[Squeek]

The beef I have with "lol" and "rofl" is the context it is used. I'm semi-OK with it when it is its own sentence. When people use it in the middle of a sentence, they need to be punished. That's like saying this:

"Dude that was so funny rofl" = "Dude that was so funny rolling on the floor laughing" In this case you make your sentence run-on and thus it is grammatically unsound.

Acronyms and contractions like SONAR or don't are used properly because we have actually made them into words. If Webster's Dictionary ever puts "LOL" in its dictionary as a noun I will be so filled with angst because "LOL" can never be a noun. Sure, like SONAR the letters stand for words, but SONAR means something now: "A system using transmitted and reflected underwater sound waves to detect and locate submerged objects or measure the distance to the floor of a body of water."

When you say "DMV" you say "D-M-V". When some people want to say "LOL" they pronounce it "lo-ll" and not "L-O-L". This is the common confusion between acronyms and words. Acronyms that aren't converted to words later on are most often said as each individual letter (ie DMV, HOV, FBI, etc). The ones that are made into words are then words when used in context (ie RADAR, SONAR, etc) even though the letters still stand for words.

If any of that made sense let me know. I tend to forget what I was trying to say when I post things.

~Squeek