example of constructive, healthy interaction on the wikipedia, I would point out nuclear bunker buster where the main people actually working on the article discussed merging it with another. The resultant modification was substantial, and thus it is courteous to attain a quorum.

These are presently trying times, where many people have unilaterally taken actions -- that is to say, have acted rashly without the input of other users -- and caused great tumult and rifts in the community. I encourage you to revert your change until some of the other authors of the article can discuss it. Now is not the time to be taking actions such as you have, and claim to support on your user page. Avriette 23:01, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Netoholic's Law: As a wiki discussion grows longer, the probability of an accusation by one user of another acting unilaterally approaches one. Look, I've made thousands of "unilateral" edits, so probably have you. It's a wiki. Get over it.

Stop talking about my action, and please describe any justification for having this the box. Leet is not a language, it is slang based on English, like Jive. I'm sure someone added it thinking it was teh funny, but Wikipedia's credibility is more important. -- Netoholic @ 23:16, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am aware of what your user page says. As I said above, I disagree with it. And, you acted to change the article in a way that could best be categorized as a style change, with reasoning that was shoddy. A justification for the infobox was provided. This is a dialect, and a polyglot, with well established acceptance in the internet community as a whole, as well as within at least three other languages. If you don't feel that is sufficient "justification," why don't you propose something that would be more appropriate for the article? Or do you disagree with the notion of it being a dialect or polyglot? Avriette 23:27, 14 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The description of this as a polyglot or dialect gives it far too much credit. It is slang. Even if it were dialect or polyglot, that infobox is not designed for, or used, on those articles. -- Netoholic @ 04:39, 15 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And you determine where templates are used? I disagree that "too much credit" is given. I think that polyglots and dialects should be given templates. However, I'm not going to unilaterally go through the encyclopedia finding all of them and adding an infobox. Please define what "sufficient justification" is. Also, please suggest something more appropriate so we can come to some agreement here. Note that I have not reverted the article, as I assume you edited in good faith. I am trying to reach an agreement here. Avriette 04:42, 15 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In short, Template:Language is for languages, not dialects. -- Netoholic @ 04:52, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Because there is such a difficulty to separate dialects and languages there was consensus to use the same infobox for both. _→AzaToth 19:18, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That is just not true, particularly for any dialects of the English language. -- Netoholic @ 20:28, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I was pointing on those that are difficult to define (for example Jamtska), leet is not a dialect of the english language. _→AzaToth 20:54, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Neither SIL nor Ethnologue have any documentation on leet. That's because it is not considered anything but a slang, like Cockney is. -- Netoholic @ 05:29, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition defines a language as "Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols." and "Such a system as used by a nation, people, or other distinct community; often contrasted with dialect."
Leet fits both the definition and its subset very well. Most other generically accepted dictionaries support this, as does the Wikipedia Language page. Leet fits these definitions very well. It may be a cryptographic language, and be used much as slang, but in and of itself it is a language.
Just because the powers and authorities that be do not choose to officially recognize it as such does not mean it isn't. They certainly haven't denied that it is one either I might add. I dont need someone of authority to officially recognize me as a human being to know that I am. I certainly fit the definition, and do not contradict it in any way, so I am definitely human.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 08:42, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On a side note, if constructed languages like Esperanto, Lojban, and even Klingon get their own status as a language, complete with box, why is the standard not the same here?--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 08:48, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia is not about what you or I think. It is about what can be verified. If two of the most recognized language bodies (SIL, Ethnologue) do not recognize leet as either a language, dialog, or a slang, that is what we must accept. Until someone, ANYONE, can cite prominent language authorities which give leet a language status, that infobox is inappropriate, inaccurate, and against policy. -- Netoholic @ 18:29, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Which policy would that be? Further, where would you propose finding an original source on the subject? Given it is a relatively new phenomenon, I'm not sure that there would be that many original sources on the subject. Additionally, as we are talking about a dialect/polyglot/pidgin/creole which is not actually spoken, the chance of finding somebody who happens to be a linguist, frequents "gamer" communities (or frequented BBS's, etc) and who gets a book published is slim. I could do a little looking to see if an original source is available. However, what you will find is confirmation from all over the place (the Microsoft link, above, should be valid for that purpose) that it is in use. Wide use.

I think also, the point above about it being used "only for comedic value" is somewhat correct, in conjunction with the later comment that it is "like latin" in that many people can speak it, but it is of rather esoteric value. So that having been said, I have the following answers to your request for sources:

• Finding a source to verify its status as a language/etc would be difficult due to the dynamic and young nature thereof.
• Finding a source would also be difficult because the dialect is not spoken, and as such, finding sources in systems which are spoken-language-derived would be difficult. (example: searching for Chinese text in the Library of Congress card catalogue)
• The verifiability of the dialect meeting the constraints required for a polyglot, pidgin, creole, dialect, or even perhaps language is easy to attain. The definitions are well understood.
• No attempt has been made to find somebody local to the wikipedia who can evaluate the status from an "expert" standpoint. I would suggest that there are people from UH Manoa and other UH branches who are editing the Hawaiian Pidgin article, and do claim to possess expert knowledge of the distinction between all the following terms:

• Dialect
• Creole
• Pidgin
• Slang
• Language
• Polyglot

• The same requirement, that other dialects "prove their worth" to you has not been extended to other articles which may have difficulty finding original sources (Greeklish, Singlish).
• No attempt has been made whatsoever to seek outside input on this article outside of the people who may be watching the article casually.
• The article has been through the FA process and as such was extensively reviewed by internal users, and did not receive a "factuality dispute" at the time.
• Having the infobox does not hurt the article, nor the encyclopedia.
• Having the infobox does hot hurt the infobox itself.
• Having the infobox does not hurt any users of the encyclopedia, including its readers.
• These sorts of dialects/etc tend to create a polarization between those who "speak" it and those who do not. The fact that people do not like it does not diminish its validity. A language is defined by its having speakers, not by the acceptance of the language.
• In addition to Greeklish, this dialect/etc may be one of the first dynamically changing, solely electronic media-transferred of its type. As such special consideration may need to be taken due to the ethereal nature thereof.
• WP:OWN
• WP:5P:4,5

Food for thought. Avriette 21:13, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

There are a lot of misconceptions above, so I'll be short. "I'm not sure that there would be that many original sources on the subject", "Finding a source would also be difficult" - thanks for agreeing with my point - per WP:V, we cannot state what can't be verified. "article has been through the FA process" - when the article became featured back in 2004, it made no assertion that Leet was a language and certainly did not include any infobox. The infobox hurts our credibility because any real language experts would look at it and immediately be struck by its inappropriateness. "WP:OWN", let's see, I don't think I've ever edited this article before. On the other hand, User:Azatoth was the one that added it just recently... and the one that's been edit warring over it's removal. I'm still waiting for anyone to WP:CITE a legitimate source that says this anything close to it's own "language". I think we need to grow up. -- Netoholic @ 21:46, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• Since the contents of the infobox match the content of the article itself, the alleged lack of verifiability is hardly an issue with the box. Its exact age of origin may be unknown, but l33t is obviously a conlang based on English, so at least parts of the infobox are correct. Radiant_>|< 22:02, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • Be careful with the word "obviously". A constructed language (conlang) is "is a language whose phonology, grammar and vocabulary are specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages". Nobody sat down and specifically devised Leet, so whatever it is, it isn't a conlang. It is just a slang that evolved over time. -- Netoholic @ 22:43, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
    • "Constructed languages are often divided into (...) a posteriori languages, where the grammar and vocabulary are derived from one or more natural languages." So whether or not it is a conlang is in fact debatable. I would have no objection to the article stating that some people consider it a conlang but others disagree. Radiant_>|< 23:04, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]
      • Find good, verifiable external sources which describe it as a constructed language. Put up, or shut up. -- Netoholic @ 23:41, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to me that leet is a cipher (though not a well-defined one) more than anything else. Definitely not a language. --Pagrashtak 23:10, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

• Interesting point. However, according to our article, "A cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure". And note that l33t has some linguistic (or pseudo-linguistic) grammatical constructs different from English. I think the main point is that it's hard to narrow down what exactly l33tspeak is (even if a language is "a system of symbols ... and the rules by which they are manipulated" which does seem to apply). Hence my earlier suggestion to state that some people consider it a language/conlang/cipher and others disagree. Radiant_>|< 23:21, 17 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, the "grammatical constructs" themselves are little more than a cipher applied at the word level. --Pagrashtak 01:14, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am entirely tired of the bickering going on here. Netoholic, you addressed very few points, and you have been ... less than accomodating to opposing viewpoints. I am going to try to rewrite the article to make it a little more general, and to reflect the culture a bit. For what it is worth, I feel that you are almost being ethnocentric here. You would be ethnocentric if there were some ethnicity herein. Lastly, telling anyone to "shut up" is childish and doesn't belong in this conversation. You could simply have linked off to WP:V and explained why. Instead, you're throwing a tantrum because you aren't getting your way. Please stop. I am on business travel this week, so I might not have time to get it done soon, but I'd like to ask others to refrain from drastically changing the article (that includes fiddling with the infobox or definitions in the article) until I have a stab at "fixing" it. I agree that it has gotten off track somewhat. I would hope that, with this olive branch extended, you come to your senses and attempt to cooperate. There's no place for polarization or derision here. Avriette 01:29, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

As someone who has bothered to earn a degree in linguistics, I'll put in my two cents: "constructed language" falls far wide of the mark. I would be very surprised if any reliable source refers to this as a constructed language. Constructed languages are planned and created deliberately and expressly. I tend to agree with Cecil Adams that it is on a par with Pig Latin—in other words, a language game (also referred to as speech disguise or secret language). --Tabor 02:42, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

So just to get right, the ones I listed are "constructed languages" do to the fact that their creation was created to achieve a specific goal? ((i.e. Esperanto created to be a universal second language, "Klingon" created to have an (arguably) more identifiable fictional race))--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 20:19, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The distinction, I think, is that constructed languages are devised and planned by a specific, identifiable individual or group with the express intent of creating a language. (The intended purpose of the language itself is irrelevant.) Constructed languages are not something that arise organically from a community or subculture in a diffuse way, as seems to be the case for something like "Leet".

I think the infobox itself tends to point out what a poor fit "Leet" is. The only field in the infobox that has an suitable entry is "Setting and usage". The rest seem to be about fitting a square peg into a round hole. --Tabor 20:25, 19 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Considering that leet is not immediately comprehendable or recognizable by native English-speakers, is unspeakable despite being fully formed in ink, has a level of complexity high enough to confound pretty much any and all translators both to and from the language, and requires immersion and practice before mastery of it can be observed, it can be safely said that leet is a fully seperate language from English. Seriously, if you think leet is not a language, which pages loses the box next? Klingon? - CorbinSimpson 07:41, 26 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, and I spaced on this, too. Keep in mind who first used leet. The first steps made in creating leet were by hackers on BBS systems who wanted sysadmins to not be able to filter their emails. Through a community process we know today as consensus, hackers slowly formulated standardized rules for leet, and certain standards were dropped. They didn't construct leet intentionally, but it just so happened that the easiest way to facilitate communication was to really branch off into a new language. Just because there's no official standards for leet does not make it less of a language. Leet today has dialects. You might not notice it unless you visit a lot of different places, but for me, I have to understand leet on StarCraft when I'm playing with crazy Koreans (they don't speak English, I don't speak Korean, we talk to each other in leet); I have to understand a different, toned-down kind of leet when I'm on Counter-Strike playing with 12-year-old maphacking kiddies. I can say with experience that leet is a language. If it's not constructed, then use your linguistics degree and tell me what kind of language it is. - CorbinSimpson 07:51, 26 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

And yet one more point I get to make, because for some reason discussion on this thread seems to have stopped. Leet cannot possibly be a cipher because there are no deterministic patterns; that is, a translation from English (or any other language) into leet is not one-to-one. For example, "I won this round, hahaha." could be "ha! C7z pwn 7322021575! w00t!" on Counter-Strike, or "omg, i pwned joo w/rush keke" on Starcraft (that example would probably be US East; US West tends to have heavy character obfuscation). Also, translations back are not one-to-one. - CorbinSimpson 17:36, 29 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

LEET certainly deserves to be considered a langauage as it posseses an alphabet, rules of pronunciation and words unique to it while still being used by a relatively large culture. Symmetric Chaos 15:24, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

thats the trouble with the internet generation, you think the world started in 1984............

The first use of forms of 1337 were in car registration number plates, (two decades before the Internet), or as they are correctly called in the UK, VIN plates, whereby people would spell names and words using the limited character format, e.g, 'Fionas' being rendered as F10NAS , or 'Jason' as J4SON. Whereas the number plate format in the US was more flexible and made it easier to do this sort of personalising, the UK strict number plate format meant the english had to be more inventive. This practice was not exactly widespread, but certainly common anough by the 1970's such that the registration COM1C was auctioned for a considerable sum to a famous TV stand up comic. When the internet and texting arose one and two decades later respectively, the same method of transliteration was used to save keystrokes and provide some measure of one upmanship to the uninitated.

• I suppose this is comparable to elementary school kids typing 58008 on calculators, turning them upside down, and giggling about it saying "boobs"... However, Leet is more than just replacing letters with numbers. Murple 20:38, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

By the way, i disagree with the poster above. 1337 is an evovling language. All new languages start as an offsring to something else, look at Afrikaans. The fascinating thing here is that languages usually take more than 100 years to evolve, whereas 1337 is evolving globally at an accellerated rate due to global input from every english speaking nation.

if you went back 400 years int he UK, its unlikely you woudl be able to understand 50% of what people said. Within 20 year 1337 will be the same - and within 50 years it will be an entirely separate Net language that you will need to learn to penetrate the darker recesses of the Internet.. You watch and see ..........

If I recall, this article used to have a reference section. First of all, where did it go? But perhaps more importantly, it needs one now. I propose a mini-wiki-project of sorts to collect several references in the next day or two so that this article may keep its featured article status (as that is the only worthwhile concern). Keep in mind that in order to be truly effective, references need not only to be placed but to assert statements (preferably via footnote) above. I get off of work approx 9 hours after this post, (UTC math confuses me) so I will get to work on it personally as of them. In any case, any help is appreciated and critical.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 20:14, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I sympathize with the difficulty of finding references for a topic such as this. However, I think the verbumvanum and goshen references belong (at best) in the External Links section; they do not meet WP:RS criteria for several reasons, including:

• They appear to be unpublished, unreviewed student papers
• They themselves cite Wikipedia as a source

--Tabor 23:16, 19 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I find the comments on academia particularly offensive, specifically: Another view is that obsessive attention to grammar, vocabulary, and spelling is increasingly outmoded on the current medium (the Internet) or the current period (of increasing internationalism). Underemployed academics - a group that is well known for fastidious attention to spelling - may constitute a large portion of the group that assesses themselves as highly Internet-savvy, and (conversely) leet users somehow less-savvy. While the academy, (the prime locus of the aforementioned group) may serve as a conservatory for Standard English, live languages are known to evolve (sometimes rapidly).

Additionally, stating that use of leet is indicative of level of Internet mastery may represent a thinly-veiled nationalist or ethnocentric urge (cf. the English-Only movement; the Ebonics Controversy). -- CCJ

Er, which comments about academia? Avriette 02:27, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(after quick glance at history, etc) Oh. Hi. Welcome to Wikipedia. I've removed the npov tag, as I don't think it's appropriate. Please also note that above, I have mentioned that I plan to reword this article substantially. I don't expect that it will seem overly pov after I am done with it. However, as it is large (56k!), it will take me a while. Do you have specific suggestions for how you would reword the above? Avriette 02:35, 23 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'm curious about the inclusion of a language box. How is leet a language? If anything, it's a creative orthography for the english language. And I don't agree it's constructed - it seems to have arrisen perfectly naturally among online communities, not in a planned fashion by one individual as most constructed languages are. So what's with the language box? --Krsont 20:04, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Um, if you'd read the rest of the talk page, you'd see that there has been an ongoing discussion about this, for some time. Avriette 03:40, 25 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I did read it, but I still wanted to voice my annoyance seperately. --Krsont 12:41, 25 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

For what reason? It would be far more productive to do so in the other line of discussion. It is most definitely recent enough. Posting it seperately serves no purpose.--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 16:13, 26 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Is it just me, or do other users find that the archive template at the top of this page clashes with the featured article template? Setokaiba^✌_≝ 20:19, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not just you. I moved things around and it should hopefully look better now. --GraemeL ^(talk) 20:41, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks; it looks much better now. Setokaiba^✌_≝ 20:45, 24 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I am aware that people may object to the {{English dialects}} template inclusion. I myself find it to be an imperfect solution. However, I do believe it is better than the language infobox. I would like to add Leet to the english dialects template. The reasoning for this is that other dialects, such as Spanglish, are there already. Leet fits there about as well as it's going to fit anywhere else.

I would also like people to proofread this. I have done my best to neutralize the tone. I have removed 19k of content either outright, or to separate articles (I realize this is a popular article to edit, and it will probably take several people "watching" it to make sure it doesn't sprawl again). I have also added sources (which were hard to find), as well as include terms which are new to the article, and pertinent to the subject.

I have a couple concerns. First, the "transliteration" table for English is large, and difficult to read. The data therein is necessary. I'm not sure how to clean it up. Perhaps a vertical display would be better than horizontal. Also, in the actual text of the article, it's nigh impossible to read because of its horizontal orientation. The other thing that concerns me is the cyrillic transliteration table. That table exists in the article linked from that section. I think we might be able to get away without having it at all. That would also cut down on the size of the article (I'd love to see us make the < 32k size).

Lastly, I've removed all the images. None of them were especially relevant. None of them provided additional depth to the article. I'm not sure what would add depth, although I'd like to see an image added to this article.

Anyways, I worked pretty hard on this to try to get it to a point where we could all agree that it was neutral, that it was verifiable, and that it was a lot cleaner than where it started. I welcome comments here or on my talk page.

Avriette 00:52, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

This is not bad. I would vehemently argue that it is indeed a full language, but I'm sure that someone with a degree could easily reclassify it. Oh well, eh? But, seriously, nice job. It looks nice. {{English dialects}} should have leet listed in it if that's the template we're keeping, right? - CorbinSimpson 02:03, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a lot. I spent something like five hours on it, and my wife kept asking me why. :) Anyways, the reason I am not necessarily in favor of adding it to {{english dialects}} is that I don't think it's 100% english. See related parts regarding chinese, greek, cyrillic, etc. I think it's a dialect, but it may be the first... language parasite defined as such. Also, it may be the first recursive dialect. See where this is going? I think it could be an english dialect, but it would do an injustice to the ... dialect (or whatever it is) as a whole. That having been said, I don't think anyone who has yet commented on this discussion has the expertise to decide either way. As such, it remains original research (if it weren't, I would have changed the english dialect template myself). Thanks again for your recognition. :) Avriette 03:15, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Leet to me (not a language scholar here or anything) seems to be a universal interpretational dialect, or at least one native to the entire latin alphabet. However, the coining of that phrase would be entirely against WP:NOR, so what I say means nothing! fwah!--Oni Ookami Alfador^Talk|@ 06:31, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Leet has no classification, by any established bodies, as a language or dialect. As such, neither template should be used. We should not obsess over that point any longer - just be rid of them.
The section "Problems classifying Leet as a language" reads terribly like the article is apologizing for not being able to define it as a language. I think the qhole section needs to go, but if you want to keep it, re-title that section "Classification" (neutral) and start by specifically stating that "Leet has no classification, by any established bodies, as a language or dialect" and start from scratch citing sources as you go. It's obvious that the section violates WP:NOR by presenting possible reasons that it's not classified a language. Instead, use clear referential phrases like "According to so-and-so..." -- Netoholic @ 07:19, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I may start working on cleaning that up. I'm sure you understand that it is important to provide counter-views to an article. I figured that was the clearest way of doing so. I'll have less time this week to work on it, but I may get to it. Avriette 15:42, 30 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe the best way to think about defining leet is in terms of what it isn't, rather than what it is. Leet definitely isn't synonymous with the English language - the average speaker of English would have difficulty reading it, and even if they learned all of the characters used, there are idioms and grammatical constructions which aren't identical or even similar to English. However, so much of Leet is based on English that it wouldn't be fair to call it a distinct language unto itself. Most linguists base their definitions of what a "dialect" is on the region in which it is spoken, and Leet is definitely not regional. Whether this means that Leet can't be classified as a dialect, or whether it means that the definitions of "dialect" need to be expanded, is a matter for debate by linguists, and while the difficulty with classification really ought to be mentioned, I think the very fact that nobody can seem to agree on what exactly Leet is means that we shouldn't try to come down on one side or another. I'm generally opposed to placing it on the English Dialects page, or any other linguistic-type page, until it is classified officially one way or another, simply because it's entirely possible that new classifications will need to be created for languages like Leet. The Disco King 15:38, 20 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have replaced the english dialects box, and gone as far as to be bold and add leet to it. I feel that this is an awkward placement. However, I do feel that this article needs the box, as it shares much in common with those similarly listed. I would also ask that before people change it back, that they discuss this with others. This article has had something of a contentious recent history, and I'd prefer to smooth things out rather than exacerbate them further. I also do not feel that it harms either this article, or the infobox (or those linked off the infobox) to have this article included. If you wish to remove it, as I asked, please discuss here, and indicate why it is necessary to remove it (to a greater extent than it is necessary to include it). Additionally, I know that some of us feel that "it's a wiki, get over it," but there are quite a few people involved in this article. Acting unilaterally after requests not to do so is not acting in good faith. It is argumentative and divisive.

Please also note that I have tried repeatedly to get the other linguists on the project to comment on the article, and they have not. If people get upset about this, rather than attacking the article (which I think anyone would agree is going on), they might consider bringing the article up to a quality that they like, instead of complaining. Avriette 04:39, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"Sharing in common"? No reliable sources have classified this a dialect. As such, Leet would never be appropriate to add to Template:English dialects. As such, Template:English dialects is not appropriate for this article either. -- Netoholic @ 06:16, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I have been more than accomodating to your point of view in this circumstance. I have cited references, I have cleaned up and neutralized the article, and yet you continue to revert it. It is very hard to believe this is good faith. I will revert the removal of the dialects box for now. I request that you make some effort to have the article peer reviewed, and also find third party opinion on a proper classification. I have made every effort to do so, and I feel that your efforts at this point are only hurting the article. You have also not even attempted to discuss this with me, after I very clearly asked for quorum. Consensus is imperative, as you have been reminded elsewhere. I also find it discouraging that while I do not have time presently to make the changes we discussed making (and I did agree to make them), it is necessary to deal with this petty squabbling. I want nothing more than to make the article, you seem content with nothing less than eradicating it.

Lastly, sources are cited. If you feel that these sources are not enough, I suggest you find sources which are counter to specific points in the article. I feel I have come up with a substantial amount of supporting sources, despite the fact that we all agreed it would be very difficult to do so. Avriette 06:30, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Your sources are ass. Blogs, personal webpages, and term papers which themselves cite Wikipedia as a source. Give me even one reputable language body that classifies this as anything more than slang. Just one. -- Netoholic @ 06:52, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Ass?! I think you've lost the ability to edit this article in good faith, sir. I suggest you seek mediation on this. Avriette 07:02, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

While Neto's comment was somewhat uncivil, I think the point is valid. See WP:RS. I think we should keep in mind that a lack of readily available reliable sources is not really license to venture into original research. This is a great article. But I don't think Wikipedia should get hung up on ontological classification of leet—since the question is not addressed in reliable sources, the question should probably not be addressed here. Representing it as a controversy or unsettled question and presenting different interpretations per NPOV might be appropriate if there were some active scholarly debate on the topic, but I don't really see that as the case here. That Wikipedians are tossing ideas around does not seem reason to include it in the article. My opinion is: don't assign a classification and omit discussion of Leet's classification in the article. Don't write things we can't support. --Tabor 03:19, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agree completely. This article can be informative and interesting without bothering about the classification. -- Netoholic @ 20:49, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Neto, what is going on here? I removed the trailing "-->", and mentioned it in the edit log. However, you reverted its removal, saying that "sources need to be cited." I'm not sure that falls under the topic of "sources." It looks to me rather like an error in markup. Am I missing something? Avriette 06:37, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I had an idea for restructuring the transliteration table like this, because I was confused by all those commas:

A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L †	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T †	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
4 /\ @ /-\ ^ ä ª aye ∂	8 6 13 |3 ß P> |: !3 (3 /3 )3	[ ¢ < ( ©	) o| [) I> |>  ? T)	3 & £ ë [- € ê |=-	= ƒ |# i= ph /=	G g 6 & (_+ 9 C- gee (γ,	# /-/ [-] ]-[ )-( (-)  :-: |~| {=} <~> |-| ]~[ }{ ]-[  ? }-{	1  ! | & eye 3y3 ï ][ []	j _|  ; _/ </ (/	X |< |{ ]{ }< |(	1 £ 7 1_ | |_ # l	M m //. |v| [V] {V} |\/| /\/\ (u) []V[] (V) (\/) /|\ Μ М м	// ^/ |\| /\/ [\] <\> {\} []\[] n /V ₪	0 () ?p [] * ö	^ |* |o |º |^(o) |> |" 9 []D |̊ |7	q (_,) ()_ 0_ <|	2 P\ |? /2 |^ lz ® [z 12 Я 2	S s 5 2 $ z § ehs es	7 + -|- 1 '][' †	(_) |_| v ü Ü	\/ \_/	\/\/ vv '// \^/ (n) \V/ \// \X/ \|/ \_|_/ \_:_/ Ш	>< Ж }{ ecks × )(	Y y j `/ Ý ÿ ý Ŷ ŷ Ÿ Ϋ Υ Ψ φ λ Ұ ұ ў ץ צ -) Ч	2 z ~\_ ~/_  %

† Note the use of 7 for either L or T.

I wanted the benefit of more eyeballs before I committed the change to check I didn't obliaterate anything important. There's a couple of little outstanding issues:

• I tried but failed to ensure that all the columns were of equal width.
• What is that thing second from the bottom of the P column? It displays as a box in my browser; it seems to be some sort of unicode combiner but makes no sense if I add {{unicode}}.

HTH HAND —Phil | Talk 10:15, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Phil, I think that's a great start. Do you suppose there's a way to make it even easier to read than that? Perhaps breaking it up into two tables? (stacked vertically) I like it more than the extant one, but it's still kind of tough to read. As well, it may be wider than some people's browser pane. I don't know what that would cause. Many of us have large resolution (in excess of 1024x768), but there are quite a few of us out there with 800x600 or even 640x480. Thoughts? Also, thanks so much for your hard work on this. Avriette 17:40, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't understand why the upper- and lower-case versions of the letters being transliterated are repeated in the listing. "M" has multiple duplicates. -- Netoholic @ 18:53, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, that is odd. Avriette 19:13, 1 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

They arent duplicates... they're unicode characters that look similar.  ALKIVAR™ 01:10, 2 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

On my browser they look identical, but that's probably because I'm using Courier New. What would be the least obfuscatory method of indicating this? I'm wondering whether we could split the huge row into several chunks by "style of transliteration", dividing the "pictograms" (or whatever you call /\/\) and the "unicode doppelgangers" from each other, but that could make the table much "taller". Thoughts? —Phil | Talk 08:02, 2 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]