I | <3 ?

April 26, 2007 4:52 PM

What is the origin of the "I | ___" phrasing?

I've seen this cropping up with increasing frequency on the web. It seems to be the same usage as "I (heart) ___", but with a bar instead (shift-backslash on a US keyboard). It doesn't make sense to me. "I bar New York"? "I caret New York"? "I or New York"? This question may not make a lot of sense if you haven't seen it, and I can't exactly search for examples, but maybe you folks have seen it around.

posted by lostburner to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

Best answer: Discussed here.
posted by mudpuppie at 5:00 PM on April 26, 2007

I've noticed this two, but only when I switched to firefox. Is there any way to fix this in forefox? The Mecha thread didn't seem conclusive.
posted by piratebowling at 6:18 PM on April 26, 2007

I can't believe I just typed "two" and not "too." It's been a long day.
posted by piratebowling at 6:18 PM on April 26, 2007

And 'forefox', don't forget forefox. (Foreskinfox?)
posted by IronLizard at 6:49 PM on April 26, 2007

ForeskinFox is okay until you hit those websites that recircumsize your browser.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:26 PM on April 26, 2007 [2 favorites]

The "|" character (called "pipe") is the "or" operator in many programming languages (especially those that can trace their lineage back to C). i.e. in a logical expression such as result = condition1 | condition2, result is true if condition1 or condition2 is true.
posted by randomstriker at 11:05 PM on April 26, 2007

View -> Character Encode -> Unicode in your browser window. Maybe.
posted by muddgirl at 5:36 AM on April 27, 2007

Yeah, muddgirl, that did nothing (unfortunately). I just can't seem to fix this in Firefox, oh well.

I had to work up some nerve to show my face in this thread again, what with the Coach Z speak typing earlier.
posted by piratebowling at 7:26 AM on April 27, 2007

So when I type this ♥ you see a pipe and not a heart? Because if someone types a pipe you'll see a pipe!

Google reminds to to make the change and then close all browser windows before checking if it works.

Alan reccommends the same method.
posted by muddgirl at 8:27 AM on April 27, 2007

maybe the "|" is the floor. You have to rotate the figure so the floor is on the floor and the heart is in the right orientation.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 9:05 AM on April 27, 2007