Recently I ran into the Broadcaster Salute(BSo7) community on Twitch. Being an Eve player I automatically recognized the o7 salute and it got me looking into the origins of the o7 or 07(in my almost decade of playing I’ve seen it both ways) salute. In my research the salute seems to lead back to the Eve community(if anyone can offer links to prior usage I am super interested in seeing them because I’m interested in studying cultural appropriation and the more I know about this the more I can understand where it has been and where it is going).
Anyway after talking with a few corp mates about this and hearing their very negative reactions I thought I would see what the greater Eve Community thought. If you guys wouldn’t mind taking a moment to fill out THIS SURVEY it would give a slightly better understanding of our community’s feeling on this.
Confirming o7 originated from EvE.
along with o/ wave
Any old time gamers know this.
My first game was pong, dating myself here.
I have seen the o7 in quite a few games but we all know where it started.
EvE even had the o7 show.
Some SC streamer even made up an o7 hat.
I laugh every time I see him wear it.
Before all the fancy emoji’s were implemented, Sideways and Upright Latin-only emoticons and single-line art and portraits was mainly used in Western style emoticons. For example \o/* = Cheerleader
o7 was originally used to depict someone scratching their head - being confused.
07 was originally used to depict someone saluting another person - showing respect.
Anyway, emoticons such as those actually originated on the PLATO IV computer system in 1972.
EDIT:
Considering the fact that commercial typewriters were first introduced in 1874 and become commonplace in offices after the mid-1880s and then standardized in early 1900’s, those symbols were probably even done back then. Thanks to the Internet being commercialized in late 1980’s early 1990’s, those symbols are now known publicly due to message boards and social media platforms.
I’m looking for wide spread use to represent something especially to represent a group or where it had a wider spread meaning for a group because that has been the concern expressed by some in the Eve community to me and even through this survey(which in a week or two I will post the break down of how people answered). I’m not interested in maybe it was or it probably was. I’m most interested in a) where it first appeared period and b) when did it actually take on a greater meaning for a group. I’m a sociologist by training so I’m interested in larger pictures.