WTF (What The Fuck) is the point of telling me “Creating TOC (Table Of Contents)”
Either use the TLA (Three Letter Abbreviation), or spell the term out in full.
OK, I suppose that in a lengthy technical document, it is quite understandable that you’d tell me that CPU means (Central Processing Unit) in the first instance, then use the TLA (three Letter Abbreviation) every time thereafter that you want to talk about the CPU (Central Processing Unit), but using the TLA (Three Letter Abbreviation) and the term in full, each and every time throughout the whole document, or when the term only appears once… Grrr, it’s just totally OTT (Over The Top) and must end RSN (Real Soon Now).
I hate when I see an acronymn and then an explanation in parens. What’s that all about? I have never ever seen the company use the acronym w/o an explanation ever. Why? Because they’re afraid the NEW customers won’t know what it is.
Sounds like someone did a CAP (Copy And Paste) or FAR (Find And Replace) on every TLA (Three Letter Acronym). Kind of annoying but ultimately no BFD (Big Fucking Deal).
Sometimes, though, doing that makes sense, mostly when you get into variables that have no obvious relations to what they stand for. x for distance and p (or is it P? My last physics class was a while ago) for momentum come to mind.
The one I think bugged me the most was CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Everytime the commercials came on for that show I wanted to throw something at the TV.
Why give something a TLA title and then explain it everytime you say it? It makes no sense.
Ironically, if you didn’t clarify what you meant by TLAs, I would have thought this thread was going to be about the 80’s industrial band, Teen Lesbians and Animals, which was usually shortened to TLA.
(Against incredible odds, a Google search for “Teen Lesbians and Animals” returns absolutely no hits which don’t relate to the band itself!)
Indeed, a personal PIN number. Fortunately, I’ve never seen “personal PIN ID number” but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.
Perhaps someone was paid by the word? I wonder what the best way is? Maybe mention the expansion the first time, and in a glossary? If it’s online you could even have a link, though that may be OTT.
<hijack>Incidently, TLA is my favorite example of a homological (self-referential; describing itself) word. [size=1]The antonym is heterological “not describing itself.” A favorite paradox is "Is ‘homological’ homological or heterological? What about ‘heterological’</hijack>
