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Government Transportation

DMVs Across the Country Learning Textspeak 178

Posted by samzenpus from the OMG dept.
First time accepted submitter 3seas writes in about DMVs across the country learning textspeak in order to keep vulgar acronyms off the road. "You can have txtspeak on your plate in Arizona, but only if you keep it clean. 'ROFLMAO' is a no-go. Arkansas, however, seems to be a little slower on the uptake. 'ROFLMAO' doesn't appear on the state's prohibited list. That doesn't necessarily mean the plate would pass DMV scrutiny should someone request it."
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DMVs Across the Country Learning Textspeak More

DMVs Across the Country Learning Textspeak

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  • A55 RGY Takes the Cake (Score:5, Funny)

    by EmagGeek ( 574360 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @08:48PM (#42745087) Journal

    http://grupthinkpro.s3.amazonaws.com/grupthinklive80240347b2eab6b15fd4935656ba50e8 [amazonaws.com]

    Nobody will ever top Florida "A55 RGY" with the big orange in the middle serving as the letter "O."

    A55 O RGY

  • Just a dash (Score:5, Funny)

    by ljw1004 ( 764174 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @08:59PM (#42745223)

    The Washington State DMV rules say that you can use any combination of letters, digits or hyphen, up to a maximum of 7 characters. Single-character license plates are acceptable, but they've all been taken apart from one:

    -

    I think a single hyphen would be great. When police officers write a citation for speeding, in the box for the motorist's license plate, they'd have to just write a dash. It'd be as if you didn't have one. Like this: http://xkcd.com/1105/ [xkcd.com]

    • http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/noplate.asp [snopes.com]

      NO PLATE

      NONE

      NOTAG

      MISSING

      XXXXXXX

      All are both funny and bad ideas.

      I'd lke to get one that reads UFIA.

      • Re:The "NO PLATE" story (Score:4, Insightful)

        by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @11:13PM (#42746501)

        http://www.snopes.com/autos/law/noplate.asp [snopes.com]

        Just to pick a nit with that Snopes article. The first paragraph says:

        Allowing motorists to obtain personalized plates provides them with an opportunity to obtain something distinctively unique, something that commands far more attention than the usual humdrum string of letters and digits.

        Every license plate is, by definition, "distinctively unique". Just sayin' ...

        • If they'd let you, the thing to do would be to take a page from Korean starcraft players who don't want their handles recognizable, and do combinations of I's, l's, and 1's.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TheLink ( 130905 )
          All plates are unique in this world, even those with the exact same letters and digits printed on them in the same order.

          But not all are distinctively unique assuming a certain level of distinctive.

        • Every license plate is, by definition, "distinctively unique". Just sayin' ...

          Time to go back to the dictionary: you have confused distinctively with distinguishably. If you didn't spend your childhood reading encylopedias and the dictionary for fun, perhaps you should not try to correct others' spelling or grammar on slashdot. Just sayin'...

          • Every license plate is, by definition, "distinctively unique". Just sayin' ...

            Time to go back to the dictionary: you have confused distinctively with distinguishably.

            Those words were from the Snopes article not me. Furthermore, having gone back to the dictionary, I would argue that those words are redundant used together and unnecessary to the description of a vehicle license plate - which are each unique and, therefore, distinct.

            Sure, it's a bit pedantic, but it's been a slow week...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

          Distinct but not distinctive.

        • It depends on how you look at it.

          A standard plate will typically follow a mask of XXX####

          It will not be unique from the perspective of the character pattern, while a personalized plate (assuming you can pick any combo) gives you the option of literally anything. No mask.

          • It depends on how you look at it.

            A standard plate will typically follow a mask of XXX####

            It will not be unique from the perspective of the character pattern, while a personalized plate (assuming you can pick any combo) gives you the option of literally anything. No mask.

            True, the standard plate follows a mask/template, but each plate is uniquely numbered and, therefore, distinct - even plates with the same sequence from different states/countries, if you consider the plate as a whole. But I see your point.

            I was just venting a bit about the Snopes article. Though I'm not an expert in English and sometimes fall victim myself, sloppy speech/writing annoys me. Like TV commercials for upcoming shows that say "All New" when referring to a single episode - grrrr ....

    • http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,371902,00.html [foxnews.com]

      Some states made a mistake and distributed WTF plates as normal plates. Example is in the above link.

  • This indian woman I used to work with would send me emails like What is ur schedule for this afternoon?

  • Years ago in Arizona (Score:4, Funny)

    by overshoot ( 39700 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @09:05PM (#42745313)
    ... my mistress got "RTFM." The dude at DMV wanted to know what it stood for, she told him it was a Unix command.
  • 6UL DV8
    IB6 UB9

  • thx 4 mkn me uz wkpdia

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMV [wikipedia.org]

  • The war on profanity seems in line with any fundamentalist theocracy though...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      Find some bible thumper with a vanity plate and convince your state DMV that its slang for mother-son incest in Serbo-Croation.

  • Here in VA, vanity plate central:
    MOE RON
    BIGAZZVAN
    FAT GAL (Tbird)
    &BEYOND (on the back of an Infiniti)

  • KMIT (Score:2)

    by hduff ( 570443 )

    Jack Benny had that plate over 70 years ago. He said it meant "Know Me In Truth" when in fact it was Yiddish for "kiss my ass".

    So, this kind of thing is nothing new . . .

  • As a kid I had vanity plates - my vax user name, it fit perfectly in six characters. And in Vaxen land it was your first name and the first and last letters of your last name that made up you username.

    But friends of mine had the plates I-812 and OU-812. They had them for a few years until the DMV realized what it was referring to (I Ate One Two and Oh You Ate One Too) and yanked the plates.

    And I once had the email address fuckewe@cox.net - until Cox figured out what it said and removed it.
  • But what about my Japanese ancestry friend with a last name of Fuqua? He's had snickers and giggles about his last name since 2nd grade! But his family's been here since the early 1820's in California, so why should the DMV give them a hard time for wanting their last name on their license plate?? They shouldn't, but they did and they do if you want a vanity plate that offends the minds and mindless-sensibilities of these Puritanical U-S-of-A.

    • I knew a Fuqua in the chair force, it was always funny to answer a phone call when someone was calling for him. Another good one was Dyke, pronounced Dick, it was always amusing to watch people try and decide what would be the least offensive way to pronounce his name when they saw his name tag.

      I had an instructor once who had a custom plate for his new corvette, PHSTFCKR or maybe it was PHSTFKR. Anyways he claimed that the first four characters were to be read as "fast", but we always contended it was actu

  • And another thing (Score:3)

    by kilodelta ( 843627 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @09:41PM (#42745703) Homepage
    Back in the day I used to hang out with a guy with the call KA1RCI. Well, on RI plates the 1 and the I are kind of hard to distinguish. So I get in his truck one day and the glove compartment is STUFFED with parking tickets. I was like, how come they haven't booted you yet?

    Then I looked at the tickets not only were they written KAIRCI but they also had the plate type as 01, whereas amateur radio call sign plates are type 18. Type matters.

    And then there's my sk friend Kevin who had the call sign KA1FTW! The license is still active, maybe when it lapses I'll get it as a club call sign to replace the shitty one we have now which is KB1YSX.

  • Someone makes a free speech issue out of it when their application for an "FU OBAMA" plates gets rejected.

  • 2009 Story [katu.com] out of Denver, Colorodo:

    Kelly Coffman-Lee wanted to tell the world about her love of tofu by picking the letters for her car's license plate. Her suggestion for the plate on her Suzuki: "ILVTOFU." Department of Revenue spokesman Mark Couch said the letters could be misinterpreted. Coffman-Lee, 38, said tofu is a staple of her family's diet because they are vegan and that the DMV misinterpreted her message.

    2012 Story [hamptonroads.com] out of Virgina:

    If the Department of Motor Vehicles is going to let people praise

  • DCUNTD (Score:4, Funny)

    by bruce_the_moose ( 621423 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @10:55PM (#42746331)
    Seen on a minivan in Fairfax VA. Obviously a fan of the local soccer franchise, no?

  • Arkansas DMV (Score:3)

    by jhobbs ( 659809 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @11:14PM (#42746511)
    As an Arkansan, let me first point out, we don't have a DMV. License plates are handled by the Revenue Department. The Revenue Department is where money changes hands. . . business license, hunting license, boat registration, driver's license, sales tax, assessment? All in the same damn line. That Chinese fire drill of an office is busy enough, I can assure you no one is reviewing your plate. Case in point, I have a gay friend that got away with a plate that says PWR BTM. Honest to god. He has it on a white truck with a black racing stripe on the hood, so they call it the wide receiver. If that passed the revenue office, anything will.

    • I have a gay friend that got away with a plate that says PWR BTM. Honest to god. He has it on a white truck with a black racing stripe on the hood, so they call it the wide receiver. If that passed the revenue office, anything will.

      I wonder if that means they don't hire any queers in there, or if it means it was approved by a big ol' fag who laughed about that one all day.

      In general you can have clever plates if you can make up a good bullshit story for why you want it which fits on the explanation line...

  • ...doesn't get approved either.

  • I totally cannot think of a better use of our money.

  • Several years ago, a friend of mine was issued the CA sequential plate: 2GRT269. She immediately swapped it out for a custom plate, which, ironically, was much less memorable.

    In a similar vein, once in a while I check the availability of the "sequential" plate 3XIV159. (I'd call it my Pi Plate: 3 14 159. Get it?) But it still seems to be in use. I wonder if its owner realizes what it means?

  • ...they need to save people from themselves.

    INFINIT on an Infiniti.
    AUDIA6 on an Audi A6
    BEEMER on a BMW.

    STOP IT. (Maybe I'll put that on mine.)

  • Years ago one of the SF Bay area columnists reported a Porsche with the plate 3M TA3

  • Of the Liquor store owner who want the DMV to give him two vanity plate for him and his wife. He wanted to split the word COCKTAIL between the two cars.

  • One of the best I've seen was a Jersey plate:

    B1NDAZZ

    Stay classy New Jersey.

  • Banning ROFLMAO seems a bit harsh to me, when the British DVLA is selling this [direct.gov.uk] for 599UKP ($950).

  • "XPEH BAM", "HAXEP", "XEPOBO", "XPEHOBO", "MYTOPHO", "MYCOP", "3ACYHTE", "3ACYHEM", "MA3OK", "MAT", "CTEPBA", "CYKA" and so on should be safe for now.

  • Some states have removed this combo from regular plates though I've seen it here and there. One particular story was a child says to grandmother, "hey, you got WTF on your license plates! HAHAHAHAHA!!!" Older lady had no clue what her grandkid was talking about so she does a search on the internet. She then went to the motor vehicle dept and requested new plates.

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