One-line non-essay - pleas for a rule on C99p -

All commentators and authors of essays MUST spell out in full any abbreviation they are using.

Please!

Example:
(C99p = Caucus99percent) In case you had forgotten. /ducking/s/

Yes 3

Share
up
8 users have voted.

Comments

janis b's picture

I agree mimi, that it can be tedious and alienating to have to decipher many abbreviations. I enjoy googling references I don’t understand but have an interest in. I don’t really enjoy having to google urban dictionary abbreviations. I think if someone wants to be clearly understood by the majority they wouldn’t assume that abbreviations are naturally or universally understood. But the point I guess in abbreviation is to save energy and time. Maybe we feel we don’t have enough time, or our time is too precious? Who knows?

up
5 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@janis b @janis b @janis b
to spell out an abbreviation for those, who know the meaning of the abbreviation the writer is using, is tedious and time consuming. It is a humane thing to try to make the writing less time consuming and a bit easier.

But it is hard for a foreign reader, who is not an insider political junky like most of the pinkish-blueish Easter Bunnies with their big ears and huge biting front teeth running around on C99p flowery meadows, it is hard for them foreigners to constantly try to find the meaning of the abbreviations.

Tired Easter Bunnies, I love you so, please get your batteries recharged and go to bed and sleep a bit more.

Oops, these Easter Bunnies somehow don"t look like the ones I have seen. Now I have to look like what ABOD means and Iceland, where was that again . sigh. See, I told you so...
[video:https://youtu.be/0dSTU3-Tris]
But you have enough time, how much depends where you are right now.
179541-Funny-Minion-Quote-About-Time-At-Work-Vs-Home.jpg

Smells not right. Why love people to march and why can't they get enough of their flags?

Who stood before more flags, Donald or Ivanka? Or may be 'der FÜhrer'?

I drop the images, because I don't want your dreams be turned into nightmares.

When is it Easter already? I want my chocolate bunny.

up
7 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@mimi

after the discomforting sound and feeling of the marching band.

[video:https://youtu.be/Nv2GgV34qIg]

up
5 users have voted.
Dawn's Meta's picture

@janis b I played it and my DH knew it is Bill Evans, then knew the Peace Piece, then said we have the sheet music. Who knew???

up
2 users have voted.

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

janis b's picture

@Dawn's Meta

I never tire of it. It's so exceptionally composed and gentle.

up
2 users have voted.
lotlizard's picture

instead of laptop to read things on the Internet.

On the iPad, mostly I can tap on or text-highlight (select) an abbreviation, word, name, or phrase I don’t recognize or want clarified. And then when a little bar pops up with the choices “…Copy | Look Up | Share…” I can tap on “Look Up”. If the dictionary entries (multilingual, even) that then appear don’t help or none are found, I then continue by scrolling down and tapping on “Search Web” which shows results in a new tab …

Really speeds things up. Has become such a habit in muscle memory that I find myself trying to do this on the laptop, where it doesn’t work.

Acronyms recently looked up:
SIP = shelter in place
ICYMI = in case you missed it
ELI5 = [please] explain like I’m five [= as if I were 5 years old]

up
8 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@lotlizard

ELI5 = [please] explain like I’m five [= as if I were 5 years old]

up
4 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@janis b @janis b

Tttc

up
2 users have voted.
mimi's picture

Why not just ask? That way we can all learn together, and after a while the knowledge base expands due to repetition on the page. Like who doesn't know wtf wtf means? I thought it shipped with every modern OS (Operating System) but no? Porquoi? Imperial spell check so incorrect it suggests Turquoise there. hmph

$ wtf is wtf
WTF: {what,where,who,why} the fuck

$ wtf is tla
TLA: three letter acronym

It even autocompletes for me when I hit TAB TAB

$ wtf is A
AFAICR AFAICT AFAIK AFAIR AFK AIUI AKA ASAP AWOL AYBABTU

wtf is B
BBL BBS BBT BFD BIAB BIAF BIALW BIAS BIAW BOFH BOHICA BRB BTDT BTTH BTW

A very handy utility that wtf, highly recommended but apparently not widely available. It still doesn't know how the fuck yet either, perhaps I should file a bug report.

wtf is htf
Gee... I don't know what htf means...

That was fun.
TYVM: thank you very much
HAND: have a nice day

up
10 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@eyo
roasting scared Easter Bunnies. Wink

ELI6 (I promise I will get older, don't worry)

up
3 users have voted.
polkageist's picture

I have mentioned this annoying habit a few times in the past. The convention is/was that the first time an abbreviation is used it is written in full and the initials follow in parentheses. For example, "your mileage may vary (YMMV)." One cannot always be sure others know abbreviations that one is used to using. The courteous action is to spell it out; it also helps clarify your meaning if you are trying to communicate something. Remember JBYKIDMEED.
Just because you know it doesn't mean everyone else does.

up
8 users have voted.

-Greed is not a virtue.
-Socialism: the radical idea of sharing.
-Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy, In a speech at the White House, 1962

snoopydawg's picture

If you want someone to read your essay then provide information on what it is about and why you think people should read it. One line liners make it feel that I am on Reddit where people often just post photos of tweets without including the link to them. I usually read all articles and comments at their source so I can see what was not included. How many would click on this because of the title?

https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/08/29/franks-a-lot/

I feel the same with comments. If you can't excerpt it then at least take the time to tell what it's about.

up
2 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

mimi's picture

@snoopydawg ...
I know from myself that I have difficulties to excerpt a good article or essay. Basically that's why I love the EB. I value Joe Shikspack's selection of articlcs but also how he excerpts them. Now and then it happens I read the full article and then can see what he excerpted and what not.

So, when my feelings running wild and I can't stop myself from saying something in a comment, I use mostly short simple sentences.

I also don't like to write an essay. It's difficult for ee. I may not choose the right expressions in English for what I want to say. I feel uncomfortable asking for explanat
ions of terms.

If I have to translate longer German news articles into English with some google translation softwars, which sometimes make my eyes pop out and my mouth cursing In German (too many edits necessary, before the translation suits my taste) I have reached my limits. I would just sometimes talk about things that happen Europe and don't know where to talk about it.

I call myself an unsocial Socialist Democrat and therefore don't use the online out-of-line social platforms.

OT, I don't know why the attack on Rudi Dutschke in 1968 reminds me of shootings in the US today. What would Rudi Dutschke have said about recent shootings and demonstrations in Berlin and the US?

Sigh. YMWTK.(Your Mama Wants to Know)

My bed is calling me to stop writing superfluous comments. Good Night from Germany.

up
6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@mimi

This wasn’t addressed to you. The site in general.

up
4 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@mimi
I use iTranslate to write in Deutsch, because my language skills are not good. Sometimes I iterate a paragraph or sentence several times, to correct the translation. I often change a sentence to make the translation more accurate. I re-wrote this paragraph several times.

A sample translation. What do you think?
Ich benutze iTranslate, um in Deutsch zu schreiben, weil meine Sprachkenntnisse nicht gut sind. Manchmal iterate ich mehrmals einen Absatz oder Satz, um die Übersetzung zu korrigieren. Ich ändere oft einen Satz, um die Übersetzung genauer zu machen. Ich habe diesen Absatz mehrmals neu geschrieben.

Abbreviations are handy for small touch-screen devices and texting, but I don't use those things much. I have callouses on fingertips that interfere with capacitance-sensing touch screens. I much prefer physical keyboards.

up
2 users have voted.
mimi's picture

@pindar's revenge @pindar's revenge

Ich benutze iTranslate, um in Deutsch zu schreiben, weil meine Sprachkenntnisse nicht gut sind. Manchmal iterate ich mehrmals einen Absatz oder Satz, um die Übersetzung zu korrigieren. Ich ändere oft einen Satz, um die Übersetzung genauer zu machen. Ich habe diesen Absatz mehrmals neu geschrieben.

Replace "iterate" with "wiederhole". Iterate as a German word is not often used by Germans. My sister would ask me what 'iterate' means. Probably you didn't 'correct' the translation, just 'ameliorated' the translation. I believe the folks who write the code for the translation software use the 'ameliorating' efforts of their users, to ameliorate their code of the translation software, but that's just a guess from my side.

That's it. Everything else is fine, imo.

PS. Never heard about iTranslate before. I will have a look. Thanks for mentioning it.

up
3 users have voted.

@mimi
Yes, iTranslate seemed to have a problem with "iterate". I tried "loop through" first, and that didn't translate well.
The software pushes me to use short, clear declarative sentences to keep my meaning clear.
iTranslate returns "wiederhole" as "repeat".
Again, many thanks.

up
1 user has voted.

Granted there are "common" abbreviations, but even then they are only common to members of a subgroup, and you don't always think of yourself as a part of a particular subgroup. This especially applies with abbreviations for someone's name. Here I can safely assume that everyone knows who I mean when I type BHO, but what if I typed DOJ completely out of context? And then there's the insular nature of colloquialisms. The abbreviations you use subtly identifies you as part of a group, and knowing them identifies you as well. If someone does not know the jargon they feel left out, or worse discriminated against. Tech support does this viciously. Now C99 is doing it too? F them!

up
5 users have voted.

On to Biden since 1973

mimi's picture

@doh1304
on purpose. Tec Support people may simply not realize that their brain can't think non-technically anymore. They are the smarties, which makes the rest the dummies.

Well, it was said by some tec people I worked with, that writing a good manual for a technical device, used by non-technical people, is very difficult thing to write.

up
4 users have voted.

@mimi
Ending a rant over people using abbreviations with an abbreviation was funny. I have many techie friends, and they do it to me all the time, even after I complain. They can't help it. It's so specific and different it has become a new language. To understand it you must use it, but Me? I gigosnert the berpiggle only once a decade, how can I learn?

up
5 users have voted.

On to Biden since 1973

mimi's picture

@doh1304
that must be turko-greek-chino-russian-bottism. Is there a vaccine against it already?

We had beautiful weather today, ideal for garden work, but I just wasted my time looking for
a starter set for mushroom grwoing.

Found a nice online site in German, but none in English. I think I have to translate first in berpiggle or how do you translate a "Pilzkeim" into English.

Have a good one and stay confident. Smile

up
3 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@mimi

up
2 users have voted.
mimi's picture

up
3 users have voted.
econoclast's picture

Good post.
Before I move into anonymity I retired from acronymity, years ago, about the time I began receiving social insecurity from the WHOO (White House Oval Office).
When I used acronyms I was being lazy, not efficient. Some are so widely used they are unavoidable, such as CIA. Much more efficient than "Spy and Torture Agency".
In today's politics, anything worth mentioning deserves its own name. Anything not worth mentioning could be a short, simple word: "them".
I also have retired from "shouldness" and "supposed to-ness".
Question authority. What authority?

up
3 users have voted.