IIRC, he is a student at the University of South Alabama. Go USA Jaguars!!!
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I’m not using an acronym.
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It’s an abbreviation commonly known throughout the world, and is a well-known shorthand for the country, more commonly used than the full name. So, it’s not comparable to postal abbreviations for states.
What does “correct” mean? If you’re mailing something, the 2-letter is correct and writing out the entire state name is wrong. If you’re communicating, though, “correct” is whatever best conveys your message to its audience.
Or just ignore whatever you had to say, since you didn’t communicate it effectively.
It’s pretty much the diametrical opposite.
Yes I’m asking my colleague to replace the CMOS battery to make sure the BIOS doesn’t get reset. I’m not asking them about a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor battery to ensure basic input/output settings aren’t screwed up.
Of course if I’m talking to a layman I’m not using either the abbreviation or full name, I’m using a descriptor so they know what the hell I’m talking about.
I can see rapidly thumbing an abbreviation in a post on your phone, but in the location field? You’re going to type that once, why not use the state’s full name?
Unless it’s obvious, then you don’t even need the abbreviation (I think Tokyo, Liverpool, Los Angeles, even NYC are well enough known).
Yeah, nitpickers, no one is going to think “I wonder if he meant the Tokyo in Papua New Guinea?” or “Boston? Golly, this here poster must hail from that neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky!”
That one’s mine. For now.
Translation, please?
Today I learned that TIL stands for “today I learned.” 
Yeah, there’s a certain point where something is so ubiquitous and obvious that the longer version isn’t needed CA=California is obvious and objections are silly. MI=Michigan? Missouri? Mississippi? AK=Arkansas? Alaska? When something gets less obvious it needs to be spelled out. The burden of “not being lazy” should fall on the writer, not the reader.
If most of the members understand the abbreviations, then I consider that to be communicating effectively. It not as if most of them are that hard to figure out, anyway. Some of them are weird, but anyone can figure out OH for Ohio or TX for Texas or NY for New York.
Anyway, the current two-letter abbreviations for the states came into use in 1963. It’s not like they’re brand new and have seldom been encountered before. People have had 56 years to get adjusted to them.
Depends on your intended audience. Since state abbreviations are US postal addressing abbreviations, they will tend to be less familiar to non-Americans, especially those overseas. So it may make it slightly harder for them to understand, and it conveys a US-centric tone, which may or may not be an issue. Even on this side of the ocean, where most Canadians recognize most US state abbreviations, something like “CA” can cause momentary confusion because it’s also the IANA country suffix for “Canada” in Internet domains. And I don’t buy the “because I’m on my phone” excuse – phones and tablets will offer to autocomplete a long state name after just a few characters. On my tablet “California” pops up after tying “cal”, which is hardly more arduous than typing “CA”.
This is all somewhat nitpicky but it just underscores the general principle that inappropriate use of acronyms and initialisms can be bad form and can impede communication, however slightly it may be. To me it’s somewhat akin to lazy bad writing, which sends the message “I’m not interested in expending any effort to make my writing easy for you to understand because I don’t give a shit”.
When someone asks you to come on over for a RPG. Do not bring a rocket propelled grenade. They are talking about some kind of gamer stuff.
“PA” is “correct” only as a reference to one’s father in certain dialects, and on an envelope address within the US. Unless you’re going to rewrite the lyrics to “Chattanooga Choo Choo” to make them “correct”. You’ll need to throw in “NC” and “TN” in there, too. Eventually all the great classics will sound just like a USPS zip code directory! 
I always thought this is the convention in general, not just for technical writing. I expect people to explain what they mean. If they don’t, I will remind them they are not being clear.
I was chatting with a friend last evening and he was telling me about his day at work, and suddenly started repeatedly dropping a TLA into the conversation. (I don’t recall the actual letters.) From context it was clear that it was a specific type of task that he was being asked to do a lot of, and that he considered it a distraction. After the dozenth time he used the term I gave up, broke down, and told him that I didn’t know how big a deal all those XYZs he was being asked to do was because I had no idea what he was talking about. He apologized and explained what the clearly office-specific TLA meant, and the conversation carried on, but damn if it wasn’t annoying.
Okay, to hijack my own thread, what’s with the highway signs in Pennsylvania? The ones that say PENNA Turnpike? (Even if you google Pa Turnpike you get them)…
Why? PA TURNPIKE would take up less space. Does anyone there say “Penna”?
Can you imagine abbreviating another state by just cutting out the middle of the name?
ILLS TOLLWAY, Next Exit …
Kenky Derby …
India Hoosier Stadium ahead …
Come Visit Beautiful Alaa … head north or south, either one’s nice.
I think it’s silly – I would just have spelled it out in a narrow font – but it does show that the two-letter USPS state abbreviations are far from being as “correct” or ubiquitous as the other poster claimed outside the context of a mailing address. The meaning of “PA Turnpike” might indeed be unclear, especially to a foreign traveller. And really, the contraction of long state names in this way isn’t a first – the Massachusetts Turnpike is commonly known as MassPike, the port authority that runs the airports is Massport, etc.
I think “Stan” comes from a Marshall
Mathers tune about an overzealous fan.
I love you, Trump, we coulda been together, think about it
The OP’s situation I get. Why would you assume that people know a TV show by its abbreviation, or know the abbreviations in your field when they aren’t part of it? And why would you assume that most people are acquainted with classical literature enough to get allusions? (I’d assume the “allusion to Faulkner” part was a joke, myself.)
But when it’s online in a fan community, I just assume it’s a word that’s common there, and I’m new, so I don’t know it. So I go out and look it up. If I can’t figure it out, then I’ll ask. If I do figure it out, I’ll post a helpful “For those who didn’t know.” I’ve never seen it go awry.
As for the rest: I will continue to call them acronyms, as I reject prescriptive that is so far at odds with common usage. And if I used my state abbreviation in my location field, I’d expect to get several posters thinking I was in Arizona.
PA TURNPIKE, since it’s all capital letters, could easily be seen as just “pa.” What I don’t get is why they don’t use either PENN. or even PENNS. Why throw in the last letter?