So I have a dislike of jargon that makes communication inaccessible to people who are inexperienced in the relevant area. It makes a barrier that new people have to work hard to overcome in order to be able to become properly involved in an activity, and definitely risks alienating and discouraging people who might then give up on something they'd ultimately enjoy a lot.
(It's important to note here that as a musician and a scientist, I know that technical terms are necessary and important and we shoouldn't discourage their use, but if you're wanting to explain something to a non-scientist or non-musician you have to think about the words you choose. I wouldn't use "ATP" or "adenosine triphosphate" with someone who hasn't studied biology (I'd say something about "cell energy" maybe) because they wouldn't understand and would perhaps switch off.)
And the point I'm making is, we all use abbreviations on here far more than I think we should. Sure, a lot of forumites are extremely knowledgable about the game and the card names/effects, but there are definitely some people out there who think, "WTM? WTF?" and it concerns me that this kind of thing makes us incomprehensible to the new people that we should be encouraging - more SotM obsessives is better, right?
Disclosure: I have a medical condition (fibromyalgia) which causes me cognitive difficulties - imagine being really tired a lot of the time and finding it difficult to think, kind of like you'd feel if you had proper 'flu and someone asked you to solve even relatively easy algebra questions when you're finding it hard to even keep your eyes open. And personally, even with my greater-than-average familiarity with and knowledge of the cards, I often have trouble knowing what people are talking about just because they've made up some cute nickname or are using initial letters or something. An fairly obvious name, like Akash or Gloomy or Grandpa Legacy or similar would definitely be preferable.
Now I'm not telling people what to do or trying to impose my will on the forum or anything, just asking that people think about it a little, and consider typing a few more letters to confuse new people a bit less (and make my life a bit easier as well).
The whole reason why abbreviations exist is that people have limited time and need to take shortcuts. Going to extra effort on other people's behalf is a luxury they may not be able to afford.
Making yourself clearly understood is not a luxury. Too often you end up wasting more time re-explaining yourself so that they do understand your intent.
Well since you hadn't previously replied, you can't win that particular prize. But I'll send you a consolation prize of a lifetime supply of cows waiting to get grilled into delicious cheese burgers. I'll pop them in the mail in the morning.
If that is the consolation prize, then the Grand Prize is even better than that. Nooo!! Why couldn't I have posted sooner!? I bet the Grand prize is spending the rest of one's days on a island of beautiful, blue women that are there solely to feed the winner an endless supply of cheese burgers and pizza. All while spiders are making silk footie pajamas with a butt flap! There's probably also a chocolate river, with butterscotch ducks floating around.
I think I know what you're talking about with confusing abbreviations, but what abbreviations cause you trouble? I'm just curious about a few examples is all!
I can think of quite a few common abbreviations we use on a daily basis that many non-forumites may not immediatly get. I can see that being fusterating when trying to search for something on the forum or not being able to participate in a discussion.
Edit: In order - Twist the Ether, Rook City, Super Human Durability, End of Days.
The whole reason why abbreviations exist is that people have limited time and need to take shortcuts. Going to extra effort on other people's behalf is a luxury they may not be able to afford.
Yeah. All of those give me trouble, so I usually have to stop and think for a second or two and/or read for context. RC is especially bad because it already means Radio Controlled, and SHD gets me every time for some reason.
An glossary might not be a bad idea though, so at least confused people can look stuff up if necessary. I'm happy to put one together if people will help me out with examples.
A completely irrelevant example here, but it illustrates the difficulty I have. I once (for no particular reason other than boredom) found myself on a forum for people who are trying to conceive a child. These places are chock-full of acronyms and infantilisms and it's almost like every third word is in a foreign language. It took me ages to work out what the hell they were talking about, and really I only stayed there as long as I did because I was determined to "beat" the language problems. Here's a few I remember, which are so unintuitive as to be completely unintelligable.
AF = Aunt Flo = menstrual period
BFZ = Big Fat Zero = negative pregnancy test result
BFP = Big Fat Positive = positive preganancy test result
BD = Baby Dust = "good luck in conceiving" wishes
TTC = Trying to conceive
So you get things like, "Me and DH have been TTC for 4 months and keep getting BFNs. Then AF was 2 days late and then a BFP! So excited! Thanks for the BD everyone, here's hoping it's DD2!"
And a good proportion of the threads started with someone saying, "what on earth does AF mean"?
Its a fair point that using abbreviations can lead to confusion. I know that I'm guilty of it from time to time, especially when talking about promo cards, where "Engine of War" can become "EoW" without warning, or the various Legacies can be described in all sorts of ways, or "area of effect damage" can become AoE damage (that one has nothing to do with promo cards, but I use it often).
