If I had control over a message board, I'd set it up so that anytime someone typed 'LOL' it would automatically display as 'I am laughing out loud!' and so forth. Only then will people realize how stupid they sound.
When I first got into the internet I felt the same as you. I was offended that people didn't express themselves with all the flourish and colour the vast vocabulary of the English language affords. Then I realized that meanings and intentions are often misconstrued, because without the spoken inflection, words may be interpreted with completely different connotations. More often than not, to the negative detriment of the reader.
Because we use posts in a forum as a written "conversation" and not like a letter to someone or an essay, the messages are conversational, but lacking the inflection necessary for the words to be universally interpreted.
The abbreviations employed by texters or bloggers and the like, actually add the context back into the author's original intention. As do the emoticons or happy faces they use. They tell the reader how the original text was intended without a wordy paragraph following each statement.
For example, sarcasm is very difficult to express in words without a vocal inflection, yet it is
THE most often used and misunderstood posts in the forums. Many an argument could have been avoided had the original poster used an "LOL" or a
to clarify his meaning.
^^^ Furthermore, all that verbose crap is what you would get, if everyone explained themselves without abbreviations.
