I don't know your acronyms!

I love this thread!
I refuse to give my age but lets just say I was around for the beginning of the internet (and no that was not BC it is BPC. ) Because of this the "slang" I learned was in the very first DOS chat rooms. None of that is used anymore so I spell it out.

If it is worth being read then it is worth typing out. I hated when people started using txt because it was like they came up with a whole new language. I don't understand half the messages I get from people these days. If I have to send you 3 more messages to figure out what you are trying to tell me, did the abbreviation really help?

I try to think of it like this; if I would use the acronym when talking then great rock the CAPS and acronym; if you would say it, then type it.

reply to post by schuyler

As a request to others I think this is a fine idea. As a call for a new "rule," I think it sucks. Don't we have enough rules in this world? That's how government grows. Every time someone doesn't like something they say, "They're ought to be a law!" and then there is.

NO MORE RULES! If you can't figure something out on your own, DON'T ask government to do it for you. Embark on a quest to learn something new, but don't just sit there and ask to be spoon fed just because you don't know something.

YMMV.

Hey now, I am not asking the government to do anything and wish it was doing a lot less. I'm also not asking for a new rule or law. I would like to point out that spelling out a term before referring to it as an acronym is in fact a rule of the English language. It is an existing standard when communicating in the English language, no matter the style being used. Every publication in the English-speaking world follows this rule.

Writing is in essence spoon feeding information to a reader. The writer goes on the quest to learn something new before he/she puts that information into writing. And a good writer would never expect his readers to do that job for him.

If you want to write without rules, by all means do so, but don't expect anyone to read what you've written.

reply to post by TruthLover557


ATS = www.abovetopsecret.com

I love you, OP! The OVERUSAGE of acronyms is one of my pet peeves! Yes, other members, pretty please with sugar on top, could you spell out your thoughts just one time, then switch to acronyms??

I will admit that I've been able to figure out the meaning of many acronyms just by reading the entire comment. However, sometimes I just cannot do so, and it then does become a tedious annoying read! I then lose whatever enthusiasm the thread may have wrought!

Earlier poster: I may be wrong, but I think ETA means "edit to add"...

In my job I get flooded with acronyms. And I don't like it.

So here is a good one for you: TLA

Can you guess it?

Answer: Three Letter Acronym

It seems that the person who stated he/she doubts most people on ATS even know what an acronym is was correct.


Out of all the things posted on this thread so far, I think there's only been 2 acronyms, which were apparently complete accidents.

All I see posted here are initials (or initialisms if you prefer) and a couple abreviations. Acronyms are initialisms or avreviations that are actually pronounced as words. Examples; NASA is an acronym, NSA is not. HAARP is an acronym, HHRP is not. FEMA is an acronym, FBI is not. ZOMGROFLMFAO is not an acronym, while DILLIGAF most certainly is.

It seems that the person who stated he/she doubts most people on ATS even know what an acronym is was correct.


Out of all the things posted on this thread so far, I think there's only been 2 acronyms, which were apparently complete accidents.

All I see posted here are initials (or initialisms if you prefer) and a couple abreviations. Acronyms are initialisms or avreviations that are actually pronounced as words. Examples; NASA is an acronym, NSA is not. HAARP is an acronym, HHRP is not. FEMA is an acronym, FBI is not. ZOMGROFLMFAO is not an acronym, while DILLIGAF most certainly is.

reply to post by Larry L


Hey Larry L, I appreciate your comments and appreciation of grammar. But I believe the term initialism also fits the definition of acronym.

Here is the definition of acronym from dictionary.com: acronym

acronym  
ac·ro·nym [ak-ruh-nim]
noun
1.
a word formed from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words and pronounced as a separate word, as Wac from Women's Army Corps, OPEC from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or loran from long-range navigation.
2.
a set of initials representing a name, organization, or the like, with each letter pronounced separately; an initialism.
3.
an acrostic.

I also found these references on wikipedia's acronym page:

11. ^ "acronym". American Heritage Dictionary. Retrieved 25 April 2013. Acronyms are often distinguished from initialisms like FBI and NIH, whose individual letters are pronounced as separate syllables. While observing this distinction has some virtue in precision, it may be lost on many people, for whom the term acronym refers to both kinds of abbreviations.

9. ^ Jump up to: a b Crystal, David (1995). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55985-5. p. 120: Its encyclopedic entry for Abbreviation contains an inset entitled "Types of Abbreviation", which lists Initialisms, followed by Acronyms, which he describes simply as "Initialisms pronounced as single words" but then adds "However, some linguists do not recognize a sharp distinction between acronyms and initialisms, but use the former term for both."

Yes, seriously, I wholeheartedly agree. Oft times I will attempt to look up an acronym online and the most common possibilities definitely could not be what they are talking about. Take heed, everyone does not automatically know what you are talking about once you post an acronym, especially one you made up out of thin air. You can take it to the bank that few instantly know what you are referring to once you post any semi-obscure to totally obscure acronym.

I think some acronyms are ok if they stand for well known organizations such as CIA, NSA, FBI etc. But people that use acronyms for common phrases are just lazy. And I can be guilty of it myself. I try not to though. I hate being lazy.

LMAO: Look ma, another Octopus.

YOLO: You only left odor.

TruthLover557
I would greatly appreciate it if people would start spelling out the names of the organizations they speak of the first time they are mentioned. Then, go crazy with the acronyms. Ninety-nine percent of the time I have no idea what your acronyms mean, no clue what each letter stands for.

I will scan two pages of a thread looking to see if someone else has spelled out your acronym before seeking answers elsewhere. The two dictionaries I have quick access to on my computer also have no idea what your acronyms mean. I go to Google, which is like, "Hey, this is pulling up a lot of possibilities and it's hard to pinpoint what exactly that acronym means." Ultimately I'm forced to go into some acronym database only to come out understanding that your acronym officially has several different meanings. I then return to the text to see which definition fits the context.

I realize that on a grand scale, me not knowing your acronyms is the least of the world's problems. I just have a penchant for clear, smooth reading and dream about a world in which acronyms stand for words previously mentioned.

You only live once.

YOLO

Thank you for listening to my rant.

TY4LTMR

Spell it out just once.

SIOJO

I do I understand what you are saying, it is proper protocol when writing, to spell it out the 1st time, write the acronyms in parentheses, then you can use the acronyms in the body of the text; but at my job I am constantly being reprimanded for lengthy reports, even once was told that my report was three words longer than it needed to be, because people don't want to read one more word than they have to.

We really have become a lazy society. Texting drives be nuts, and I drive my boss crazy by spelling every word out. I even try my best to use proper grammar as often as I can, if time allows.

Amazing how she is always complaining about how she never has enough time to do her job, but she always has time to text me some nonsense about some ridiculous complaint that has nothing to do with getting the job done.

The company I work for has definitely mastered the technique of utilization of mid and upper level administrators that have been promoted to their level of incompetence.

Makes for a bunch of "yes" men that will do anything to hold on to their jobs because there is no place left to go but backwards and their ego and their finances doesn't allow them much of a choice.

When I first started working in a hospital, I was astounded at the number of acronyms flying around. I was Googling like mad, but most of the acronyms being used were so specific to my hospital campus, trying to look them up didn't do much good. I know I could have just asked people what they stood for, but I was trying to appear competent and I didn't want to look dumb. I swore I would never be the kind of person who rattles them off unthinkingly, but now I regularly annoy my husband by using them in conversation without even realizing I'm doing it.

Rhoswen
When I first started working in a hospital, I was astounded at the number of acronyms flying around. I was Googling like mad, but most of the acronyms being used were so specific to my hospital campus, trying to look them up didn't do much good. I know I could have just asked people what they stood for, but I was trying to appear competent and I didn't want to look dumb. I swore I would never be the kind of person who rattles them off unthinkingly, but now I regularly annoy my husband by using them in conversation without even realizing I'm doing it.

Oh, how quickly we assimilate.

We go to sleep as one person and one day we wake up someone else.

I keep warning my family and friends that I am being abducted and clandestinely being hard wired into the Matrix. Of course, they laugh and think I am either joking or mad.

I think I am slowly becoming more of the later, because some days I actually believe it the only explanation that makes any real sense, since I find myself asking myself more frequently, "When in the world did I become this sorry a$$ed, lazy, complacent, non-active, criticizing, judgmental blight on my community?"

I can't use fatigue and age as an excuse for myself. I am a lousy liar, especially when I lying to myself.