What does 'wat' stands for?

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Offline LPChip

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What does 'wat' stands for?
« on: December 03, 2009, 21:58:05 »
Lately I see a lot of posts only containing the word wat. What does this mean?
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Offline Emeraldfire7

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2009, 22:09:01 »
its like "what" but with out the "H"

Its also a sign of laziness...

wat? XD

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Offline LPChip

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2009, 22:27:47 »
I see... I don't know about anyone else, but I find such post rather disrespectfull, especially if it only says wat without the ?

Anyone else troubled by this?
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Offline Evil

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2009, 22:28:34 »
if you take off the H it becames a quick sound, like when you use a fly swatter to swat something, and you hear that sound.

:D

wat
(accent the A)

EDIT;
@LPChip
No, not really, I get those all the time. :)

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Offline BloxMaster

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2009, 22:39:23 »
I have to agree that this bothers me too. It's actually in the rules to speak as clearly, in English, as possible. People aren't going to care about your post if you don't make the effort to spell things out. Sure, abbreviations work, as long as it's made clear to the reader what it stands for, but shortening simple words is just lazy, and makes it that much harder to read. I also feel the need to point out a lot of rather pointless posts, because frankly people have been posting a lot of short (aka two words) posts, and it's the same sorta thing, if you can't make a worthwhile post, or type properly then I'm going to be reading the post 'What does that mean?' and 'Well I would take this more seriously if they made any effort at all'. My point, I guess, is I find posts like this to not have much value, and it's simply because it looks to me like no effort was put in it.


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Offline Razzorman

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2009, 22:39:35 »
I see... I don't know about anyone else, but I find such post rather disrespectfull, especially if it only says wat without the ?

Anyone else troubled by this?
Not really. If you are going to get upset about illiteracy you might as well stop using the internet. :P
Besides, its more of a joke than an insult.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2009, 22:43:35 by Razzorman »
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Offline LPChip

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2009, 22:44:41 »
Just becaues everyone pirates software, doesn't make it legal.

Using an abbreviation is one thing, filling an entire post with one is quite another thing. Joke or not, I don't like it, and still find it disrespectfull. Enough to make me ignore such posts.
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Offline LimeLemon

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2009, 22:50:49 »
wat is internet language. Just get used to it. Also, I don't see any reason anyone can find it disrespectful... O_o
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Offline LPChip

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #8 on: December 03, 2009, 23:08:09 »
I'm most certainly not just getting used to it. If you can give me a good reason why I should allow this, feel free to tell me. Just because its internet language or anything is not good enough. But if no one else seems to be bothered by this, I guess it can be allowed. If more people are bothered by this however, things'll have to change. In any way, I will not respond to a post that only has the word wat in it, or wut, or whatever...

I strongly feel that when someone can't be bothered to write a normal reply to me, they can't be bothered with a normal reply from me either.
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Offline BloxMaster

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2009, 23:16:16 »
I agree with LPChip's reply completely.


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Offline Exp HP

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #10 on: December 03, 2009, 23:38:07 »
I think "wat" or "wut" is a perfectly reasonable response to a confusing post, because it's not always just inane; it does serve a purpose sometimes.

Let's say somebody makes a crazy-sounding post that is difficult to tell whether it's serious or a joke. Then somebody responds with "wat".

If the person who wrote the initial post was serious, then they'll see "wat" as a request for clarification, and they'll explain what their confusing post meant.  On the other hand, if the initial post was a joke, then "wat" will just be disregarded as a typical, inane response to the joke.
"wat" lets you indicate to somebody that their post made no sense, without being too serious yourself.  In this aspect, the fact that it's internet slang is actually an advantage.

In the above scenario, if the original post was a joke, then it would be different if somebody actually replied with "What?" rather than "wat."  If somebody says "What?" in response to a joke, then the original poster might then feel the need to explain the joke, and that would make both the original poster and the person who replied "What?" feel foolish.

Maybe it offended you, LP, but that's not its intent.  Personally, I think it's a lot better than saying "lol wut" (pointless and neutral response to something unusual) or "what is this i dont even" (which can be rude, as it's a way of saying somebody is crazy).
« Last Edit: December 04, 2009, 00:23:53 by Exp HP »
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Offline Razzorman

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2009, 00:04:53 »
Just because its internet language or anything is not good enough.
Yes it is. :huh:
It doesn't matter if its internet language or not. Wat means what. Its a way express confusion in a joke-ish way.
It isn't rude in any way.
Of course it can be used in a rude way, but the same goes for every single word in existence, given the right context.
The point is, you can't restrict slang. You will only piss people off, and if you're seriously offended by pretended illiteracy you probably need to lower your standards a little.
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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #12 on: December 04, 2009, 01:16:37 »
Let me introduce you to urbandictionary.. 9_9

WARNING: Inappropriate content in 'example' section
Lurk more.

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Offline StaticRomantic

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #13 on: December 04, 2009, 01:31:05 »
Still the point is it doesn't take that much work to ask "What do you mean by [insert thing here]?" instead of "wut". It's just lazy, pretty much a waste of forumspace, since there's no reason to respond to "wut".

Its essentially a sarcastic rhetorical question that has no purpose. But i'm sure that within the time that the user typed those three letters he/she didn't really think about it much. Still, users shouldn't just be throwing out mindless posts (not that I'm innocent of this).

I don't see it as offensive though. They're just trying to be funny. I'm sure no harm/disrespect was meant. At least, not consciously.
« Last Edit: December 04, 2009, 01:33:31 by StaticRomantic »

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Offline Pick Yer Poison

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Re: What does 'wat' stands for?
« Reply #14 on: December 04, 2009, 02:01:09 »
I use "wut" for when someone says something extremely bizarre and/or stupid. In my mind, it constitutes something like "...WHAT." I don't consider it an abbreviation, as long as the person using it uses it for specific purposes and speaks normally otherwise. However, people who use "wat" or "wut" all the time instead of using "what" when it's normal to use annoy me.