Community Chat

[WenGirl42]

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@SilleeMee wrote:

Acronyms are different from abbreviations. OP, IMO, FYI, LOL...these are not acronyms, but abbreviations. Acronyms are abbreviations that are pronounced as words like NASA, RADAR, LASER, SCUBA. This is a pet peeve of mine when people say it's an "acronym" when really it's an abbreviation. I know I'm nit picking...just kick me...LOL!

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I'll go ahead and nitpick the nitpicker...the examples you gave are all initialisms (pronounced as the first letter of each word), not abbreviations (shortened forms of words like Mr. or Apt.) And enough people probably say "loll" for "LOL" that it counts as an acronym

[itiswhatitis]

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@Texasmouse wrote:

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@SilleeMee wrote:

Acronyms are different from abbreviations. OP, IMO, FYI, LOL...these are not acronyms, but abbreviations. Acronyms are abbreviations that are pronounced as words like NASA, RADAR, LASER, SCUBA. This is a pet peeve of mine when people say it's an "acronym" when really it's an abbreviation. I know I'm nit picking...just kick me...LOL!

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An acronym (sometimes called an initialism) is simply a word formed by taking letters (usually the first) of each word in a phrase to form an abbreviation. Acronyms are thus a subset of abbreviations. (Notice that they may be pronounced as words themselves or spelt out depending on the case.)

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 @Shanus

Here's all we need to know about abbreviations:

Abbreviations vs. Acronyms vs. Initialisms

Abbreviations
According to Dictionary.com, an abbreviation is a shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole, as Dr. for Doctor, U.S. for United States, lb. for pound.

Initialisms and acronyms are two types of abbreviations that are used to shorten phrases.

Initialisms are abbreviations that are pronounced one letter at a time.
Examples:
– FBI
– HTML
– IBM
– DVD
– BTW (by the way)

Note that most people would simply call these abbreviations, which is fine. Some would call them acronyms, which sticklers would challenge.

Acronyms are abbreviations that are pronounced as words.

Examples:
– NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
– AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)
– OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)
– SPA (Society of Professional Accountants)
– WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant)
– ASAP (as soon as possible)
– Radar (radio detecting and ranging)
– Scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)

http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/abbreviations/abbreviations-acronyms-and-initialisms-revisited/

[Kachina624]

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@Tinkrbl44 wrote:

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@Shanus wrote:

@I figured out OP, IMO, DH, DD, to reply to someone with @ + their nickname,  and a few other expressions. What is a "troll" or don't I want to know?

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@Shanus

Don't you know how to google ?

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@Shanus  I'd also suggest Googling it because I found it doesn't mean what I thought it did. 

[qualitygal]

If I can help someone on here, I will

for whatever reason they don't know, I'm not so busy that I can't help; once upon a time, I too was not on here for long, and had to get use to abbrevations. Granted those help if you can't spell a word either. The people I admire the most on here are those willing to help others out. JMHO. Just MY humble opinion.

[Shanus]

@qualitygal  I appreciate your offer to help. Can you explain why this post is "on" again? It was one of my OPs a very long time ago?

[qualitygal]

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@Shanus wrote:

@qualitygal  I appreciate your offer to help. Can you explain why this post is "on" again? It was one of my OPs a very long time ago?

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@Shanus, as I understand it, someone must have decided to post a reply on your former thread and that brings it up. Unless, you can't comment on it any longer, it will bring the old thread up and show their current date post.

[Cakers3]

jmoymmv=just my opinion your mileage may vary

I like this one and I learned it from a poster many years ago.

[SunValley]

When Auntg replied (message 24) the thread became active again and showed up again in the current list. 

[gizmogal]

I believe the OP asked for clarification of what is a "troll". I saw no subsequent posts giving the answer. Here's what a "troll" is in the context of the Internet and "lingo":

In internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous , or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup , forum, chat room , or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion, often for the troll's amusement.

If you express a snippy, snarky, provocative thought and think the defense of being offensive is "your right to your opinion", you are behaving as a troll. You believe you are able to post something you know will get a lot of rousing response, generally unpleasant or negative and not particularly relevant, and you post it on purpose, you act as a troll. The anonymity of having a screen name , not your real name, and the chance that there will be no consequences makes being a troll very tempting. Instead of escalating hurtful nasty posts, call a troll out when you see a post you know is out of line, notify Moderators about trolls, and control your own responses and you get a friendly, pleasant forum of sharing opinions without necessarily agreeing. And start new topics that are reasonable to discuss with  a purpose rather than just dropping a bomb and seeing what happens. 

The Moderators here often are challenged to keep it civil, judging by how many posts are taken off. Don't resent the Mods, thank them for killing off the trolls and troll posting. 

[x Hedge]

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@gizmogal wrote:

I believe the OP asked for clarification of what is a "troll". I saw no subsequent posts giving the answer. Here's what a "troll" is in the context of the Internet and "lingo":

In internet slang, a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous , or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup , forum, chat room , or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion, often for the troll's amusement.

If you express a snippy, snarky, provocative thought and think the defense of being offensive is "your right to your opinion", you are behaving as a troll. You believe you are able to post something you know will get a lot of rousing response, generally unpleasant or negative and not particularly relevant, and you post it on purpose, you act as a troll. The anonymity of having a screen name , not your real name, and the chance that there will be no consequences makes being a troll very tempting. Instead of escalating hurtful nasty posts, call a troll out when you see a post you know is out of line, notify Moderators about trolls, and control your own responses and you get a friendly, pleasant forum of sharing opinions without necessarily agreeing. And start new topics that are reasonable to discuss with  a purpose rather than just dropping a bomb and seeing what happens. 

The Moderators here often are challenged to keep it civil, judging by how many posts are taken off. Don't resent the Mods, thank them for killing off the trolls and troll posting. 

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That's an outstanding post @gizmogal! I would like to send it on to friends who don't visit this forum.

The whole notion of "troll" is clear to me now.