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

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

I was reading a thread on the restaurants board earlier. Someone referred to the restaurant as CM. It took me a minute to remember I was reading about Cape May instead of Chef Mickey's with reference to the crab legs!

That is the problem I run into.

Someone uses CM to mean what? Chef Mickey's? Cape May? Or Cast Member?

And of course, if you ask, you get sent to the grand master list of all things.

If I can't figure it out, I just figure that the entire post just couldn't have been that important.

 

[hiroMYhero]

Agreed. I don't mind them, but I do get frustrated when I go to the Glossery like a good little DISer, and it's not listed there!

If you'd like to post ones that you haven't found in the Glossary, please list them here or send a PM/Conversation and they can be added.

 

[Alesia]

In another thread, some of us are having a laugh at the prevalence of acronyms (MK, RD, EMH, and so on) on these boards.

Look, I get that there's a glossary of what those acronyms mean. I also get that this board is a text-based medium, and some posters like to take shortcuts for the sake of brevity.

But, sometimes the use of acronyms in these threads can get a bit frustrating, especially to the casual DIS reader (like myself) and/or to fans who can't go to Walt Disney World as often as we'd like (like myself).

So I'd like to request that posters consider dialing it back on the use of acronyms just a bit, if you don't mind too awfully much. I think that using acronyms for the theme parks (MK, AK, DHS and Epcot (which is itself an acronym), and using shorthand for family members (DD, DS, MIL, and so on) is reasonable and to be expected. But for individual attractions, restaurants, procedures (Space Mountain instead of SM; Pecos Bill's instead of PB's, or Rope Drop instead of RD, respectively), I think that maybe spelling it out might be a little helpful to some users of these boards.

Just a thought.

TIA (Thanks in Advance)

If you started a new job and were unfamiliar with the jargon of that particular workplace, would you ask everyone to stop using it and start using only standard English because you can't be bothered to learn the lingo? I can't imagine that you would.

Going into any group (including an internet forum) and asking everyone else to change the already established method of communicating because you don't want to learn it is incredibly rude and self-centered (no matter how nicely you phrase it.)

 

[Oswin]

That is the problem I run into.

Someone uses CM to mean what? Chef Mickey's? Cape May? Or Cast Member?

And of course, if you ask, you get sent to the grand master list of all things.

If I can't figure it out, I just figure that the entire post just couldn't have been that important.

Context is really important, if someone is talking about eating at CM hopefully they're not talking about a Cast Member!

 

[smadath]

If you'd like to post ones that you haven't found in the Glossary, please list them here or send a PM/Conversation and they can be added.

Ok! I will do that going forward as I find them. Thanks!

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Context is really important, if someone is talking about eating at CM hopefully they're not talking about a Cast Member!

That is true most of the time.

But I am guessing that English isn't everyone's first language. Or maybe some just need to brush up on sentence structure.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

silly request not gonna happen. there's thousand's of who already speak DIS, there's no turning back now.

 

[Catvondita]

I agree its kind of annoying but I use them a bit sometimes. Its the people who post an entire paragraph in initials that make me laugh like how lazy are you to type things out?? But we also have to keep in mind the people who do this probably also had their own period of time where they were learning the lingo. You'll learn it too soon enough

 

[Lavitz]

Or at the very least write it out the first time you reference something if the thread is clearly intended for newbies. Second time you use it there use the shorthand. Everyone's gotta start learning sometime.

 

[JaxDad]

What does MMMKAY mean? Mickey Mouse something???

 

[DLM1980]

What does MMMKAY mean? Mickey Mouse something???

Mickey Mouse Might Kill Abbreviations YaY!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I love that we have our own language! Even when a new initialism pops up, I can usually figure out what it means in the context of the post. And MILF always gives me a belly chuckle. Not gonna stop - not gonna do it!

 

[bumbershoot]

The ones that I never understood were the family member ones. Maybe MIL, DIL, etc. Those take time to type out. But DS or son....DW or wife......you're saving a(1) letter......I mean its not like we are trying to say Monsters Inc Laugh Floor.

"My son" "my daughter" "my stepson" etc. DS, DD, DSS. You're easing up on a lot of typing with the abbreviations!

I was reading a thread on the restaurants board earlier. Someone referred to the restaurant as CM. It took me a minute to remember I was reading about Cape May instead of Chef Mickey's with reference to the crab legs!

IMO abbreviations shouldn't be used like that. Cast member existed before those restaurants so CM is the employee and hen we should write out the restaurants. IMO.

 

[Disneyliscious]

In another thread, some of us are having a laugh at the prevalence of acronyms (MK, RD, EMH, and so on) on these boards.

Look, I get that there's a glossary of what those acronyms mean. I also get that this board is a text-based medium, and some posters like to take shortcuts for the sake of brevity.

But, sometimes the use of acronyms in these threads can get a bit frustrating, especially to the casual DIS reader (like myself) and/or to fans who can't go to Walt Disney World as often as we'd like (like myself).

So I'd like to request that posters consider dialing it back on the use of acronyms just a bit, if you don't mind too awfully much. I think that using acronyms for the theme parks (MK, AK, DHS and Epcot (which is itself an acronym), and using shorthand for family members (DD, DS, MIL, and so on) is reasonable and to be expected. But for individual attractions, restaurants, procedures (Space Mountain instead of SM; Pecos Bill's instead of PB's, or Rope Drop instead of RD, respectively), I think that maybe spelling it out might be a little helpful to some users of these boards.

Just a thought.

TIA (Thanks in Advance)

I can empathize with your frustration though over the years I've come to learn what the acronym's mean. What gets me is when someone types like "R u goin 2 B there?". It wreaks of being uneducated and lazy to me.

 

[IrishNYC]

Just sayin', this isn't just a DISboards thing. Online communities tend to develop their own lingo. I've been on knitting boards and cosmetics boards that have at least as many acronyms as the DIS does. You would never dream that there could be so many acroymns involving makeup.

Yep. I was going to say the same thing. Wedding message boards, baby message boards, infertility boards, gaming boards...all have a language established. No one will berate you for asking. Or you can just google if you can't figure it out or find it. I usually use something like "WDW MNSSHP" and it's right there.

 

[joelkfla]

To the OP, I rarely use acronyms so you'll be able to understand my posts with no problem!

What's OP?

 

[LilyWDW]

Since the day of AOL groups (I belonged to a Star Wars one all those years ago on AOL dialup), it has always been in my mind that I adapt to the community I wish to be a part of and I don't ask the community to adapt to me. It's the same thing here.

 

[Lothlórien]

I get what all of the acronyms are and when I see them I read them as real words, but I personally prefer to spell them out. It does not bother me that others use them.
Other than DLR and WDW, I generally use words. I am also one of those people who wishes people would use proper English when they text. When I first bought my daughter a cell phone, I told her that she can text with her friends however she would like, but when she communicates with me I expect real words.

 

[Love Tink]

I can empathize with your frustration though over the years I've come to learn what the acronym's mean. What gets me is when someone types like "R u goin 2 B there?". It wreaks of being uneducated and lazy to me.

Yikes.

 

[DLM1980]

Yikes.

*gigglez*