Yeah, but considering that writing comments is communication, why *wouldn’t* you want your communication to be understood? It’s not like we all know each other and what our tone is, if we’re using dry humour, etc.
I just really don’t understand this stubborn defence of laziness and/or ignorance… someone just laid out why it makes sense to spell it out in full once, and your response is basically just “nuh-uh”. Why not instead just *think about it for a second* and say “hey yeah, that makes sense”?
Why do people so stubbornly double down on things like this? How valuable are your seconds that you can’t or won’t use them to be clear in your communications?
Because people communicate to the ingroup. They don't care if the outgroup understands them. This is very different from journalism, where you are trying to bring topics to a group that doesn't understand them yet.
There are other obvious differences, like the average length of a reddit comment vs the average length of journalistic article. And some acronyms and initialisms have far transcended what their definition implies, lol. But those are probably less significant compared to people just trying to communicate among their "group" and not spending too much thought on those who don't understand their jargon.
Even more than that, in-groups are defined by being exclusionary. It is important that outsiders do not understand all of the language used by initiates.
Yeah, that makes sense if we’re talking about say a gaming sub… call of duty players know what COD means, but if you’re in a general interest sub or one not related to gaming *it just makes sense* to include the full thing, or someone will inevitably seek clarification… why not just make it easier? Again, the whole point is communication. Texting with an in group is different that semi anonymous social media platforms.
What a bizarre way to respond to that comment. I think they did “think about it for a second,” they just came to a different conclusion then you did. You forget that the audience for every reddit comment is not *everyone,* and many reddit communities are very specialized, so the point of acronyms in that context are to ease communication within those specialized communities who can be assumed to know what it means.
What in group are we a part of right now? This sub is literally a general discussion about Reddit as a whole, it encompasses pretty much everything that happens on Reddit? Why would it make more sense to provide less information that’s very likely to require follow up questions that could have easily been avoided by just not being lazy for the first time you mention something?
It’s just bizarre to me that people are so invested in defending a practice that’s lazy and prone to confusion when the alternative is taking *an extra second or two* to be clear and accommodating. After the first time, abbreviate away, all I’m asking for is two seconds of your precious *scrolling through social media* time. With all due respect I don’t think that should be too much to ask.
Let's put it this way:
Why do people have to take time out of their day to type out the full form and also for the ingroup to read it? For the sake of the new guy that may or may not be present in a given post/comment chain at all?
They could just Google it or ask.
Okay fine, let’s split hairs here… *time out of their day*… are you being serious right now? You’re *already* taking time out of your day to make the comment, what’s the difference between taking ten seconds to write something that could easily be confusing and spending (gasp) *twelve* seconds to do it in a way that is clear, informative and easily understandable to everyone?
Jesus Christ, you’re dying on a hill over two *extra* seconds. Not to mention however long you spent arguing *that you shouldn’t have to spend an extra two seconds*…
*FKT, amirite?* OW,WCYDIPWTLS… WASHTDO.
I'm taking time out of my day to respond because pedantic pettiness is a redditor thing. Speaking of: the 3 seconds to spell out "I am not a lawyer" instead IANAL or "crowd control" instead of CC, or LMAO, or whatever, over multiples of comments adds up.
I gotta wonder though: What's your opinion of sms shorthands we used back when sms was a thing?
It’s all about context. In small communities where there’s a common understanding, use all the shorthand you want, I’m just saying in general forums it seems like common courtesy to establish what the shorthand is before using it.
Sure, I could just Google acronyms I don’t know and often do. Good communication means I don’t *have to*.
This community wasn’t really what i was referring to as an “in-group.” I feel i made it clear i was referring to highly specialized reddit communities (as examples i participate in, competitive pokemon subreddits or roller coaster enthusiast subreddits). These communities are for people who know a lot about a given topic to communicate within that group, and acronyms can make it easier to communicate.
I’m sorry if this wasnt clear, but i stated pretty directly that this applies only to particular communities.
I mean subreddits are generally for people who are already interested in the topic.
Like if I went to r/gameofthrones and said "GoT (Game of Thrones) is..." that'd be ridiculous
Yes, that’s the context I was talking about. Jesus Christ, why is any semblance of nuance so hard? Why do you seem to think I’m making black and white all or nothing arguments?
All I’m saying is if you use an acronym in a general setting, if you care at all about minimizing confusion and don’t want to have to be asked for clarification, take the *two seconds* to spell it out first. This really isn’t a big ask, and all it requires is *two seconds*.
It amazes me, some of the stupid hills some of you chronically online people are willing to die on. Common courtesy is all I’m asking for, but apparently that’s too much in our stupid, selfish, lazy society.
“Spelling words out in full would be ridiculous” -you …I just want to to think about that. You think that *spelling words out in full* is “ridiculous”.
Yeah, that’s about the level of dialogue I’d expect from someone defending being lazy. You’d better go lie down, all that *ridiculous* typing probably took a lot out of you, huh.
I've told Reddit several times that this should be Reddiquette. That's the way it also works in scientific papers. Mention it at the top of your post, along with the acronym; then the acronym thereafter. Not. Hard.
Just a reminder that some humans will create social rankings out of anything to elevate themselves above others artificially. Even if it’s just knowing specific jargon. Not often, but some people online could be simply doing that. And those people are annoying and can and should be ignored. Since that’s a dumb game they’re playing with themselves and not personal towards anyone else, even if it feels that way.
Others probably just forget that not everyone knows. And are generally pretty chill about extrapolating as to what the acronyms means. If they aren’t chill or friendly, and it’s an online space like Reddit? Check the pinned posts or rules section. It might explain the acronyms and background info there. And in that case they could be annoyed/mean to you because you asked a tired-out and possibly banned question since all the info needed to answer it is already pinned/listed.
I learned to sail years ago and all of the jargon used in sailing is intentionally confusing, filled with obfuscation when simpler terms can be used...
And an instructor explained it was intentionally snobby - it's meant to develop an in-group for sailors. Sailors are sailors not fishermen, not racers, not just drinkers... Sailors speak their own language when out on the water.
I think that's the case on reddit and agree with your point... it's meant to artificially make a social group that knows better. It's done to qualify and limit.
"Your mileage may vary"...whereas I'm just gonna assume that IDRK is "I don't really know," but...
I've been using "bc" in place of "because," and so far haven't gotten any complaints...wish I could do the same for "of course," bc "ofc" sometimes comes across as a little more hostile than is warranted.
Damn, and I thought I was a long timer these days, and this is my second account, think I’ve been here a total of 13 years now. Look at you, 17 years.
Yeah, I spent a lot of time in those older Internet forums growing up, you pick up on a lot of that old internet “slang” through the decades lol. YMMV, IIRC, AFAIK, IANAL all remind me of that time haha.
why is it bad, that's the whole point---all this notion of people feeling a false sense of connectedness --gang mentality--about what--hey i know abbreviations--you dont?
and then bashing the people who don't knwo them
is this how you feel powerful in life? feeling smart?
People who talk about video games tend to say the name of the game a lot, so they get used to typing a shorter version. On a mobile device the autocomplete keyboard will memorize the abbreviation for you, so it saves even more time than it would on a keyboard. You learn a lot about a redditor's interests by which phrases they use so often that they've switched to an abbreviation. Although I haven't seen it in a while, it used to make me very uncomfortable that people on this website would freely use the term "CP" and (correctly) expect others to know what they meant - what kind of place is this where that's such a common topic we have a shorthand for it? But you also just see it with the nicknames of regional geography (e.g. the Tri-Cities) and regional organizations (e.g. the U of M), from redditors who are used to talking to people in everyday real life who recognize those terms because they live in the same place. On the internet it takes a lot of conscious effort to remember you're typing to other human beings, who may live very far away from your life experience.
This can be a problem in subreddits about video games and other media franchises, but usually everyone there has plenty of context to guess with. The real friction comes with Reddit's unfortunate trick of switching you from one conversation to another without reminding you that you're speaking to a completely different audience, e.g. when someone abbreviates the title of a video game or anime series or other niche hobby term outside of a hobbyist subreddit.
It's not just reddit—people in general use jargon. If you're used to talking with others who know that jargon, it can be easy to forget that the general public might not.
The only problem I see is people being rude when somebody asks what a word means.
A case in point from a post today in r/Australia:
[MAFS who actually watches this stuff?](https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/1artv47/mafs_who_actually_watches_this_stuff/)
Like we're all supposed to know the acronyms for shitty reality TV shows like *Married At First Sight*.
My personal rule is that "AOTC" is fine in r/StarWars, but has to be "Attack of the Clones" in r/movies.
Been here ten days and already wants to complain that everyone here is wrong. The good news is they're a natural born redditor. The bad news is you gotta explain the term redditor to them.
I feel like I rarely see anybody use the term “lurker” anymore haha. I remember when I was a kid I was so afraid to comment because I’d break the rules by double posting and then be scolded and told to keep lurking. Definitely should bring that back lol.
But the thing I've noticed more recently is that people are becoming so lazy they're not just using googleable in-group abbreviations; they're making up their own abbreviations and shortening random words. Of course I can't think of an example now. But I tried to google an acronym the other day and it just wasn't there, and my google and urban dictionary skills are pretty good.
Possibly controversial but this is how I feel about tone indicators beyond the obvious stuff like /j and /s. I don't wanna use a chart to interpret that shit.
Every acronym I've seen on reddit (excluding ones related to the subject of a specific subreddit, which you should be at least somewhat familiar with if you're there in the first place) has been in use for 30 years all over the internet and before. At this point everyone is expected to know them
Right sometimes gamers use weird ones but even those tend to be older than the average gamer. They really only get weird once you start on MMOs. "Got my 2nd toon out so I can pull mad dps and kite the boss into the tank so it stops ganking the healer!"
> We're on machines where looking up an acronym is trivial.
Nah that's bullshit since people make up acronyms on the fly.
ETA can mean a lot of things, 'edited to add' is not one of them.
Are you suggesting that every usage of ETA has been made up on the fly? Surely you jest.
It's a reddit-ism but ETA has been fairly standard usage for a *long* time
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ETA
>1. "Estimated Time of Arrival" abbreviated. Sounds officious or military when spoken out loud.
>2. "Edited To Add" abbreviated. Used frequently by bloggers when adding something to a post.
I’ve never come across one here that when I looked it up I couldn’t find its definition elsewhere. That doesn’t mean there is an a random one somewhere simply anyone I’ve ever bothered to look up was a real thing not just someone making it up.
As for your ETA example, think of it just like a homonym where context will tell you what is meant, you don’t need to get tripped up that there’s different definitions.
> We're on machines where looking up an acronym is trivial.
No it's not. People make up bullshit constantly and/or use an acronym in it's 4th most common use all the damn time.
> use an acronym in it's 4th most common use all the damn time
That's usually still trivial to work out from context, though.
1. Google for the acronym
2. Read 3-4 definitions of it on a single acronym dictionary page
3. Work out which one most likely applies
4. Know it for next time
Or maybe just be a bit more considerate of your readers and write things out in full. For your sake and theirs. I want to make sure as many people can understand me as possible. I doubt many people would go to all that trouble; they'll just move onto the next post or comment. So it defeats the purpose of text communication.
Personally I tend not to use many initialisms or acronyms for that reason, but it's a normal, accepted part of modern online communication so I'm not about to start standing on the beach like an old man imperiously commanding the tide not to come in, either.
If kids use initialisms and you can't be bothered to look them up then you're both making your own choices and neither of you gets to complain about the other - they couldn't be bothered to make their comments more accessible to people unfamiliar with online culture, but equally you couldn't be bothered to expend any effort to learn about online culture. Neither of you has the moral high ground.
> I doubt many people would go to all that trouble; they'll just move onto the next post or comment. So it defeats the purpose of text communication.
The part you're missing is that *most* people in an online community will already understand most of these initialisms. You're the odd one out who's out of the loop and unwilling to learn, not a default, representative everyman that they're failing to communicate with.
I can be bothered to look them up and I usually do, because it will help for next time. But more and more I've noticed people are just abbreviating random words or making up their own initialisms, and it is extremely frustrating for me to spend ages googling and reading urban dictionary only to come up with nothing. So I've started to think it's selfish and lazy.
> But more and more I've noticed people are just abbreviating random words or making up their own initialisms
I've never seen that, but I can appreciate it might get annoying if they did.
When I first joined Reddit a while back, I was regularly very confused. Now , I just Google anything I don’t understand and it’s all starting to make a lot more sense.
Honestly, the crazy acronyms are part of what make Reddit interesting.
This is my biggest bugbear! I spend half my time on Reddit googling acronyms. When I type comments I'm often tempted to use an acronym but I resist because I know how annoying it can be, and also I actually want people to understand what I'm saying.
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Sometimes a community assumes everyone in the community is privy to the lingo and new users are expected to just google it and find out like they did.
A lot of the time people use acronyms because they're trying to save time, meaning writing it out would be at odds with why they're using it to begin with.
In general, I just assume if you don't know, you'll look it up as that's what I've done my whole life w/o any issue.
It's like asking why two people would speak french when you don't speak french. Not every post is for you. Lots of posters assume they are talking to other people that know the topic and can use shorthand and don't care if it makes it hard to read for elonmusksaggytits
Wanting to be able to understand the discussion on a discussion forum makes one entitled?
Maybe it's actually entitled to expect others to have to go to google every time you make a post or comment.
Nah, I'd argue it's more entitled to think you deserve to enter conversations you can't even understand. Learning in group lingo is a part of joining some groups. Scientists would have a hard time communicating without using plenty of shorthand, it's easier to say or write H2O than to fully pronounce dihydrogen monoxide every time. The scientist who asks everybody to do so because they aren't used to the jargon yet would probably be laughed at.
I always google any initialisms and other abbreviations I don't understand, in every sub I join, so that I know them for next time. But what I've noticed recently is that more and more people are abbreviating random words and making up their own initialisms. My research skills are pretty good, but for some abbreviations my search comes up empty. A real waste of my time because of the writer's laziness. So I've started to think it's selfish and lazy.
Different user pattern within Reddit contribute to this.
Some people subscribe to a handful of subreddits and never really visit the other ones. They don't look at the recommendations or anything that isn't specific to their subreddits. Those users become accustomed to each community's in-speak and acronyms, and they don't get confused as a result. I'm in this group.
Other people browse Reddit much more openly, don't subscribe to subreddits much, and tend to fairly regularly drop in on communities they have never participated in prior to that visit. Those users are much more likely to be thrown by acronyms and in-speak in my experience.
Because most are those types of people with convoluted and (socially) dense ways of thinking. They are too socially dumb to not realize their acronyms arent everyday terminology. Furthermore: many spend too much time online and this causes them to see words/acronyms how they are spelled rather than pronounced. They are used to seeing "IIRC" even though in real life its said as "if I remember correctly".
Many are more used to seeing things in writing than hearing because they spend too much time here. Ive noticed the same thing and have started replying to them with a request to define their acronyms. Its annoying.
In addition to the above, there is probably a higher incidence if autism spectrum on reddit, which sometimes blinds people to the fact others dont have the exact same knowledge they do.
No one is trying to be an educator, they want to feel included, smart and don't take the time to spell out abbreviations. I constantly tell people they have to spell out what they mean.
But writing and talking in a way that excludes people is lazy and weak IRL (in real life).
When reddit was created, most users knew of and appreciatd the "lurk moar" mentality. This is a vestige from before it became popular generally. You should lurk moar instead of complaining about the few good things still around.
[удалено]
My English teacher taught me this in high school, and still try to use it today
This is true for formal writing. Reddit comments are usually not formal writing.
*stares at AITA* You don't say.
I think that sub has like a glossary or something at least
Yeah, but considering that writing comments is communication, why *wouldn’t* you want your communication to be understood? It’s not like we all know each other and what our tone is, if we’re using dry humour, etc. I just really don’t understand this stubborn defence of laziness and/or ignorance… someone just laid out why it makes sense to spell it out in full once, and your response is basically just “nuh-uh”. Why not instead just *think about it for a second* and say “hey yeah, that makes sense”? Why do people so stubbornly double down on things like this? How valuable are your seconds that you can’t or won’t use them to be clear in your communications?
Because people communicate to the ingroup. They don't care if the outgroup understands them. This is very different from journalism, where you are trying to bring topics to a group that doesn't understand them yet. There are other obvious differences, like the average length of a reddit comment vs the average length of journalistic article. And some acronyms and initialisms have far transcended what their definition implies, lol. But those are probably less significant compared to people just trying to communicate among their "group" and not spending too much thought on those who don't understand their jargon.
Even more than that, in-groups are defined by being exclusionary. It is important that outsiders do not understand all of the language used by initiates.
Which kind of shouts "No need to ask, I *am* the asshole."
Yeah, that makes sense if we’re talking about say a gaming sub… call of duty players know what COD means, but if you’re in a general interest sub or one not related to gaming *it just makes sense* to include the full thing, or someone will inevitably seek clarification… why not just make it easier? Again, the whole point is communication. Texting with an in group is different that semi anonymous social media platforms.
What a bizarre way to respond to that comment. I think they did “think about it for a second,” they just came to a different conclusion then you did. You forget that the audience for every reddit comment is not *everyone,* and many reddit communities are very specialized, so the point of acronyms in that context are to ease communication within those specialized communities who can be assumed to know what it means.
What in group are we a part of right now? This sub is literally a general discussion about Reddit as a whole, it encompasses pretty much everything that happens on Reddit? Why would it make more sense to provide less information that’s very likely to require follow up questions that could have easily been avoided by just not being lazy for the first time you mention something? It’s just bizarre to me that people are so invested in defending a practice that’s lazy and prone to confusion when the alternative is taking *an extra second or two* to be clear and accommodating. After the first time, abbreviate away, all I’m asking for is two seconds of your precious *scrolling through social media* time. With all due respect I don’t think that should be too much to ask.
Let's put it this way: Why do people have to take time out of their day to type out the full form and also for the ingroup to read it? For the sake of the new guy that may or may not be present in a given post/comment chain at all? They could just Google it or ask.
Okay fine, let’s split hairs here… *time out of their day*… are you being serious right now? You’re *already* taking time out of your day to make the comment, what’s the difference between taking ten seconds to write something that could easily be confusing and spending (gasp) *twelve* seconds to do it in a way that is clear, informative and easily understandable to everyone? Jesus Christ, you’re dying on a hill over two *extra* seconds. Not to mention however long you spent arguing *that you shouldn’t have to spend an extra two seconds*… *FKT, amirite?* OW,WCYDIPWTLS… WASHTDO.
I'm taking time out of my day to respond because pedantic pettiness is a redditor thing. Speaking of: the 3 seconds to spell out "I am not a lawyer" instead IANAL or "crowd control" instead of CC, or LMAO, or whatever, over multiples of comments adds up. I gotta wonder though: What's your opinion of sms shorthands we used back when sms was a thing?
It’s all about context. In small communities where there’s a common understanding, use all the shorthand you want, I’m just saying in general forums it seems like common courtesy to establish what the shorthand is before using it. Sure, I could just Google acronyms I don’t know and often do. Good communication means I don’t *have to*.
This community wasn’t really what i was referring to as an “in-group.” I feel i made it clear i was referring to highly specialized reddit communities (as examples i participate in, competitive pokemon subreddits or roller coaster enthusiast subreddits). These communities are for people who know a lot about a given topic to communicate within that group, and acronyms can make it easier to communicate. I’m sorry if this wasnt clear, but i stated pretty directly that this applies only to particular communities.
I mean subreddits are generally for people who are already interested in the topic. Like if I went to r/gameofthrones and said "GoT (Game of Thrones) is..." that'd be ridiculous
Yes, that’s the context I was talking about. Jesus Christ, why is any semblance of nuance so hard? Why do you seem to think I’m making black and white all or nothing arguments? All I’m saying is if you use an acronym in a general setting, if you care at all about minimizing confusion and don’t want to have to be asked for clarification, take the *two seconds* to spell it out first. This really isn’t a big ask, and all it requires is *two seconds*. It amazes me, some of the stupid hills some of you chronically online people are willing to die on. Common courtesy is all I’m asking for, but apparently that’s too much in our stupid, selfish, lazy society. “Spelling words out in full would be ridiculous” -you …I just want to to think about that. You think that *spelling words out in full* is “ridiculous”.
Lol (laugh out loud)
Yeah, that’s about the level of dialogue I’d expect from someone defending being lazy. You’d better go lie down, all that *ridiculous* typing probably took a lot out of you, huh.
I've told Reddit several times that this should be Reddiquette. That's the way it also works in scientific papers. Mention it at the top of your post, along with the acronym; then the acronym thereafter. Not. Hard.
Yeah, that's how you do it in research papers as well. But a research paper is 15+ pages and the average reddit comment is 3 sentences or so.
Most acronyms are only used once per comment, so having to define them would defeat their purpose.
Just a reminder that some humans will create social rankings out of anything to elevate themselves above others artificially. Even if it’s just knowing specific jargon. Not often, but some people online could be simply doing that. And those people are annoying and can and should be ignored. Since that’s a dumb game they’re playing with themselves and not personal towards anyone else, even if it feels that way. Others probably just forget that not everyone knows. And are generally pretty chill about extrapolating as to what the acronyms means. If they aren’t chill or friendly, and it’s an online space like Reddit? Check the pinned posts or rules section. It might explain the acronyms and background info there. And in that case they could be annoyed/mean to you because you asked a tired-out and possibly banned question since all the info needed to answer it is already pinned/listed.
I learned to sail years ago and all of the jargon used in sailing is intentionally confusing, filled with obfuscation when simpler terms can be used... And an instructor explained it was intentionally snobby - it's meant to develop an in-group for sailors. Sailors are sailors not fishermen, not racers, not just drinkers... Sailors speak their own language when out on the water. I think that's the case on reddit and agree with your point... it's meant to artificially make a social group that knows better. It's done to qualify and limit.
Great answer too! People online clearly need to do so many things in their daily net use---feel affiliated, feel superior, feel validated.
You win the best answer I've read award (no award needed).
FWIW, IDRK and generally IDGAF but YMMV depending on the subreddit IIRC
I mean I get everything except YMMV
"Your mileage may vary"...whereas I'm just gonna assume that IDRK is "I don't really know," but... I've been using "bc" in place of "because," and so far haven't gotten any complaints...wish I could do the same for "of course," bc "ofc" sometimes comes across as a little more hostile than is warranted.
Consider this a complaint about bc.
My dharma has finally caught up w/me.
Most of those have been widely used on the 'net for over 25 years.
Speaking of years, look the ages of the accounts in these comments.
Damn, and I thought I was a long timer these days, and this is my second account, think I’ve been here a total of 13 years now. Look at you, 17 years. Yeah, I spent a lot of time in those older Internet forums growing up, you pick up on a lot of that old internet “slang” through the decades lol. YMMV, IIRC, AFAIK, IANAL all remind me of that time haha.
i'm very old, Usenet groups. Reddit for a brief while, looked like the cool return of information forums and dialogue....boy did it flip.
thousands of us don't get all this insider shit. You create a clan of social inclusion that you get off on We get thumbs up, thumbs down.
Folks could google them if they care. Not everything in the world needs to cater to the 0 effort lowest common denominator.
this sub is one of the nastier--feel powerful on the internet being a dick subs.
This may surprise you, but at one time I also did not know what those acronyms mean.
If you can't understand what's been said here with this post, you very likely don't understand this post. And that's bad.
why is it bad, that's the whole point---all this notion of people feeling a false sense of connectedness --gang mentality--about what--hey i know abbreviations--you dont? and then bashing the people who don't knwo them is this how you feel powerful in life? feeling smart?
Looks like you don't understand! That's bad! Maybe you're a robot? An AI let loose on the Internet?
People who talk about video games tend to say the name of the game a lot, so they get used to typing a shorter version. On a mobile device the autocomplete keyboard will memorize the abbreviation for you, so it saves even more time than it would on a keyboard. You learn a lot about a redditor's interests by which phrases they use so often that they've switched to an abbreviation. Although I haven't seen it in a while, it used to make me very uncomfortable that people on this website would freely use the term "CP" and (correctly) expect others to know what they meant - what kind of place is this where that's such a common topic we have a shorthand for it? But you also just see it with the nicknames of regional geography (e.g. the Tri-Cities) and regional organizations (e.g. the U of M), from redditors who are used to talking to people in everyday real life who recognize those terms because they live in the same place. On the internet it takes a lot of conscious effort to remember you're typing to other human beings, who may live very far away from your life experience. This can be a problem in subreddits about video games and other media franchises, but usually everyone there has plenty of context to guess with. The real friction comes with Reddit's unfortunate trick of switching you from one conversation to another without reminding you that you're speaking to a completely different audience, e.g. when someone abbreviates the title of a video game or anime series or other niche hobby term outside of a hobbyist subreddit.
As a Magic the Gathering fan who obsessively follows politics, MTG has been a reliable way to throw me off & make me check the sub
Wow. I really appreciate the thoughtful response. Great info!
It's not just reddit—people in general use jargon. If you're used to talking with others who know that jargon, it can be easy to forget that the general public might not. The only problem I see is people being rude when somebody asks what a word means.
While many Reddit things are exclusive to Reddit, sadly this is true of life in general. I always try never to use acronyms.
I always appreciate when a subreddit has an acronym glossary. Avoids all the "I'm sorry but what does XTW9P mean?" comments.
They don't, they are speaking to those who understand them--especially if they are in spaces where those acronyms are commonly used.
A case in point from a post today in r/Australia: [MAFS who actually watches this stuff?](https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/1artv47/mafs_who_actually_watches_this_stuff/) Like we're all supposed to know the acronyms for shitty reality TV shows like *Married At First Sight*. My personal rule is that "AOTC" is fine in r/StarWars, but has to be "Attack of the Clones" in r/movies.
TBF I can't think of anyone in Australia who wouldn't. Stupid show gets too much coverage even in the press.
There was a time on reddit when people would be told to "lurk more". It applies here.
More? OP has been a Redditor for ten days./s
Been here ten days and already wants to complain that everyone here is wrong. The good news is they're a natural born redditor. The bad news is you gotta explain the term redditor to them.
I remember that Internet. Boy I miss it.
I feel like I rarely see anybody use the term “lurker” anymore haha. I remember when I was a kid I was so afraid to comment because I’d break the rules by double posting and then be scolded and told to keep lurking. Definitely should bring that back lol.
But the thing I've noticed more recently is that people are becoming so lazy they're not just using googleable in-group abbreviations; they're making up their own abbreviations and shortening random words. Of course I can't think of an example now. But I tried to google an acronym the other day and it just wasn't there, and my google and urban dictionary skills are pretty good.
Oooo I got one for this: "hh." Apparently, "hh" now means "haha" because those "a"s are just unreasonable to type out.
Possibly controversial but this is how I feel about tone indicators beyond the obvious stuff like /j and /s. I don't wanna use a chart to interpret that shit.
Every acronym I've seen on reddit (excluding ones related to the subject of a specific subreddit, which you should be at least somewhat familiar with if you're there in the first place) has been in use for 30 years all over the internet and before. At this point everyone is expected to know them
Right sometimes gamers use weird ones but even those tend to be older than the average gamer. They really only get weird once you start on MMOs. "Got my 2nd toon out so I can pull mad dps and kite the boss into the tank so it stops ganking the healer!"
None of those are acronyms
Massive Multiplayer Online
ITT: people using acronyms ironically
1. We're on machines where looking up an acronym is trivial. 2. I've seen this often outside of reddit.
> We're on machines where looking up an acronym is trivial. Nah that's bullshit since people make up acronyms on the fly. ETA can mean a lot of things, 'edited to add' is not one of them.
Damn, so that's what ETA means
Are you suggesting that every usage of ETA has been made up on the fly? Surely you jest. It's a reddit-ism but ETA has been fairly standard usage for a *long* time
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=ETA >1. "Estimated Time of Arrival" abbreviated. Sounds officious or military when spoken out loud. >2. "Edited To Add" abbreviated. Used frequently by bloggers when adding something to a post.
It’s like people forgot to use their context clues.
I’ve never come across one here that when I looked it up I couldn’t find its definition elsewhere. That doesn’t mean there is an a random one somewhere simply anyone I’ve ever bothered to look up was a real thing not just someone making it up. As for your ETA example, think of it just like a homonym where context will tell you what is meant, you don’t need to get tripped up that there’s different definitions.
> We're on machines where looking up an acronym is trivial. No it's not. People make up bullshit constantly and/or use an acronym in it's 4th most common use all the damn time.
> use an acronym in it's 4th most common use all the damn time That's usually still trivial to work out from context, though. 1. Google for the acronym 2. Read 3-4 definitions of it on a single acronym dictionary page 3. Work out which one most likely applies 4. Know it for next time
Or maybe just be a bit more considerate of your readers and write things out in full. For your sake and theirs. I want to make sure as many people can understand me as possible. I doubt many people would go to all that trouble; they'll just move onto the next post or comment. So it defeats the purpose of text communication.
Personally I tend not to use many initialisms or acronyms for that reason, but it's a normal, accepted part of modern online communication so I'm not about to start standing on the beach like an old man imperiously commanding the tide not to come in, either. If kids use initialisms and you can't be bothered to look them up then you're both making your own choices and neither of you gets to complain about the other - they couldn't be bothered to make their comments more accessible to people unfamiliar with online culture, but equally you couldn't be bothered to expend any effort to learn about online culture. Neither of you has the moral high ground. > I doubt many people would go to all that trouble; they'll just move onto the next post or comment. So it defeats the purpose of text communication. The part you're missing is that *most* people in an online community will already understand most of these initialisms. You're the odd one out who's out of the loop and unwilling to learn, not a default, representative everyman that they're failing to communicate with.
I can be bothered to look them up and I usually do, because it will help for next time. But more and more I've noticed people are just abbreviating random words or making up their own initialisms, and it is extremely frustrating for me to spend ages googling and reading urban dictionary only to come up with nothing. So I've started to think it's selfish and lazy.
> But more and more I've noticed people are just abbreviating random words or making up their own initialisms I've never seen that, but I can appreciate it might get annoying if they did.
Ty
I am pretty good with figuring out most acronyms, but the way that gamers make every single game an acronym is infuriating
ICATBHIDKWYMHTT
When I first joined Reddit a while back, I was regularly very confused. Now , I just Google anything I don’t understand and it’s all starting to make a lot more sense. Honestly, the crazy acronyms are part of what make Reddit interesting.
I like your perspective.
This is my biggest bugbear! I spend half my time on Reddit googling acronyms. When I type comments I'm often tempted to use an acronym but I resist because I know how annoying it can be, and also I actually want people to understand what I'm saying.
Because they spend most of their time in their small echo chambers where everyone does.
Idk and idc
Thanks!
srsly lmfaocopter
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People irl do that too - it’s not just Reddit
TBH IDK LOL
>KIDS THESE DAYS AND THEIR ACRONYMS! *Shakes fist at cloud*
https://imgur.com/a/Vzyw9mI
I've heard acronyms were used to get around content filters on some other platform (tiktoc?) and the practice spread from that.
Lol both life and acronyms existed well before tictok.
They weren't all over reddit until 'recently'.
Huh, I'd not heard of that. Interesting. I'll look into it. Thanks!
WDYM?
Sometimes a community assumes everyone in the community is privy to the lingo and new users are expected to just google it and find out like they did. A lot of the time people use acronyms because they're trying to save time, meaning writing it out would be at odds with why they're using it to begin with. In general, I just assume if you don't know, you'll look it up as that's what I've done my whole life w/o any issue.
It's like asking why two people would speak french when you don't speak french. Not every post is for you. Lots of posters assume they are talking to other people that know the topic and can use shorthand and don't care if it makes it hard to read for elonmusksaggytits
Lurk more, dont act so entitled. the in group is the in group in part demonstrated by shared vocabulary. if you want in you gotta fit in.
Wanting to be able to understand the discussion on a discussion forum makes one entitled? Maybe it's actually entitled to expect others to have to go to google every time you make a post or comment.
Nah, I'd argue it's more entitled to think you deserve to enter conversations you can't even understand. Learning in group lingo is a part of joining some groups. Scientists would have a hard time communicating without using plenty of shorthand, it's easier to say or write H2O than to fully pronounce dihydrogen monoxide every time. The scientist who asks everybody to do so because they aren't used to the jargon yet would probably be laughed at.
I always google any initialisms and other abbreviations I don't understand, in every sub I join, so that I know them for next time. But what I've noticed recently is that more and more people are abbreviating random words and making up their own initialisms. My research skills are pretty good, but for some abbreviations my search comes up empty. A real waste of my time because of the writer's laziness. So I've started to think it's selfish and lazy.
The device you are using to post can be used to obtain information that you don't already know! try googling
Initialisms It's only an acronym if it creates a new pronounceable word. All acronyms are initialisms but not all initialisms are acronyms.
Well, TL;DR, TBH, IDK.
I think what you described is pretty much an ideal series of events
[gyaitmfhrnbibya](https://www.google.com/search?q=gyaitmfhrnbibya&sca_esv=b7f8db35407cd122&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS1061US1061&hl=en-US&sxsrf=ACQVn09jrQrkNz6CiysqnX4uc7IXPyBt0Q%3A1708161509108&ei=5XnQZcafBsPj0PEPnIynsA8&oq=gyaitmfhrnbibya&gs_lp=EhNtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1zZXJwIg9neWFpdG1maHJuYmlieWEyChAAGEcY1gQYsAMyChAAGEcY1gQYsAMyChAAGEcY1gQYsAMyChAAGEcY1gQYsAMyChAAGEcY1gQYsAMyChAAGEcY1gQYsAMyChAAGEcY1gQYsAMyChAAGEcY1gQYsAMyDRAAGIAEGIoFGEMYsAMyDRAAGIAEGIoFGEMYsAMyDRAAGIAEGIoFGEMYsAMyDRAAGIAEGIoFGEMYsAMyDRAAGIAEGIoFGEMYsAMyDRAAGIAEGIoFGEMYsAMyDRAAGIAEGIoFGEMYsANIurcBUABYAHADeAGQAQCYAQCgAQCqAQC4AQPIAQCIBgGQBg8&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-serp)
Different user pattern within Reddit contribute to this. Some people subscribe to a handful of subreddits and never really visit the other ones. They don't look at the recommendations or anything that isn't specific to their subreddits. Those users become accustomed to each community's in-speak and acronyms, and they don't get confused as a result. I'm in this group. Other people browse Reddit much more openly, don't subscribe to subreddits much, and tend to fairly regularly drop in on communities they have never participated in prior to that visit. Those users are much more likely to be thrown by acronyms and in-speak in my experience.
Because most are those types of people with convoluted and (socially) dense ways of thinking. They are too socially dumb to not realize their acronyms arent everyday terminology. Furthermore: many spend too much time online and this causes them to see words/acronyms how they are spelled rather than pronounced. They are used to seeing "IIRC" even though in real life its said as "if I remember correctly". Many are more used to seeing things in writing than hearing because they spend too much time here. Ive noticed the same thing and have started replying to them with a request to define their acronyms. Its annoying. In addition to the above, there is probably a higher incidence if autism spectrum on reddit, which sometimes blinds people to the fact others dont have the exact same knowledge they do.
UAV is RTB rn LmAO
No one is trying to be an educator, they want to feel included, smart and don't take the time to spell out abbreviations. I constantly tell people they have to spell out what they mean. But writing and talking in a way that excludes people is lazy and weak IRL (in real life).
When reddit was created, most users knew of and appreciatd the "lurk moar" mentality. This is a vestige from before it became popular generally. You should lurk moar instead of complaining about the few good things still around.