Hi there new person. Welcome aBoard!
This is the wonderful land of the Straight Dope Message Board ( SDMB ) Here are some of the abbreviations that we use here. Just for fun I organized them according to the forum where you might expect to find each one. Of course, some of these are so common that they are in all of the fora.
:::::::::::::::::::::::
The Fora ( Forums ):
ATMB - About This Message Board (where you are right now)
CCC - Comments on Cecil’s Columns
CMA - Comments on Mailbag Answers
GQ - General Questions
GD - Great Debates
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
MPSIMS - Mundane Pointless Stuff I Must Share
BBQ or the Pit - The BBQ Pit (flamers welcome!)
ATMB:
FAQ -Frequently Asked Questions
OP - Original Post ( The post that starts a thread )
OT - Off Topic ( a hijack )
Sig. - Signature (the little quote people stick at the bottom of their posts)
Reg. - Regular visitor
Newbie - That’s you
TM - Teeming Millions
UBB - Ultimate Bulletin Board ( old board software )
vB - vBulletin ( new board software )
Attn - Attention
CCC:
ROFL - Rolling On Floor Laughing
ROFLMAO - Rolling On Floor Laughing My Ass Off
LOL - Laughing Out Loud
LSHIPIMP - Laughing So Hard I Peed In My Pants
LSHIGRBUMN - Laughing So Hard I Got Root Beer Up My Nose (It happens)
ROTFLMAOSTSOOTC - ROFLMAO + Scaring The Shit Out Of The Cat.
CMA:
IIRC - If I Recall Correctly or If I Remember Correctly
AFAIK - As Far As I Know
FWIW - For What It’s Worth
IOW - In Other Words
IDL - International Date Line
GQ:
WAG - Wild Ass Guess
SWAG - Scientific Wild Ass Guess
BP - Before Present
CE - Common Era
BCE - Before Common Era
IKOWBIDWTLSSIDA - I Kind Of Wondered But I Didn’t Want To Look Stupid So I Didn’t Ask.
GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out
HTML - Hypertext Markup Language
FTP - File Transfer Protocol or Fuck That Pal
ISP - Internet Service Provider
AOL - Almost OnLine
ASOL - America Sometimes OnLine ( IOW- just plain asshole )
SIEUI : Search Is Easy, Use It
GD:
PC - Politically Correct / Personal Computer
YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary (meaning that things may be different in different circumstances)
NIMBY - Not In My Back Yard
GGD - Great God Debate (it’ll last longer than cockroaches)
TANSTAAFL - There Aint No Such Thing As A Free Lunch ( courtesy Robert Heilein )
DOMA - Defense of Marriage Act
TWIAVBP - The World Is A Very Big Place
DYPMTTUAYGA - Do You People Make These Things Up As You Go Along?
NATO - Not Able To Organize
IMHO:
IMO - In My Opinion
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
IM®HO - In My (Rarely) Humble Opinion
POV - Point Of View
IDIC - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations (live long and prosper, eh?)
BILC - Because It Looks Cool.
FMAIHP - Feel My Ass, It Has Powers
MPSIMS:
3124 - This was WallyM7’s final post count.
IRL - In Real Life
BTW - By The Way
D&R - Ducking and Running ( usually after a smartass comment )
GD&R - Grinning, Ducking and Running
MOLOSTER - MOst Last pOSTER ( a thread killer )
SSM - Same-Sex Marriage
DP - Domestic Partnership
FOAF - Friend Of A Friend
WYSIWYG - What You See Is What You Get
SWMBO - She Who Must Be Obeyed ( the wife )
TYP - Thank You Partner
TYA - Thank You All
TTYA - Thanks To You All
NORWICH - Nickers Off, Ready When I Come Home ( WW2 soldiers acronym )
MST3K - Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (sorry, had to include it)
SW-TPM - Star Wars - The Phantom Menace ( yes, below MST3K )
BBQ:
DNFTT = Do Not Feed The Troll(s) ( don’t let this be you )
WTF - What The Fuck?
LDS - Latter Day Saints ( Hell yes, pepper. I put the Mormons in the Pit;) )
WOMBAT - Waste Of Money, Brains And Talent
YOYO - You’re On Your Own
PITA - Pain In The Ass.
POS - Piece Of Shit
TDA - Terminal Dumb Ass
HUA - Head Up Ass
PHD - Pop Has Dough
TANJ - There Ain’t No Justice ( SciFi author, Larry Niven )
CYTWAB - Cute Young Thing With A Brain.
SNAFU - Situation Normal, All Fucked Up
TARFU - Things Are Really Fucked Up
FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition or Fucked Up Beyond All Repair
DFY- Dumb Fucking User
BOHICA - Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.
OTL - Out To Lunch
LOTH - Leaning Over Toilet, Hurling
BMDB - Bite Me Dough Boy (Drew Carey)
USSC - US Supreme Court ( the Supremes )
Here are some of the other sites in the community:
3FMB - Fabulous Forums of Fathom Message Board ( OpalCat’s Board )
TMHP - Teeming Millions HomePage ( also courtesy of OpalCat )
SDPP - Straight Dope People Pages ( courtesy of Shayna )
LBMB - The Left Behind Message Board ( leftbehind.com - if you don’t know, don’t ask)
UL - Urban Legends ( see snopes.com )
:::::::::::::::::::::::::
I hope you find this useful. If you find more acromyms and abbreviations please post them here so we can share in your wisdom.
Anyways - Happy Posting