I was talking with another intellectual today about the usage of "kthanxbai" in chatspeak. He argues that the formal spelling of the word should be "kthanxbye", as, "Only totally clueless newbs spell it like 'b-a-i'." After thinking about it, I'm not sure whether to disagree or not.
Perhaps usage of "bai" is going overboard? On account of that the "wrong" spelling has the same amount of characters in it as the "right" spelling; essentially eliminating the "efficiency" of abridging words (which is the logic behind the language, if I'm correct). This opens up the possibility that spelling any chatspeak word wrong (on purpose) is either an act of "true newbishness" or "taking it too far" with impersonations.
If we were to stay consistent with this concept, that would mean that words like "liek", "ρwn[ed]", "guise", "hay", etc, would all be invalidated as "formal" chatspeak phrases. So, I'm thinking that the "bai" spelling should still be an acceptable variation; however, should "bye" be considered "acceptable", as well? Or should the spelling be excluded from "formal" usage, completely?