An Earnest Request To Dial Back On The Acronyms Just A Bit, Mmmkay?

[gypsicat]

I've been on the site for a little over a year.

I was completely baffled at first. After a while, it starts to make sense.

It isn't just here, pretty much any internet forum will have the same thing.

I'm a fairly new nurse. Working in the medical field, I see abbreviations daily. There is a meme out there that sums up my confusion when I first started. It reads:

84F pt from ED. PMH of COPD, CHF, HTN, AFIB & PSH of CABG x4, RTKR, LTHR, HX of VRE, MRSA. Will need PICC, CXR, T&C for 2U PRBC, STAT.

(lol, makes perfect sense to me now...)

I wouldn't go into work and expect them to suddenly write everything out because I didn't know the abbreviations. I had to learn them. Same for internet boards. I agree it can be confusing but after a little while, I swear, it clicks (for the most part).

 

[Jfsag123]

What I love is coming on a forum actually named as an acronym and then asking people not to use acronyms (initialisms).

 

[TAK]

I'm not a fan of using "DH" because, at least on other forums I've been on, it's been used too sarcastically/scathingly for me to want to adopt it (as in, "my DH, insert :eyeroll:") even when it's meant well. But that's MY preference, and I would never have a problem with someone else using it.

 

[smallworldnh]

I used to get really frustrated over it too, but I've learned a lot and I've also learned that if you don't know what something means and you ask, many people will gladly give you the answer!!

 

[TiggerBouncy]

I have to admit there are some that leave me scratching my head. Especially when an acronym can refer to two different rides and you have to use context to figure it out.

That said, I doubt you're going to get everyone to change.

And who didn't think of this line after reading this?
Cronauer: "Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the VP is such a VIP, shouldn't we keep the PC on the QT? 'Cause if it leaks to the VC he could end up MIA, and then we'd all be put on KP."

 

[Disneyliscious]

I'm on board with the DH, DW, DS, DD ones too. I don't like using those and have never seen them used on any other forum other than this one (though I don't visit that many forums). The term "darling" is so soccer mom to me. Not every husband, wife or kid is a darling little angel. I realize its used as a term of endearment here but really wouldn't H, W, S, or D work just fine?

 

[MariMama]

I'm on board with the DH, DW, DS, DD ones too. I don't like using those and have never seen them used on any other forum other than this one (though I don't visit that many forums). The term "darling" is so soccer mom to me. Not every husband, wife or kid is a darling little angel. I realize its used as a term of endearment here but really wouldn't H, W, S, or D work just fine?

Dear husband, dear wife, dear son, etc are universal acronyms across the internet, on all message boards.

 

[Ser Arthur Dayne]

What I love is coming on a forum actually named as an acronym and then asking people not to use acronyms (initialisms).

For what it's worth, it's not an acronym, it's a nickname.

 

[IrishNYC]

FWIW, it's not an acronym, it's a nickname.

FTFY

 

[bumbershoot]

But, in real life, does any one ever say Dear Son or Darling Son or Disney Son?

Of course not.

But to me it ends up being almost shorthand. I hear as I type and read (and I see words as I say them) (so when I'm on a keyboard I'm a very good touch typist with very few spelling mistakes...you can always tell, like in my first post in this thread, when I'm on my phone b/c my spelling goes downhill). I never EVER "hear" "Dear Son" when I read DS (and to me it is dear, not darling or disney). Someone is talking about their son, and I move on from there. It saves mental time.

Agreed.

Worst of all is these yahoos that call their children DS or DD. This is your child and they deserve better than a friggin acronym even if we're talking non-serious interwebs message boardery.

I see nothing negative about using initials. Do you really want to keep track of the names of all of our kids? Nah.

Also, it allows us to be general or specific.

"I often suggested that people take their kids to California Adventure's Bug's Land first, before hitting Snow White or Pinocchio, because their DS and DD might respond better to those rides than SW or Pin. When I took my son, he hated those dark rides in Fantasyland, but loved the breezy open rides in DCA's BL." See how we can get general (their DS, their DD) and then go to "my son" to be specific, to show that there's experience there?

I'm not a fan of using "DH" because, at least on other forums I've been on, it's been used too sarcastically/scathingly for me to want to adopt it (as in, "my DH, insert :eyeroll:") even when it's meant well. But that's MY preference, and I would never have a problem with someone else using it.

Just because someone's spouse is behaving like a poop and their spouse is using D in that way doesn't mean it's always happening.



There's one set of initials that's used a lot on (in)fertility boards that's also used here for a different set of words, and for a LONG time it startled me here. It's been so long now I can't remember what it is, so obviously I'm over it, but still.

ETA (edited to add): I've just remembered. Egads. It's CM. I'm not explaining it. If you're on baby-having boards, you know. If you're not, you don't necessarily need to know. And you do not need to think about it while at Cape May for breakfast, going to Chef Mickey's for dinner, all the while being helped by Cast Members.

 

[Ser Arthur Dayne]

FTFY

TY

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Dear husband, dear wife, dear son, etc are universal acronyms across the internet, on all message boards.

tiny confession here...when I first saw this, I thought it was short for: Disney Husband, Disney Wife, Disney Daughter.

I still tend to read it that way in my mind. Makes me think of those little stick figure stickers some people put on the back windows of their cars, where all the stick figures are wearing Mickey ears.

 

[bjscheel]

I like the family terms because sometimes age of the child is relevant to the conversation and it's a lot easier to say DD17 than "my 17 year old daughter". I got used to those terms on the Clothing Boards on eBay a LONG time ago and it's quite ingrained now.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

A rose is a rose is rose is a rose...Gertrude Stein (1913)

Or as Shakespeare said so many years before her:

’Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself though, not a Montague.
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part 45
Belonging to a man. O! be some other name:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes 50
Without that title.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

Bonus to anyone who knows this reference without looking it up!

 

[Jfsag123]

For what it's worth, it's not an acronym, it's a nickname.

Disney Information Station=DIS That's an acronym.

 

[kellyjeanie]

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra

Bonus to anyone who knows this reference without looking it up!

ST:TNG! As opposed to ST:TOS, of course.

 

[Ser Arthur Dayne]

Disney Information Station=DIS That's an acronym.

Well, butter my bottom and call me a biscuit!

 

[hallen4]

The wonderful thing is being able to talk to your spouse about an upcoming trip in acronyms and the kids have no clue you are talking about Disney at all.

 

[Mitzicat]

I work for the Department of Defense sorry DoD....you haven't seen overuse of acronyms and initialisms (thanks pp for that info) until you work here.