A Jargon Buster

IWT · Feb 8, 2016

As I follow many threads and post to a few, I commonly come across OPs who are unfamiliar with acronyms or abbreviations that many of us take for granted: DU; BU; UI; CCC; SD; TM; RAM; SSD; HDD; EHD; AS; QT; BT; MA; AM; as simple examples.

And then there is the common misunderstanding between Storage and Memory.

My suggestion is: could we construct a "Jargon Buster" sticky or somesuch to which we could direct our members and visitors?

The alternative is that we ask our regular contributors to spell each usage in full the first time with the abbreviation or acronym in parenthesis - for example "open disk utility (DU)"; or you could swap out your Hard Disk Drive (HDD) for a Solid State Drive (SSD). Then use the abbreviation in all further occasions and, indeed, in all further postings within that thread.

Do you think this is a feasible and practical suggestion?

Ian

docx · Feb 8, 2016

Sounds good to me.

Raz0rEdge · Feb 8, 2016

I like the idea of elaborating and educating on differences between storage and memory and so on, but I've generally found that most people use the familiar acronyms most of the time and the ones that do shorten something that shouldn't be, a quick query sorts that out.

For example, I would never shorten Disk Utility to DU, but HDD and SSD and WiFi and RAM are all very familiar acronyms even to the most technically challenged in that they can identify what each of things do without a great amount of effort.

So, if we were to create a jargon buster, it might cause more confusion or undue reliance on how we (the collective, forum "we") jargon'ize something as opposed to someone else..

chscag · Feb 8, 2016

IWT said:
As I follow many threads and post to a few, I commonly come across OPs who are unfamiliar with acronyms or abbreviations that many of us take for granted: DU; BU; UI; CCC; SD; TM; RAM; SSD; HDD; EHD; AS; QT; BT; MA; AM; as simple examples.

And then there is the common misunderstanding between Storage and Memory.

My suggestion is: could we construct a "Jargon Buster" sticky or somesuch to which we could direct our members and visitors?

The alternative is that we ask our regular contributors to spell each usage in full the first time with the abbreviation or acronym in parenthesis - for example "open disk utility (DU)"; or you could swap out your Hard Disk Drive (HDD) for a Solid State Drive (SSD). Then use the abbreviation in all further occasions and, indeed, in all further postings within that thread.

Do you think this is a feasible and practical suggestion?

Ian

How about this Ian? IT Terminology Dictionary

By the way, there are others we could link to.

RadDave · Feb 8, 2016

chscag said:
How about this Ian? IT Terminology Dictionary

By the way, there are others we could link to.

Wiki's IT Abbreviations offers an abundance (maybe too many!) of acronyms and abbreviations w/ each linked to a fuller discussion - Dave

harryb2448 · Feb 8, 2016

Stickies are great .. for as long as they remain highly visible. E.G. (for example lol) take vansmith's outstanding sticky on Writing a Quality Post. Alas sunk to the bottom of the pond and stuck there in the mire.

vansmith · Feb 9, 2016

I think you're on to a nice idea but one thing I've found, as I imagine other staff members have as well, is that sometimes guides and stickies are ignored. Often times, users just post a question and sit on that thread which isn't a problem in and of itself but it does signal a larger disregard for available information.

ankhseeker · Feb 9, 2016

Yup, you can lead a poster to an article, but you can't make them read it. I love stuff like that. Never to old to learn and I like to learn something new each day.

A Jargon Buster

IWT

docx

Raz0rEdge

Well-known member

chscag

Well-known member

RadDave

harryb2448

vansmith

Senior Member

ankhseeker

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