how about no more acronyms?

[IOIOIO]

Acronyms are really off-putting to new users. It's too easy to make people feel dumb and inhibited to ask the simple question of what an acronym stands for. Of course they can search to figure things out, but why make people work unnecessarily hard for the most basic information when they could be searching to figure out real issues? And then, having done the chore, they spread the disease by going on to use the acronym because they are now part of the in-crowd. It's a basic civility issue. Dropping the lazy use of acronyms would also enhance the usability of this site as a knowledge base not just when using the site search, but when searching with Google too.

NMA!

[BKOnce]

Agree, btw...IMHO the nick IOIOIO is NMA!?... j/k

[IOIOIO]

Actually I only ever thought of IOIOIO as one of those what-do-you-callits where pronouncing the letters gives the actual phrase, but I see now it's also an acronym since the word "I" starts with I and the word "owe" starts with O. Did you ever read C-D-B?

BTW, of course I'm not talking about common online acronyms like "btw" (which are annoying enough for some people), but acronyms that obscure the meaning of these forums' specialized topics, which form a knowledge base. No one searches google for "by the way" but they do search for "national arbitration forum."

NMA!

[kl030505]

I think it might be easier to simply type out a list of commonly used acronyms and pin it at the top of each forum. When I'm typing fast I'm more likely to use an acronym. It's kind of 2nd nature to me at this point. I agree acronyms can be off putting but I think a pinned post with their equivalent term might be a more realistic solution.

[JollyGG]

Actually, I have always thought that this board was pretty good about not using acronyms. I have in the past noticed members using them and they were usually politely informed (in the thread containing the acronyms) that due to the nature of the information on this board the use of acronyms is discouraged.

Can you give some examples of ones that you see people commonly using. That way we can be more aware of them and avoid their use.

[robivi3]

Ok

[IOIOIO]

I think it might be easier to simply type out a list of commonly used acronyms and pin it at the top of each forum.

I'm thinking one sticky in one obvious place, or perhaps linked to from every forum would be good. It would be easier for the mods to maintain and right there at hand whenever you forgot what an acronym stood for. I'd also consider it a pain to type out every acronym, but I'm going to try to do it anyway. I mean, consider the state of mind of people when they arrive at these boards for the first time. Likely plenty of anxiety, then they have to click around and memorize stuff just to be able to read basic info in some threads. They hesitate to ask because they fear looking like a doofus, then when they break down and ask, ten seconds later they post an apology when they found the acronym's expansion on their own before someone answered their query about it. Getting jiggy with the acronyms just adds to the fear and guilt newbies are already feeling when they get here. I felt like a jerk after I induced this post and its follow up edited apology:

http://www.bkforum.com/showpost.php?p=133464&postcount=11

NMA!

[robivi3]

Strike ATM from your vocabulary. But could someone enlighten this ignorant soul, what is a DD or DH? BIL I know, I have a BIL who is an AH and WB but what is a DH?

The sticky sounds good.

[CindyLou]

dd=dear daughter
dh=dear husband

[robivi3]

Thanks

BIL- brother-in-law
AH- a**h***
WB- wife beater

[robivi3]

LOL to AOU