Typing Quirks
This page is a major Work-In-Progress, and was last edited on 9/7/2025. Editing Notes: Find some specific examples of fakeclaiming due to using typing quirks. Can probably get them from one of the fakeclaiming subreddits. Search for popular posts of any format where disabled discuss typing quirks being ableist or inaccessible to read (have only found 1-5 note posts on Tumblr so far, don't want to cite some random person's vent post.) Is there a recorded first instance of l33tspeak online?
Typing Quirk | |
|---|---|
| |
Information | |
| Alternate Names: | alt names |
| First Recorded: | first recorded date |
| Origin: | a comic or tumblr post or whatever |
| Categories: | Self-expression |
A "Typing Quirk" is an alternative way of typing that results in atypical online speech patterns. Typing quirks may be adopted on purpose for fun or self-expression, or the user may consider them involuntary. The concept had a pride flag made for it by blood-moon-night-coining on October 28th, 2023.[1]
Categories of Typing Quirk
The following categories were outlined by TQWIKI as unofficial categories to help organization:
- Character: Imitating the speech/voice quirks of a specific fictional character.
- Color: Involves changing the text color.
- Emoji: Involves the use of specific emojis (or emoticons), such as replacing a letter with an emoji. This also includes custom Discord emojis.
- Font: Involves changing the font. Includes fonts made of unicode characters.
- Formatting: Involves a formatting commonly seen in social media or word processors, such as bold, italics, etc.
- Repetition: Involves repeating a word or words.
- Replacement: Involves replacing an English character with another character, such as s to z. This category includes emoji replacements as well.
Table of Contents
Usage
Typing quirks aren't exclusive to any group, however they are especially seen in MOGAI/xenogender and plurality circles. Pluralpedia mentions littles and neurodivergent symptom holders[4] when describing reasons someone might type this way.
History
The 2013 webcomic Homestuck used typing quirks as a central part of character development and brought the concept of typing quirks to more readers, but did not invent it, contrary to popular belief. One of the earliest recorded typing styles that could be called a "typing quirk" is 1337speak (also known as 13375p34k or leetspeak). The KnowYourMeme article on 1337speak describes it as using ASCII characters to create words and emoticons, and although the page says "Status: Confirmed," it doesn't cite a source for 1337speak being recorded in the 1980s.[2]
Notes
Typing quirks prose problems for disabled people and people whose first language isn't English. Screenreader users, who are usually people with disabilities ranging from blindness, low vision, to intellectual disabilities, usually have difficulty with typing quirks. Screenreaders aren't equipped to understand when words are typed in an atypical way and will read out hard to understand or completely nonsensical audio.
The reception of typing quirks is generally negative. Typing quirk users are often mocked. There is no large scale data available on the acceptance and usage of them, but a few minor polls on social media have shown rates of disdain. A poll on the Tumblr blog would-you-punt-them, titled "typing quirks, would you punt them into the sun?" received 653 votes, with the winning result being "PUNT!" (compared to "Don't punt" receiving X)[6].
The Pluralpedia article for typing quirks states "Individuals with typing quirks are often treated badly in public spaces, and harassment can range from accusations of ableism, to fake-claiming, and even to threats of violence."[4] but doesn't provide a cited source. However, some examples can be seen on the hate subreddit r/fakedisordercringe, where headmates using typing quirks usually is taken by commenters there to mean someone is faking their entire disorder.[7][8]
There is some debate over whether or not a typing quirk can be truly involuntary. Those who say their typing quirks are involuntary are usually neurodivergent, especially fictives of the Homestuck variety [verification needed]. A minor poll with the question "If you have a typing quirk, are you able to stop yourself from typing with it?"[5] had the following results from 143 votes:
- Yes, easily - 17.5%
- Yes, with some effort - 19.6%
- Yes, with great difficulty or distress - 8.4%
- Only sometimes, other times I can't - 4.9%
- No, I can only type with my quirk - 4.2%
- Other / Nuanced / Answer in replies - 1.4%
- No typing quirk / see results - 44.1%
Multiple posts on different platforms complaining about how typing quirks are inaccessible have gained traction [verification needed]. It is generally considered bad form to not at least translate a typing quirk, which causes contention between people who feel theirs are unvoluntary and people who cannot read their text. [verification needed]
Outbound Links
- Quirk on the MS Paint Adventures Wiki
- Typing Quirk on Pluralpedia
- quick masterlist of typing quirk related stuff by typingquirkchive
Gallery
