Acronyms

[Walsingham]

Something I hate is when cliques of 'experts' wind up using tonnes and tonnes of acronyms. It happens all the time in business, government, and the military. The reason is that people who deal with something all the time don't want the hassle of saying it in full. But the result is that anyone not in the tiny clique ends up feeling excluded and can't tell what the star spangled f*** they are going on about.

 

I have bad news, gentlemen. We do this all the MF time. The Computer Game section at times coud just as easily be a conference hosted by the insurance industry. It's that f***ing wanky.

 

Can I make a forum suggestion? You know how we write 'lol' and it comes up as ? Let's add common acronyms to the list. So we write 'MOTB' and it comes up as Mask of the Betrayer.

[Pidesco]

That's a great idea, and I believe it's very feasible.

[Hell Kitty]

lol

[Amentep]

I dunno, my only problem with acronyms comes from me not being able to recognize them. So making a common one like MOTB become Mask of the Betrayer doesn't really help me. It'd be the uncommon stuff or stuff that wasn't distinct (so couldn't be shortcutted) that'd be the problem.

 

IMO, YMMV.

[Blarghagh]

Is ME Mass Effect or Mirror's Edge?

[Purkake]

I love acronyms.

[Amentep]

Is ME Mass Effect or Mirror's Edge?

 

Exactly!

 

I used to have fun when people would refer to Diablo II as "D2" when there's actually a game called D2 out there (a sequel to the game "D"), so I'd start talking about D2...

[Walsingham]

YMMV.

 

Ya momma my volvo?

 

Sure we know what MOTB means, but this forum isn't just for us. Someone comes in here who's new and we sound like a whole battery farm of c***s.

 

EDIT: The fact that there are several potential interpretations of an acronym doesn't make my point less valid it makes it MORE valid. Why the f*** are we using acronyms with more than one meaning in the first place?

 

NB: Before anyone asks, I don't know why I've suddenly got into profanity.

Edited March 18, 2010 by Walsingham

[Amentep]

YMMV.

 

Ya momma my volvo?

 

Sure we know what MOTB means, but this forum isn't just for us. Someone comes in here who's new and we sound like a whole battery farm of c***s.

 

EDIT: The fact that there are several potential interpretations of an acronym doesn't make my point less valid it makes it MORE valid. Why the f*** are we using acronyms with more than one meaning in the first place?

 

NB: Before anyone asks, I don't know why I've suddenly got into profanity.

 

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary

 

The problem is, in your hypothetical solution, the computer automagically changes MOTB to "Mask of the Betrayer" just as "lol" becomes . So how does the computer distinguish when I type :ME: as to whether I mean Mass Effect or Mirror's Edge? Or :D2: between Diablo 2 and D2? Or :AC: from Assassin's Creed, Asheron's Call or Ace Combat?

 

From context I can understand the difference, but a computer...?

[Krookie]

lol filters to a smile?

Edited March 18, 2010 by Krookie

[Amentep]

Only if you bookend it with :

 

So lol is lol but :lol: is

[213374U]

If the internets didn't have Google, I'd agree. But you want to force-edit people's posts, to make the boards potentially more understandable to hypothetical newbies that may or may not have basic reading comprehension skills necessary to interpret context AND for whom asking what the **** does X mean is too much effort.

 

So, sorry old boy, but I don't like it. There are better things to add to the boards, such as flash/YouTubes embed support in posts, a spellchecker, class-level dependent titles that work, PS3 gamertags, user blogs, etc. And if it ends up being added, it should be toggleable, to minimize possible inconvenience.

[Reinoc]

IMO, YMMV.

In my opinion, you may mean vagina.

[Purkake]

He's just jealous of all us internet-savvy people.

 

ROFLMAO

[GreasyDogMeat]

IYKWIMAITYD, TPS. BBFN, TTYL ILICISCOMK!

[Oner]

YMCA

[Walsingham]

If the internets didn't have Google, I'd agree. But you want to force-edit people's posts, to make the boards potentially more understandable to hypothetical newbies that may or may not have basic reading comprehension skills necessary to interpret context AND for whom asking what the **** does X mean is too much effort.

 

So, sorry old boy, but I don't like it. There are better things to add to the boards, such as flash/YouTubes embed support in posts, a spellchecker, class-level dependent titles that work, PS3 gamertags, user blogs, etc. And if it ends up being added, it should be toggleable, to minimize possible inconvenience.

 

No, because this is an extension of an existing mechanism. Add a few terms and shazaam. And frankly nuts to your point about hypothetical newbies. I contend there are constantly new people here, and if there aren't then Obs may as well pack the whole thing in. We fail.

[Calax]

If the internets didn't have Google, I'd agree. But you want to force-edit people's posts, to make the boards potentially more understandable to hypothetical newbies that may or may not have basic reading comprehension skills necessary to interpret context AND for whom asking what the **** does X mean is too much effort.

 

So, sorry old boy, but I don't like it. There are better things to add to the boards, such as flash/YouTubes embed support in posts, a spellchecker, class-level dependent titles that work, PS3 gamertags, user blogs, etc. And if it ends up being added, it should be toggleable, to minimize possible inconvenience.

 

No, because this is an extension of an existing mechanism. Add a few terms and shazaam. And frankly nuts to your point about hypothetical newbies. I contend there are constantly new people here, and if there aren't then Obs may as well pack the whole thing in. We fail.

Problem is when things like CoH require context to understand them, in context it could mean City of Heroes, Company of Heroes, Champion of Hargoth...

[Purkake]

CoH is obviously Company of Heroes, all other CoHs are pretenders.

 

Hail to the king

[Calax]

CoH is obviously Company of Heroes, all other CoHs are pretenders.

 

Hail to the king

City of Heroes came first. Eldar would back me up if he was here.

[Tigranes]

a spellchecker

 

Please, no.

 

Anyway, I don't see much of an issue here, but technically speaking, it shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to add.

[213374U]

If the internets didn't have Google, I'd agree. But you want to force-edit people's posts, to make the boards potentially more understandable to hypothetical newbies that may or may not have basic reading comprehension skills necessary to interpret context AND for whom asking what the **** does X mean is too much effort.

 

So, sorry old boy, but I don't like it. There are better things to add to the boards, such as flash/YouTubes embed support in posts, a spellchecker, class-level dependent titles that work, PS3 gamertags, user blogs, etc. And if it ends up being added, it should be toggleable, to minimize possible inconvenience.

 

No, because this is an extension of an existing mechanism. Add a few terms and shazaam. And frankly nuts to your point about hypothetical newbies. I contend there are constantly new people here, and if there aren't then Obs may as well pack the whole thing in. We fail.

The existing mechanism is in place overwhelmingly for smileys, and not to enforce a certain posting style. Further, it's optional, and in the cases it's not, it causes problems (auto-substitution of (r) for ®, for instance).

 

I don't see the point of a gimmick that's bound to cause more headaches to both users and admin than it will actually help prevent.

[Purkake]

CoH is obviously Company of Heroes, all other CoHs are pretenders.

 

Hail to the king

City of Heroes came first. Eldar would back me up if he was here.

Sure, but Company of Heroes takes precedence, because it is much more awesome.

 

When multiple things have the same initials you have to improvise eg. SupCom for Supreme Commander.

[Walsingham]

My point is precisely that CoH meaning several things is why we shouldn't use it. Don't you see how fething opaque the board becomes when we indulge ourselves that way?

[Purkake]

As said before, the context makes it clear. I'm not seeing the problem here, we have always used acronyms and will probably continue to do so, especially on the internet.