w00t

The internet is buzzing over yesterday's Word of the Year winner, w00t. Some are upset over the use of numbers in place of letters in words. Allow me to put this contest into perspective. Recall, the Mr. Splashy pants voting. It seemed that everywhere you turned on the internet, you were being urged to vote splashy. In the end, it turns out 150,000 people total voted in the contest. Compared to the population of english-speakers in the world, that's a tiny number! I have a feeling that the impact of this contest will be barely noticeable. It seems like a huge deal when it's front page on digg and reddit, but it will pass in a few days. The WOW kids aren't suddenly allowed to write their school work in l33t. So, let's all calm down and just see the humor in it.