The whole story reminds me of a Looney Toon; the one where Elmer Fudd sticks his shotgun into Bugs' rabbit hole, and the barrel emerges from a knothole on a nearby tree & points at Elmer's head.
hehe, that is leet-speak, or if you like 1337-5p34k, the chosen langiage of script kiddies and CS addicts across the globe. You can read a bit about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leet ,
maybe it's some sort of optimization?!?
Why do they speak this way? Because it's shorter and easier. I hate it as well, but I wouldn't bash it. Who knows? Maybe everyone will talk like this in the future?
Aww, i think its quiet useful, it lets you instantly identify people on IRC that you wouldn't want to talk to: anyone with a 'leet' username or aol in their address
Plus, without some understanding of leet, bash.org wouldn't make me laugh so much