My all time favorite is OMG. Spelled out O-M-G, not oh my god.
I would have regarded that (honestly) as no explanation at all, and asked, in all sincerity, WTF (hah!) is Diner, Dives and Drive-Ins? Until reading this thread I had not the faintest idea – my TV gets turned on an average of maybe once a month, if that (except during hockey season) and I’d never heard of the stupid thing. But, TEHO, YMMV. And to the nice DDD lady, FYATHYRIO.
I like KMAG-YOYO too.
In the what?
On the what?
Try working for the government. All our case notes are alphabet soup. Unfortunately, I have some coworkers who have created new acronyms, which only they know the definition. Makes coverage a real PITA.
I sent my gf (girlfriend) a text last week with a link I labeled NSFW. She replied “NSFW?”, which made me think that she thought it was safe for work (it definitely was not).
So, we went back and forth with neither understanding what the other was saying. Finally I realized that she did not know what NSFW meant! Eventually she asked a bunch of her coworkers, and they all knew, of course, and were surprised that she didn’t.
If I had heard DDD I would have thought of Dolly Parton.
It is an irritating habit. In technical writing it’s generally accepted practice that the first time an acronym is used, it is spelled out with the acronym following in parentheses.
Can I add to this peeve my own peeve about using “acronym” to mean any and all abbreviations?
That aside, I agree with the OP’s sentiment. It irritates me when people use unfamiliar abbreviations and cutesy nicknames. Those things might be appropriate for a particular in-group, but when you go out into larger society, it’s obnoxious.
It happens all the time though. I just noticed a thread title on the Dope referring to the “EPL.” Why use that abbreviation in the title? There isn’t a character limitation problem here.
Let me extend this to Americans who use postal abbreviations for states in a forum that includes non-American readers. It’s unnecessary. Just spell out the names of states.
Also, with the airport codes. An airport code is not the name of a city. Just say the name of the city you’re talking about.
I feel bad for the people living in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Triple D is actually “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”
Just sayin’. 
:d&r:
In at least one case, I don’t have a choice.
One professional organization that I belong to has a name that was once an acronym, but now is not. They decided that the full name behind the acronym no longer accurately described what the organization had evolved into. But they wanted to keep the acronym, for purposes of branding and familiarity.
Several committees tried very hard to come up with a new name that still worked out to the same acronym, but failed. So it was simply declared that the acronym is now the official name of the organization, and the letters do not stand for anything (although it is still spelled in all caps–branding again–so it looks like an acronym).
It’s kind of annoying when I have to apply for funding to travel to their annual conference. We’re required to spell out the full name of all organizations on our travel forms, no abbreviations or acronyms. Every year I have to explain, “There is no fuller name. The letters don’t stand for anything.”
Although in technical fields it may be that the acronym is more well known and a and so in some ways a better description then the actual thing it spells out.
For example in my field if someone asks, if I have the CGH data on MYD88 for the HBL1 cell line, I would know what they wanted. If instead they asked for the Comparative genomic hybridization data, on the Myeloid Differentiation Primary Response Protein 88, for Human diffuse B-cell lymphoma cell line 1, I’d be totally baffled.
Similarly it if a teller asked me to put in my personal identification number, I’d be a bit confused until I worked out that they meant my PIN number (yes I do realize its redundant, linguistics is descriptive not prescriptive so suck it).
I can’t get behind this. I’m not going to type Pennsylvania when PA is correct, or California in place of CA, especially when the state follows a city.
True, but when the communications vendor talks about the CIR and the CPE, and then in the next meeting the software guy talks about the CLI and the CRC, it gets rather confusing to us customers. Then throw in the Security guy talking about AES and IPS and, well, you get the picture.
The last big project I worked on was the upgrade to our in-house call center system. We had a vendor-provided list of acronyms that everybody could refer to as needed.
Why? Because you expect that everyone around the world should know a set of abbreviations relevant only to us? The name of the state is never incorrect, even after the city.
That’s what happened to BECU. Used to be the Boeing Employees Credit Union. It’s not restricted to Boeing employees anymore, so the name is just BECU now.
anyway, can this be SDMB’s new tag line?
Because I’m lazy and I’m on a phone. If I can save typing ten letters by using an abbreviation, then I will. This message board is based in the U.S. and most of the members know the abbreviations. Anybody who doesn’t can ask. Consider it my contribution to fighting ignorance
Dumbest version of that I’ve seen was when working in a UK postal sorting office as a Christmas temp. Got multiple letters with a clearly non-UK address ending in just a state abbreviation, no country. Had a few ‘Oh crap, is VA Virginia, USA or Victoria, Australia?’ type moments. And yes, those would be sorted differently at that point.
After a while though, I realised it was always USA, everyone else put the country on.
Why are you using an acronym in your location field?