abbreviations

You're not alone. I've been using the Internet since ArpaNet days (1975), English is my native language, and I don't know what a lot of them mean either. I assume that people who use them aren't really interested in getting their message across, they just like to post.

Even sillier are the pe> I don't know what they mean and English is my native language. > >

Isn't the point of shorthand to allow someone to copy text in real time? You don't have to do that if you're the one typing the message in the first place.

Here in Illinois, CMS is the Central Management Services division of the state government, and BLO is a street term for cocaine.

charlie b wrote:

From what my dad taught me about proper use and care of the pocketknife I received from him on my 9th BD - he would have taken yours away. If you were breaking blades then you were likely using the wrong tool for the job. (AFAIR, I don't believe I've ever broken a knife blade.)

BTW, my SWMBOjr gave me a beauty of a pocketknife for Xmas - 3"x

1/4"x1/4", two blades, segmented wood on one bolster, dyed wood on the other. Haven't carried a pocketknife for years; I'd forgotten how nice it is to have one close at hand.

I am an "elitist" because I advocate learning others' language? While you, who refuse to, would be what?

Language grows through neologisms of all sorts, including abbreviations, pronounceable or not.

I'll go with Leo. If you won't learn from others, how do you fancy you know so much?

================== George, A lot of what your'e seeing is a result of the indoctrination in "self esteem", whether deeserved or not. The natural outgrowth of all this is " I'm impressed with myself, so I can't be wrong". My wife is a prof. at a community college and she's seeing this a lot now. FWIW

Ken Moon Webberville, TX.

first of all, I consider "teaching a man how to fish" more useful than "giving a man a fish."

If I can teach someone how to use the Internet, then they can get the answer to their question - ANY QUESTION - immediately.

If we just answer the question - well, - how much do we know about the experience and knowledge of the person asking the question?

They have to wait for a response - and when they get it, they may not understand it. So they have to ask a second, and a third question.

This might take days. However, if they know how to search this newsgroup ( which only takes 15 seconds to learn) they can getdozens or hundreds of answers immediately.

Second - I don't understand your point about Clarity and obscurity.

If every single post has to be written for a "Intro to Woodworking level" then you won't get many responses. It takes too much time for each and every one of us to define basic terms. Over and Over and Over and Over.

And have you considered the frustration if someone spends 30 minutes writing a very good response to a question, only to have someone ask the exact same question the next week?

The clearest response is to have someone look up the earlier posting, instead of asking for someone to repeat it.

It's selfish to expect everyone to bend over backwards to answer YOUR questions. We shoudl consider answers a gift - freely received,a nd gratefully accepted. You aren't paying us to answers. Heck - you doon't even have to go to the local woodworking store and ask the question. This newsgroup is GREAT!

And what do you mean by ethnocentric?

What's ICQ?

Seriously - people here can have two attitudes:

a) I don't want to learn anything - I just want to solve my problem. b) I am willing to learn

If you are not willing to learn, then why should we be willing to teach?

I posted the exact URL you can use to look up ANYTHING in this newsgroup. All you have to do is bookmark it. This takes 5 seconds. Let me repeat myself It's

You bookmark it. To use it, you go to your bookmark, type in the phrases you don't understand, and click "Search This Group" FIVE SECONDS OF EFFORT!!!

Now you are telling me that this is too much effort to do?

Besides - if you are serious about something, you can always ask. Nobody here said they weren't going to ANSWER your question.

It's quite simple.

You can either ask a question, and if you don't understand the answer, ask a second question, and a third, etc..

Or you can learn how to search this newsgroup for answers to your question, and get the answers right away.

It's your choice. The first requires no knowlegde, but takes longer. The second requires 5 seconds of effort, and can give you the answer in

5 seconds instead of days.

In My Humble Opinion, the second method is the BEST method. It's faster, and can give you access to lots more information.

Forgive me for suggesting that you use this method. Apparently it was very selfish and ethocentric.

There's only One way: SCMS.

Because we really don't want you to know what we're talking about until you've been initiated or have saved the boxtops and gotten the decoder ring.

Oh puh-leeeze. Let me guess, it's rrrrrracist, too, right? Can we please overuse another word or two and take away all possible significance it might ever have had? What are you, 10?

Yep, there are people on here from the US, UK, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, various African nations, Peru, and probably other South American countries, I believe and probably a multitude of other ones as well and yet the only one whining about "I don't know how to play the game....change the rules for me.. WAAAAH!!!." is an English-speaking, self-proclaimed 3 decade netizen who SHOULD know better and another English-speaking whiner of unknown pedigree. Everybody else deals with it, and either asks nicely, looks it up or waits until they learn it on their own.

ICQ? Now who's using "silly jargo?" Any of you non-English speakers here, what time of day did the "Speak English Police" come to your house and hold the gun to your head?

You've been around for over 30 years yet you don't know the purpose and origin of the wide use of acronyms on UseNet? ah-hem....who're you trying to kid? If you've _really_ been around that long, that doesn't even bear commenting on.

Oh, c'mon. You've been around the 'Net long enough so you know perfectly well the reason for acronyms (in part, the same as their use as in any other community or subculture). You know perfectly well what LOL, FWIW and all the rest mean. You're just spewing alligator tears and being a troll.

No, Troll, they have just lost interest (or never even actually_ had_ any, like most trolls don't) in the use and topic of the newsgroup. Like trolls who go to any newsgroup and pick some stupid thing to piss and moan about, they just get people stirred up and then go on their merry way.

Is this really Al Kyder? Have you been reincarnated as a troll, Al? If you have, I liked you better as Al. At least your posts were funny. Now they're just whiney and pathetic.

If it is, please go back to being Al. Otherwise, take off, Troll.

PLONK...! (know what that means, "Old-timer?")

Are you suggesting that we shouldn't try to learn useful things unless we're also willing to learn silly useless stuff too? One can learn woodworking skills from others without having to decipher silly, non-standard, made-up acronyms and words.

It's not limited to this newsgroup, of course. People like to use jargon everywhere. But some terms are more universal than others. While many terms are commonly used in publications, some of them only seem to appear in usenet postings.

Then there's the ambiguity. Some of us have more than one interest. While you might think SCMS is a sliding compound miter saw, most of the world (that is familiar with the term) knows it as the Serial Copying Management System. And why do some of you need row address strobes (RAS) in your shops? Just what are you refreshing? If you use TS for table saw, how can TM (t) be tape measure? Shouldn't it be table miter?

Language growth is f> I am an "elitist" because I advocate learning others' language? While you,

I should have figured that being *polite* to someone who has been on the net for 20 years and has yet to learn netiquette would be a waste of my time.

*plonk*

Sure, but every community has it's slang. It doesn't take long to pick up the meaning. You can either google or ask. T'aint no big thang.

Oh poppycock. Nobody is forcing anybody to post in English. Just so happens that this news group was created by Americans so it's in English. There's plenty of other news groups out there in other languages. I stumbled into a German one once. Didn't hang out long but certainly didn't think it selfish or ethnocentric that they weren't posting in a language that I speak. Non-english speakers are more than welcome to start a turning newsgroup in whatever language they want.

ICQ? ICQ? Oh no, not another TLA!!!!

Sheesh. Some folks would complain if you hung 'em w/a new rope...

...Kevin

Been posting to the "wreck" for... oh,what's it been... 8 years, maybe. And, to this day I still read WW2 as World War 2. Not that I had any experience with the Great One, just that's what's ingrained in my brain cells. (For those not knowing, WW2 refers to the Forrest Woodworker 2 saw blade.)