Emoticons
Body Language Online
If you are new to online protocol, you may be frustrated by the in-group language – those acronyms and punctuation symbols people stick into their sentences. Those have the fancy name of “emoticon” (emotional icons) because they are intended to be EMOTIon-CONveying by communicating body language.
After all, if you can’t see me smile, you may not know I am joking.
When you see punctuation marks, mentally turn the page 90 degrees clockwise, and picture the marks as a face, without the circle. For example,
| :) or :-) | happiness, sarcasm, or joke | |
| :] or :-] | jovial happiness | |
| :D or :-D | big grin | |
| :( or :-( | unhappiness | |
| :[ or :-[ | despondent unhappiness | |
| [[[ ]]] | Hugs (picture arms around someone) | |
| ... | please wait, I am still typing |
For your convenience, we put together a brief list of popular abbreviations in the DUPLICATE BRIDGE realm.
| At the Bridge Table, Online "chat" window | |
| GLP | Good Luck, Partner. |
| TYP | Thank you, Partner. |
| TY | Thank you. |
| NP | No Problem. |
| AFK | Away From Keyboard |
| BRB | Be Right Back |
| NT | Nice try. |
| Pd | Partner |
| RE | Welcome back. (re-welcome) |
| WD | Well done! |
| WTG! | Way to go! (applause for bid or play) |
| PLUS, In the Discussion posts or Email | |
| BTW | By the way |
| CU | See you. |
| CU2 | See you, too. |
| CUL | See you later. |
| CYa | See ya |
| DL | DownLoad |
| FWIW | For What It's Worth |
| GA | Go Ahead |
| GL | Good Luck |
| GMTA | Great Minds Think Alike |
| GDRLH | Grinning, Ducking & Running Like Heck |
| IC | I See |
| IMHO | In My Humble Opinion |
| IOW | In Other Words |
| L8R | Later |
| LOL | Laughing Out Loud. |
| OTOH | On the other hand |
| Re | Welcome back (again) "re-welcome" |
| ROFL | Rolling On Floor, Laughing |
| SPAM | Stupid Person's Ad or Message (junk email) |
| TTYL | Talk to You Later |
| TY | Thank you. |
| U2 | You, too. |
| WB | Welcome back. |
| WTG | Way to Go! |
| WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get ("wiss-ee-wig" |
| YMMV | Your Mileage May Vary (opinion) |
| Bridge Convention Abbreviations | |
| Capp | Cappelletti (Hamilton) |
| GF | game-forcing |
| J2NT | Jacoby 2 NT (to 1 or 1 ) |
| Lav | Lavinthal discards |
| Leb | Lebensohl |
| Mich | Michaels |
| NF | non-forcing |
| OE | Odd/Even discards |
| RKC | Roman KeyCard (Blackwood) |
| udca | Upside Down carding, count and attitude |
| WJS | Weak Jump Shift |
| xfer | transfer bid |