Down With Acronyms

I don't mind acronyms as long as I can work out what they are. Being a DLF it took me a while to figure out your FFS jings and CBA took me a while too but it's part of GN and everyone does it. (However I have got into a few scrapes using LOL when sending text messages as I thought it meant "lots of love". I've had some very strange replies )

(that was to joyfully)

Well us wot post lots, like it.

Soz.

Thanks for that, thatbags. I would not have guessed that in a hundred years.

GWoof. I am with you. I loathe acronyms. I use social media all the time and post on StreetLife, and no one uses acronym. To say it is the culture of Gransnet does not mean it cannot change. Why do we have to have DH for instance. What would make us normally write darling husband, darling daughter. I am stil working full time for myself, but can easily find the time to type the actual word.

I do occasionally post on this site, but never use acronyms. No need. It's lazy and it's okay if others want to use them, but really it takes a while to work them out. Each to his own I guess.

Acronymphomania - the uncontrollable or excessive need to form abbreviations from the initial letters or groups of letters of words in a set phrase or series of words.

[Grin] Wobblybits, I was making mischief.

I believe acronyms first came about when mobile phones came in and text messages were restricted to about 140 characters and each text was charged individually. You needed to be able to put across your point briefly. The habit caught on and here we are today.

It's easy enough to fathom out, with the Internet at our finger tips.

www.gransnet.com/forums/health/a1229713-Using-initials-instead-of-full-words

Here is a link to the thread you started, Peaseblossom. You will see that quite a few people responded.

NO!

No you're not. I put a similar post on here a couple of weeks ago but I don't think anyone even responded. Maybe they CBA! I didn't realise you could click on "acronyms" at the top of the page at the time. I must say I managed to work the majority of them out anyway, but it's annoying if someone uses one which isn't in the list. I hate text speak too and never use it on my phone. Even my two daughters hate it and use the correct spelling and grammar.

Urban Dictionary is pretty good actually, and not just for acronyms.

I should look it up somewhere else then, anniesgrannie . I just typed 'cba' into my browser search box and the second entry (urban dictionary) told me what it meant.

It took me some time to "tune in" to the acronyms but now find them easy to use & read, perhaps my Civil Service background helps!!!!

Hope you stick with it & if you want to type words in full it won't stop me reading your posts

BTW I to dislike acronyms but they are easier than text speak - CBA to work those out.

I so agree Gwoof whenever I write a post on Gransnet I get confused trying to remember the acronyms so usually write all words in full. I prefer this anyway and agree with you that acronyms make you feel 'not part of the club' and make reading posts much harder.

What does CBA mean? looked it up, but it wasn't there.

I don't mind acronyms, it's just that I am not very good at them. However, realising that GN is not run for my benefit alone I have made myself learn to interpret them.
In my teens I had an American pen friend (male) who always put SWALK on the back of his letters. I loved that!

I have to say I agree with Gwoof - can't stand the overuse of acronyms - drives me bonkers and yes if too many in a post I just CBA to read it. Reminds me of text speak of the mobile phone variety which I also can't stand.

I was going to post a long reply but CBA!

Gransnet follows the same format as Mumsnet as it was set up by the same people. Why change what works?

I am not sure it is that "belonging" as you say, bluebelle. I sometimes use the abbreviations and sometimes not, depending on how much I feel like the chore of using two fingers to type out complicated relationships or long official names for organisations like UNESCO. Others do the same. A story about a family falling out, for instance, might involve several repetitions of several relationships.

I have never felt that I don't "belong" if I don't follow one convention or another. As for when I first joined and was unfamiliar with the acronyms - well, it does takes at least a short while to "belong" to anything, you are not bosom pals instantly you sit beside a stranger at a concert, are you, however much you have in common in your love of the music? Say you were to criticise her taste in jewellery at that first meeting, would that speed your friendship or delay it?

Good idea, NonnaAnnie It is not necessary ro read every post, or every word of every post.

"DH" is often used satirically, about something annoying that Dear or Damned husband has done (you can take your pick which)

From a purely visual point of view, I think two initials (DH, DS and so on), are better than one, which can look like just a twitchy finger on the keys. Once you have worked out that any D could be superfluous, you can ignore it, it doesn't affect understanding the relationships.

However, I suspect there are people who can't ignore less relevant words while they grasp the rest of the sentence, so they get hung up at one bit (any sentence, not just ones with acronyms in), which would explain how much confusion there is sometimes about just what a post means.

Gwoof everyone's having a go at you so I ll stand up for you I hate them too especially the DD, DGS business but I like gransnet a lot, so I m staying and using the full word in my own posts, so I guess I never fully belong to the gransnet club, because let's be honest it's a ' belonging thing' it's nothing to do with writing the whole word at all its a 'message' and everyone will shout at me and deny it but it is and I read somewhere that it was copied from Mumsnet Anyway I m OK.( whoops there we go I ve let one slip )with that and I ll do it my way and continue mentally translating until one day I find myself saying ILYA and realise I ' belong'

After a prolonged bout of depression I'm still waiting for my memory to come back. I've given up trying to remember the acronyms. I read the post and if it doesn't make sense I move onto the next one!

My American friend used TTYL at the end of an email and I wracked my brain but could only come up with "Ta Ta you loser". She, and every one she knows were in hysterics for ages over that! (Turns out to be "talk to you later")

LOL. I love the little song. TBH, I'm not keen on acronyms either, but I suppose it's just because I'm a grumpy old woman (or can I say GOW)? and I'll jolly well have to get used to it. Sometimes I quite enjoy the challenge of figuring out what a particular acronym means, but at other times I simply CBA, IYCWIM.