I work on internet language too (not so much this sort, though it does come up), so it's been really gratifying to see some of that research petering down into the non-academic press! And it's been really great to see the reactions to it, too, and to see that they're not all of the "destroying the English language" sort.

The "destroying the English language" thing will never cease to piss me off, though. I've had to stop reading those kinds of pieces altogether; they make me want to stay up until all hours and write annoying superior-sounding massively-footnoted responses. Language does NOT work the way those people think it works.

-J