How to speak "hacker"?

[Dolemite]

You all know it, this way of typing that's getting more and more common on the net seems to involve substituting numbers and punctuation for letters and all sorts of crazy raping of the English alphabet. Someone please explain this phenomenon? A primer of sorts would be cool. Not that I'm interested in typing like that, I'm just curious about how exactly that goofy-ass shit works. Thanx.

[xS]

Use the Aoler transalator. Do a forum search on it.

[ChaoofNee]

Some of it is just (#4|\|61|\|6 z0|\/|3 13773|2z...
Other times, j00 just h4\/3 70 |\/|4k3z0rz s0mez0rz |_|pz0rz...
Teh leetness come with teh time...

[Contra]

Actually, I see it becoming a lot less common. In fact, the only time I ever see it used anymore is when it's used as a joke.

Use "teh" as often as possible, replace O's with 0's and tack the suffix "z0rz" onto stuff and you'll be well on your way to teh l33tn3zz.

[Chemist]

j00 0wnz0rz!! w00t w00t!!!
*leaves to wash hands*

[FirstBlood]

Before it was novelty. Now it's just annoying.

0|\/|G 1 |-|473 j00 h4x0rs!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

see? It involves replacing random letters with numbers and other keystrokes that look kind of like the normal letters.

T = 7

I = 1

R = |2

You can pretty much freestyle, there's no real set pattern.

Just don't go overboard...

[ChaoofNee]

YUO ADN YOURE COMPUTAR MACHIN MUST HAT JEFFK!!!!!!!!!!11111
http://www.somethingawful.com/jeffk

[MechDeus]

http://www.1337.net/

Everything you need, including an alphabet.

[Master]

This thread is so leet.

[FuryFox]

I have a feeling one of the things that spurred this sort of "alternate" communication is the advent of online services and requiring usernames. When a billion people or so sign up for AOL, it gets pretty hard to get a unique username...someone else probably already has it. I remember doing stuff like that before it was even common...

SilverFox -taken
SilverFoxx -taken
Silver_Fox -taken
Silver_Foxx -taken
SylverFox -taken (grrrrrrr....)
51l\/3Rf0X -Accepted (yay! I'm so unique)