Typing Quirk

About

Typing Quirks is a term used to refer to a systemic way of typing on the internet that differs from a standard spelling, punctuation, and capitalization practice for the language. The term originates from the interactive webcomic Homestuck, which features an alien race of characters called "trolls," who are often depicted as speaking using different typing quirks. In the years following Homestuck's popularity, typing quirks became popular on Tumblr, Deviantart and Discord, among other social media sites. Typing Quirks are sometimes likened to 1337 speak.

Origin

The interactive webcomic Homestuck was created by artist Andrew Hussie and published by MS Paint adventures, running from April 2009 to April 2016. The comic featured characters from a fictional alien race called "trolls." Trolls had specific writing characteristics that included hemotyping (writing in a specific color) and using "typing quirks," which were deviations from standardized modes of writing in English. Different trolls had different and unique typing quirks.

Spread

Various Homestuck fans began making their own fan characters from the show, sometimes called "Fantrolls," and introduced different personalized typing quirks for them. This practice was popularized on Tumblr and Deviantart before 2015.

On August 27th, 2014, Tumblr^[3] user fantrollsfordummies posted a guide to help people develop typing quirks for their Fantrolls (seen below), receiving 179 notes in nine years.

On May 27th, 2012, Twitter^[1] account @TextDeviantArt posted a tweet that read, "Fantroll with a giant swastika on her shirt. Typing quirk is that she ends every sentence in "-卐". Artist is angry people are reacting badly," gathering 14 likes in over ten years (seen below, left). On September 14, 2014 Twitter^[2] user @doubleca5t posted a tweet likening using the letter "x" as a gender-neutral term to a Homestuck typing quirk (seen below, right).

In 2020, discussions about typing quirks sometimes revolved around the difficulties text-to-speech programs have with reading sentences written using quirks. People began to debate whether refusing to provide translations for typing quirks is ableist or not.

On September 27th, 2020, Twitter^[4] user @physicalflat posted a tweet asserting that typing quirks are "stims" that cannot be controlled and are therefore not ableist, gathering over 300 likes in three years (seen below, left). On October 13th, Twitter^[5] user @fuhnaf posted a tweet saying that neurodivergent people who may rely on screen readers that cannot translate typing quirks should be accommodated, gathering over 800 likes in three years (seen below, right).

Typing quirks are also a common topic of derision in subreddits like /r/SystemsCringe,^[6] /r/DIDcringe,^[7] /r/CuratedTumblr,^[8] and /r/FakeDisorderCringe.^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References