Acronyms you don’t know the meaning of

Started by Max Rockatansky, January 25, 2023, 10:39:27 AM

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Max Rockatansky

For me, I have no idea what "YTS"  is:

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 25, 2023, 10:25:16 AM
Quote from: Crash_It on January 25, 2023, 10:23:51 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 25, 2023, 10:02:28 AM
Quote from: Crash_It on January 25, 2023, 09:26:11 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 25, 2023, 07:27:17 AM
That's why it's called an estimate.

Which is not to be taken seriously. It's only misinformation spread by conservative fear mongering blogs to make Illinois look bad when it actually is one of the best states to raise a family.


https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-to-raise-a-family/31065

And as we all know, our lord and savior Wallethub is never wrong.  Iowa and Minnesota are indeed superior to Illinois in every way.

But IL is superior to it's biggest Midwest rivals (Wisconsin and Michigan). In addition to that, it's also superior to FL,TN,NC and wherever else the yts have been moving to.

And "yts"  means?

Sarcasm against Crash_It aside I've found the lack of acronym awareness to be a major issue in what I do.  In particular this week I've been attending a NAVOSH course so I've been getting bombarded with a bunch of military acronyms I've never seen before.  Fortunately the training guides come with glossary pages.  I've found that military acronyms aren't the easiest to search for online sometimes. 


JayhawkCO

I recently transitioned from being in hospitality to working in tech. Most meetings, I just let 90% of the acronyms fly over my head.

For the record, yts is "whites".

JoePCool14

If Urban Dictionary is to be believed, and given the context of usage, looks like it's referring to white people. And potentially in a racially negative manner.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=YTs

:) Needs more... :sombrero: Not quite... :bigass: Perfect.
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Max Rockatansky

#3
That was my assumption, amusingly thought "youth trend setters"  came up first when I searched before I created this thread. 

Rothman

So, another "Max griping about another user thread."  C'mon, man...
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position(s) of NYSDOT.

abefroman329

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 25, 2023, 10:39:27 AM
For me, I have no idea what "YTS"  is:

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 25, 2023, 10:25:16 AM
Quote from: Crash_It on January 25, 2023, 10:23:51 AM
Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 25, 2023, 10:02:28 AM
Quote from: Crash_It on January 25, 2023, 09:26:11 AM
Quote from: Flint1979 on January 25, 2023, 07:27:17 AM
That's why it's called an estimate.

Which is not to be taken seriously. It's only misinformation spread by conservative fear mongering blogs to make Illinois look bad when it actually is one of the best states to raise a family.


https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-to-raise-a-family/31065

And as we all know, our lord and savior Wallethub is never wrong.  Iowa and Minnesota are indeed superior to Illinois in every way.

But IL is superior to it's biggest Midwest rivals (Wisconsin and Michigan). In addition to that, it's also superior to FL,TN,NC and wherever else the yts have been moving to.

And "yts"  means?

Sarcasm against Crash_It aside I've found the lack of acronym awareness to be a major issue in what I do.  In particular this week I've been attending a NAVOSH course so I've been getting bombarded with a bunch of military acronyms I've never seen before.  Fortunately the training guides come with glossary pages.  I've found that military acronyms aren't the easiest to search for online sometimes.
Corporate America also loves acronyms.  If you're lucky, you work for a company that maintains a glossary of common acronyms, and everyone agrees on what they mean.  If you're not lucky, you work for a company where people pull new acronyms out of their rear ends every day.

Max Rockatansky

#6
Worth noting, NAVOSH means (Navy Occupational Safety Health) if that wasn't readily apparent.

Quote from: Rothman on January 25, 2023, 11:00:03 AM
So, another "Max griping about another user thread."  C'mon, man...

I don't know if you realize this (I assume you do) but you gripe about me specifically quite often.  In fact, the last time I really recall you posting on certain boards like Pacific Southwest it was to gripe about me specifically.  I'm not sure what point you are really trying to convey to me about "griping"  when you actively engage in the same thing.

hbelkins

Quote from: JayhawkCO on January 25, 2023, 10:45:49 AM
I recently transitioned from being in hospitality to working in tech. Most meetings, I just let 90% of the acronyms fly over my head.

For the record, yts is "whites".

So, in other words, he's playing the race card again. Despite the fact that no one would ever know he's a minority if he didn't say so himself.

I'm clueless as to the meaning of a lot of acronyms. I frequently have to look a number of them up to see what they mean.

First time I ever saw FIFY was on this form, and I had to ask what it meant.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Takumi

I've only seen TFTMS on this forum, and I forgot what it means.
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JoePCool14

I think one of the first acronyms I remember seeing on here was FWIW (for what it's worth).

:) Needs more... :sombrero: Not quite... :bigass: Perfect.
JDOT: We make the world a better place to drive.
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Max Rockatansky

FWIW is something I've seen outside the forum in a couple places, maybe it was also the military world?  The ones that got me when I started on the forum were BGS and AADT.  I got the gist of what both meant, but for awhile I thought "BGS"  stood for "Big Guide Sign."

roadman65

NFSW is used for people on Twitter. Something tells me it's not directions on a compass either.
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JayhawkCO

Quote from: roadman65 on January 25, 2023, 11:54:20 AM
NFSW is used for people on Twitter. Something tells me it's not directions on a compass either.

I guess that's a thing too, but much more common is NSFW.

hotdogPi

I first encountered BFE on this forum in a context where it could have been an airport code. (It was being used for its typical meaning.)
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1995hoo

Quote from: abefroman329 on January 25, 2023, 11:01:48 AM
Corporate America also loves acronyms.  If you're lucky, you work for a company that maintains a glossary of common acronyms, and everyone agrees on what they mean.  If you're not lucky, you work for a company where people pull new acronyms out of their rear ends every day.

What I detest is how, in legal writing, most attorneys think it's acceptable just to "define" acronyms in parentheses and quotation marks whenever they so happen to use a term for the first time,* regardless of how buried in the middle of a brief it may be, and to expect the court and opposing counsel to both notice and remember it even if it first shows up in, say, a footnote on page 20 and then isn't used again until page 40. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has an excellent rule (Circuit Rule 28(a)(3)) that requires parties using acronyms or abbreviations–aside from things that are in everyday use like "IRS" or "NFL" or the like–to provide a glossary "defining each such abbreviation on a page immediately following the table of authorities." It frees the court and opposing counsel from the need to search an electronic copy of the brief to figure out what the random cryptic acronyms mean because it allows them to print off that one page (or to set that page aside when reviewing a hard copy) for reference.

*Then there are people who "define" acronyms that they never use and who insist on "defining names" for parties when it's utterly unnecessary to do so–e.g., some attorneys seem to think the court and opposing counsel won't know that "Microsoft" refers to "Microsoft Corporation" unless the brief says "Microsoft Corporation ('Microsoft')" (or similar).




Regarding "NSFW," I do not understand the Internet fad of insisting on including every trivial word in an abbreviation. That is, traditionally you'd omit things like articles. "The New York Times" is often abbreviated "NYT," for example, but the principle behind "NSFW" would counsel using "TNYT" to include the initial "The."

I've frequently seen "NWS" in lieu of "NSFW." Saves a letter. I suppose some people would argue it could be confused with "National Weather Service," but you'd think the context would debunk that notion.
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roadman65

Quote from: JayhawkCO on January 25, 2023, 11:59:10 AM
Quote from: roadman65 on January 25, 2023, 11:54:20 AM
NFSW is used for people on Twitter. Something tells me it's not directions on a compass either.

I guess that's a thing too, but much more common is NSFW.

Not Safe For Work it means. Telling you not to browse there if you're at work.  I guess it's adult themed material you're being warned against.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

JayhawkCO

Quote from: roadman65 on January 25, 2023, 12:58:08 PM
Quote from: JayhawkCO on January 25, 2023, 11:59:10 AM
Quote from: roadman65 on January 25, 2023, 11:54:20 AM
NFSW is used for people on Twitter. Something tells me it's not directions on a compass either.

I guess that's a thing too, but much more common is NSFW.

Not Safe For Work it means. Telling you not to browse there if you're at work.  I guess it's adult themed material you're being warned against.

I'm aware. You typed NFSW, not NSFW. NFSW apparently means "not for showing wife", which I'm guessing, in reality, is what some guy once said when he effed up and mistyped NSFW.

catch22

Quote from: abefroman329 on January 25, 2023, 11:01:48 AM
Corporate America also loves acronyms.  If you're lucky, you work for a company that maintains a glossary of common acronyms, and everyone agrees on what they mean.  If you're not lucky, you work for a company where people pull new acronyms out of their rear ends every day.

I spent the large part of my career working for AT&T in one form or another.  I started out with the local Bell company as an installer/repairman (one set of acronyms), moving onto the business system department (another set).  When the maelstrom that was the Bell System breakup happened, I wound up as a central office tech for AT&T Communications (former Long Lines Dept.) and yes, another completely different set of acronyms.  Later, I was assigned to one customer (Big 3 auto company) which of course had their own set.

And of course, the majority of them weren't codified anywhere, it was just part of the learning curve to figure most of them out.


roadman65

Not showing for wife is something that guys do with pics downloaded on phones. That makes sense.
Every day is a winding road, you just got to get used to it.

Sheryl Crowe

J N Winkler

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 25, 2023, 10:39:27 AMSarcasm against Crash_It aside I've found the lack of acronym awareness to be a major issue in what I do.  In particular this week I've been attending a NAVOSH course so I've been getting bombarded with a bunch of military acronyms I've never seen before.  Fortunately the training guides come with glossary pages.  I've found that military acronyms aren't the easiest to search for online sometimes.

There is an art to reading verbiage that comes out of a military setting.  I often just come up with half-plausible expansions in my head so I can keep pushing through instead of losing the thread to chase a definition.  I think the lack of Googlability of military acronyms has a lot to do with training materials--even stuff that is not considered sensitive or classified, and is approved for unrestricted distribution, such as playing cards for identification of foreign equipment, the physical fitness manual, etc.--being hosted on sites that are closed off from the public Internet.

My personal favorite is IAW for in accordance with, usually followed by a citation to Army Regulations.

Quote from: Max Rockatansky on January 25, 2023, 11:51:32 AMFWIW is something I've seen outside the forum in a couple places, maybe it was also the military world?  The ones that got me when I started on the forum were BGS and AADT.  I got the gist of what both meant, but for awhile I thought "BGS"  stood for "Big Guide Sign."

I think FWIW got its start either in IRC or Usenet.  AADT is a practitioner acronym, and I suspect it has been around since at least the 1950's.  BGS goes all the way back to the start of MTR, before the MUTCD was online and when practitioner terminology was much less accessible.

Quote from: Takumi on January 25, 2023, 11:43:04 AMI've only seen TFTMS on this forum, and I forgot what it means.

"Thanks for the mental scar."  To civilians (per Google), it also refers to Tales from the Magician's Skull, a magazine for sword-and-sorcery fiction.

Quote from: hbelkins on January 25, 2023, 11:38:10 AMFirst time I ever saw FIFY was on this form, and I had to ask what it meant.

People were doing it on MTR--your killfile might have kept it away from your notice.  (I've personally never engaged in such post fixes, as they are not compatible with the low-drama posting style I generally aim for.)
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Max Rockatansky

^^^

Every manual I have read this week has had IAW on almost every page containing some kind of instruction.  So it's just not the Army, the whole military loves that particular acronym. 

hbelkins

Here's a classic from the MTR days: DUAAFAFO

Also U-220: I-99?


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

abefroman329

Quote from: 1995hoo on January 25, 2023, 12:23:39 PM
Quote from: abefroman329 on January 25, 2023, 11:01:48 AM
Corporate America also loves acronyms.  If you're lucky, you work for a company that maintains a glossary of common acronyms, and everyone agrees on what they mean.  If you're not lucky, you work for a company where people pull new acronyms out of their rear ends every day.

What I detest is how, in legal writing, most attorneys think it's acceptable just to "define" acronyms in parentheses and quotation marks whenever they so happen to use a term for the first time,* regardless of how buried in the middle of a brief it may be, and to expect the court and opposing counsel to both notice and remember it even if it first shows up in, say, a footnote on page 20 and then isn't used again until page 40. The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has an excellent rule (Circuit Rule 28(a)(3)) that requires parties using acronyms or abbreviations–aside from things that are in everyday use like "IRS" or "NFL" or the like–to provide a glossary "defining each such abbreviation on a page immediately following the table of authorities." It frees the court and opposing counsel from the need to search an electronic copy of the brief to figure out what the random cryptic acronyms mean because it allows them to print off that one page (or to set that page aside when reviewing a hard copy) for reference.

I don't think I ever encountered anything like that, or wrote a brief that contained anything like that, for that matter.  In fact, we were trained not to abbreviate anything in a

*Then there are people who "define" acronyms that they never use and who insist on "defining names" for parties when it's utterly unnecessary to do so–e.g., some attorneys seem to think the court and opposing counsel won't know that "Microsoft" refers to "Microsoft Corporation" unless the brief says "Microsoft Corporation ('Microsoft')" (or similar).
And if you ever doubted the stifling provincialism present in your average New Yorker, I once attended a Bluebooking training given by an attorney and New Yorker who instructed us not to use "NYC" as an abbreviation for "New York City" because she thought everyone might not know what that stood for.

GaryV

Almost all of these cited above are initialisms, not acronyms. Acronyms are pronounceable, like SCUBA.

Then there's those initialisms that officially don't stand for anything anymore, like KFC.

CtrlAltDel

Quote from: GaryV on January 25, 2023, 03:24:33 PM
Almost all of these cited above are initialisms, not acronyms. Acronyms are pronounceable, like SCUBA.

This is a distinction that's never been borne out in actual usage, though.

I can remember discussing this before, but I can't find where.
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