I don't understand the reason why people use "1337" for internet communication. Of course, using this form of communication in reality would only give the impression that you're a few bricks short of a house. So, why do people actually use "1337"? For fun?
When I was a young teenager, I thought 1337 speak was cool. Then I realized forming proper sentences that people could actually understand was actually more convenient.
Out of interest, how does 1337 deal with punctuation? 1337 passed me by totally when I was younger, so it's pretty arcane to me!
On a recent, boring train journey, after reading this thread, I wondered whether it would be possible to code |-|311() \/\/()|21|) -- in the 1337 version of C++ (<++ ??). But then realized that the heavy use of punctuation characters to represent letter would make it more or less impossible.
Maybe 1337 |*|2()6!24/\/\/\/\3|22 prefer to code in |*45<41 ??