In closing this thread (I hope), here is a list that I started based on
the responses posted so far. I hope this will satisfy the curiosity of
those who didn't know what those things "that could have been left off
without any harm done" mean and help them to join the club. (I would
still prefer not to use most of these, though).
At the same time, I want to apologize for starting this conversation and
using up EMAIL bandwidth, because I feel it wouldn't have happened if I
didn't ask.
Arpad
-----------------------------------------------
AFAIK As Far As I Know
AFK Away From Keyboard
ATM At The Moment
BBL Be Back Later
BBS Be Back Soon
BFN Bye For Now
BRB Be Right Back
BTW By The Way
CUL See You Later
ETLA Extended Three Letter Acronym
F2F Face To Face
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
FUBAR F*** Up Beyond All Recognition
FWIW For What It's Worth
GD&R Grinning Ducking, and Running (after snide remark)
GFY Good For You
GYAT Get Your Act Together
GYST Get Your S*** Together
HAND Have A Nice Day
HTH Hope That Helps
IIRC If I Remember Correctly
IMHO In My Humble Opinion
IMNSHO In My Not So Humble Opinion
IMO In My Opinion
LOL Laughs Out Loud
MMD Make My Day
OTOH On The Other Hand
PCB Printed Circuit Board
PWB Printed Wiring Board
RGDS Regards
ROTFL Rolling On The Floor Laughing
RTFM Read The F*** Manual!
SNAFU Situation Normal, All F*** Up
SSO Simultaneously Switching Outputs
TLA Three Letter Acronym
TTFN Ta Ta For Now
XFER Transfer
XFR Transfer
YMMV Your Mileage May Vary
For more acronyms see: www.super-highway.net/users/finefin/babel.html
========================================================================
-----Original Message-----
From: D. C. Sessions [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, May 24, 1999 5:30 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [SI-LIST] : SSTL Versus full swing PROS/CONS]
"Gary L. Sanders" wrote:
>
> I agree about the abbreviations; I didn't know what they were either, and
I am familiar with a number of abbreviations used in e-mail. Frankly, now
that I do know what they mean, they seem rather meaningless used that way.
Of course they are. It's a social closing. I didn't mean to start a long
off-topic
thread on acronyms (well, it *is* Monday) but having done so, however
inadvertently,
I'll add this: ANY phrase which is important to the meaning of a message
should be
as unambiguous and resistant to misinterpretation as possible. This
necessarily
depends somewhat on the audience, since mythic references (for example) are
extremely concise and expressive but only work if the audience is conversant
with
the literature.
In an anonymous and intercultural forum like this list, the ONLY safe
references
for serious content are those which are essential for minimum competency in
the
field. We shouldn't have to explain to anyone what the H-vector is or what
we
mean by epsilon sub R or shorthand like L and C. This list isn't intended
as
a substitute for freshman-level network theory. Beyond that there are any
number of recurring subjects that probably should be in a list FAQ.
Which segues nicely to acronyms and less-than-basic English. 'FAQ' is a
list
of Frequently Asked Questions (and their answers), just as a segue is a
transition in music. I suspect that there are more people who know the
acronym
than the musical term. In a discussion of composition the former may be out
of
place, and in a discussion of mailing-list maintenance the latter should
probably
be avoided.
So how come "YMMV. HTH. HAND." ? I could have left it off and no harm done.
(Actually, it would have saved a lot of bandwidth as it turns out.) But
that's the point: I *could* have left it off. Anyone not understanding it
didn't miss a thing. Those who did understand it just saw a social closing,
the Internet's answer to "Yr Obd't Svt." invariably written by someone who
was unlikely to be obedient and almost certainly nobody's servant, but who
WAS trying to grease the often-frictious social machinery.
That's it. Much Ado About Nothing. A veritable Tempest over something
that at Bottom is a mere Comedy of Errors.
> "D. C. Sessions" wrote:
>
> > "Muranyi, Arpad" wrote:
> > >
> > > D.C.,
> > >
> > > I would appreciate if you would not use all these acronyms.
> > >
> > > "YMMV. HTH. HAND." etc...
> > >
> > > I have no idea what they stand for, and I bet many of the foreign
> > > readers on the list have the same problem. I know it takes a lot of
> > > time to write out frequently used common expressions, and in this
> > > world we have everything but time, but if this is such a big problem
> > > for you, come up with some nifty keyboard macros that will
automatically
> > > write it out for you on pressing one or a few keys.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Arpad
> > > ======================================================================
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