I don’t even know what that means and it drives me crazy. 
Harlan Ellison did his commentary on “sci-fi” vs. “science fiction” for a TV program some years back; I saw the tape at a convention in 1997. It’s well worth your time to find the tape and watch it. I could summarize the commentary in one sentence, but I could never do full justice to Ellison’s attitude. (Ellison is famous for an attitude and ego the size of, oh, the Cosmic All.)
Or pop a fresh tape in the camcorder and ask him. I’d love to see what Ellison could do with a friendly audience and no time constraint.
Was recently rereading Brian Aldiss’ Billion Year Spree; his take on the subject was “only would-be trendies use ‘sci-fi’.”
Whether or not it was originally meant to, “sci-fi” has taken on a rather dismissive and pejorative sense … I wouldn’t use it, I’d use “science fiction” or “SF”. (Though I do belong to that subset of people who use “skiffy” to describe bad SF they nonetheless like.)
To say nothing of the “moho” discontinuity layer under the Earth’s crust. (The Marvel cartoon Inhumanoids pronounced it “mojo”. :rolleyes: )
I agree with Tomcat. I think ‘SF’, ‘Sci-Fi’, and ‘Science Fiction’ all refer to the same thing, and am completely comfortable using any of the variants, even in mixed company (whatever that means).
But…can we please all agree that we need to come up with a better term for the genre of ‘Fantasy’? 
SOHO=Small Office/Home Office.
By the seven green moons of Gongle, the geekery is stong with this thread.
While I don’t have a dog in this race, I’d like to contribute that the earliest use of the term “sci-fi” was discussed on the American Dialectic Society List just yesterday and today.
Result: Heinlein used it first in a letter in 1949. That will be the new cite in the OED. From here
This may be what Exapno was referring to. And it may be a totally inconsequential use of the term. I’m just reporting something that I found out for the first time today.
I ran into this problem in an embarrassing way. When I was on Jeopardy, my card mentioned that I was a science fiction fan. Alex asked me who my favorite sci-fi writer was. I started to object to it, then remembered 4sj (who I met during a tour of the Ackermansion many years ago - my parents lived for a time only a few blocks from it.) I didn’t feel I could insult him on national tv. It came out a total mess - but happily they edited it out.
Alas, today sci-fi is mostly used by mundanes laughing at us, so I never use it. SF covers pretty much all the bases.
Yes it was. From Forey Ackerman’s page:
This would put the usage in 1947 rather than 1949, but it could easily be a mistake of memory on Forey’s part.
Oh I don’t know, I remember one week, not long after I joined the L.A.S.F.S. I was thinking about the upcoming LosCon and wondering were I put my Starfleet uniform and did my phaser have fresh batteries when I remembered that not only was I scheduled to headline one of the filk rooms but it was the same weekend that I was supposed to be at sheild-wall practice for the West/Caid War . Yikes! Luckily, my good friend and fellow attendee of the most recent B.S.I. Dinner re-scheduled and we managed to even squeeze in a trip to Golden Apple’s . What a day.
It’s spelled Harlan Ellison but it’s pronounced: “Throat warbler-Mangrove”.
originally posted by SmackFu
SoHo, in that spelling and typography, does not usually refer to “Small office, Home office”, but to the area of New York City that is South of Houston (pronounced “Howston,” NOT “Hewston” like the Texas city.) By the “sci fih” rule, SoHo ought to be pronounced SowHow.