i have an idea, txt spk is all because of mobile companies charging you per letter, so it lead to a generation of tards basically. now if the companies charged per word instead, using the phones built in dictionary to define different words so people wouldn't squeeze them all together or anything like that, then it would be much better.
i do use LOL far to much tho! and i am pretty bad for PPL as well,
but i think there is a big difference between forum short hand and txt speak, things like LOL came about because there is no body language in text, thats what all the smilies are about aswell
so i think they are ok and actually kind of important, common stuff like:
LOL, IMO, IIRC,
are useful as long as everyone knows what they are, other less comon ones are a pain though like:
tl;dr
which, for those who don't know is: To Long, Didn't Read. refering to people who do super posts etc.....and the bible lol