People, may I ask WHY everyone is so intent on using acronyms around here, especially when you KNOW people are going to ask what they stand for, and you'll eventually need to write an entirely new post to explain it, or send the person in question a personal message defining it to him?

Now, I don't mean simple things like "lol", "OMG" and "PM", I mean things like "OGD", "COT" and "BZPMP". People are simply not going to know what on Earth you're talking about if they have not been here for over a year, and sometimes more.

And don't suggest "Well, people can always just unabbreviate them..."; there can be various different interpretations for them that seem relevant, especially on the internet, of all places. For example, one person may think COT stands for "Computer Operating Topic", as opposed to "Completely Off Topic", or that "OGD" stands for "Oh Gosh Darn" instead of "Official Greg Discussion". There can be an average of nearly a hundred "seemingly relevant" interpretations for each of the acronyms widely used on BZPower.

And don't try using the excuse that people should be able to figure out what they mean by just looking at how you would abbreviate certain things either; people have better things to do than stumble across the board looking at the names of topics and comparing how they'd be abbreviated to commonly used acronyms here. Let's say there's a topic called "Bionicle Madman Battles": generally someone with a relatively lazy attitude towards referring to things would abbreviate it as "BMB" which someone could interpret as "Bionicle Movies & Books", one of the forums here. Whenever someone says "BMB" one person may think of the non-existent topic formerly mentioned, or the subforum. If someone says "I posted in BMB", you really can't tell for certain which they're referring to. While yes, the hypothetical post in question would likely have something more meaningful in it, it's foolish to think that everyone will "lurn two bzpspeek", especially if they have other message boards, or websites which allow discussion to occupy their time with that they frequent.

To reiterate; acronyms can have various meanings, and it must be clear in which context they are used; thus, if people generally have a more familiar context of an acronym, it will seem more relevant for what they hear most people say to mean that, even if that's not what's widely interpreted to be. Thus, it helps to take the extra second or two to fully write that name or term you're abbreviating to it's full form: people will understand you better, and it will look more eloquent. People don't misunderstand you if you're well read. At least not if you're writing.

So I tell you this: use your best spelling and grammar, stay away from acronyms in public discussion, at least the uncommon kinds. You must remember that if some people don't understand you, it should be from them being uneducated, not from you speaking correctly. It may sound harsh, but if you don't, English will degrade into a series of grunts and murmurs; not the descriptive and sophisticated language it's slowly drifting away from.

So I'll leave you with this: Write correctly, write intelligibly, and write eloquently.

-Ngakunui