I discuss two types of language economy in Internet textchat discourse, ellipsis and reduced forms (such as clippings and informal phoneticised spellings). These are markers that a community of practice is being or has been formed. The data I analyse is textchat data from seminars with students on an MA in English Linguistics. Reduced forms are expected in Internet discourse and function as an in-group marker that the user is an experienced Internet user. I present additional evidence that learners are agents of the process of standardising the forms the community uses. Ellipsis is shown to function as a marker of interaction, and therefore that the community is a cohesive group. I show that the major functions of interaction that have been presented in the literature can be seen in ellipsis contexts. We can therefore conclude that both these types of reduced language are also evidence of a social autonomy that the learners have which is seen as a prerequisite for learner autonomy.