This form of jargon is not what it use to be. It is so sad to see people using it every other word. as if they are cool or creative in some way. When most people do not understand how it came about. Most people think its just a gamers thing, but in reality it goes beyond gamers. Infact it was created in the infancy of the internet by computer geeks.
Leet speak was created by computer geeks, back when you payed by the minute for internet connectivity and dialup was the only option over a 14.4k modem. We are talking before web browsers and webpages were even a reality. We are stepping back so far that most people have no idea what the first message boards looked like, or how you got to them.
Quick history lesson, message boards are similar to fourms but it was 100% text and just responces to peoples messages. Think of it like a bulletin board, which is what they were called way back then. Put a sticky note up on the board, someone then adds their note to the bottom of yours and so on.
Well back then you had to know how to log into a library bulletin board to make posts. And they were not very easy to find back in the day, as there were no search engines or guides at all. But for those who knew how to access them they found out as time went on many more people were using them. This was before any form of instant messaging so the bulletin boards were your IM client, but they were public. So to insure secrecy with what you were saying to someone on the borads. Leet speak was deveoloped.
It was used by computer geeks to send messages back and forth, so instead of hundreds of people reading their info, a handful who understood the leet speak knew what was being said.
It was the first internet lingo so to say, and now that it has been around for a couple decades it has become watered down in its use, because now instead of only a few % of the internet population knowing what is said, everyone understands it, and thus its leet status has become idiotic. infact it has went from showing your prowess on the internet to showing your lameness..
