# Use of jargon when posting questions **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [March 17, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-jargon-when-posting-questions/683962 "2014-03-17T23:01:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 56
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-jargon-when-posting-questions/683962/56 "2014-03-18T02:22:20Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > The vitriol didn’t happen because of the OP, but because people kept insisting things that you should know what “direct report” means or that it’s perfectly fine to use jargon for a general audience, and, if you didn’t understand the term, it was your fault for not looking it up. > > There wasn’t an argument before that point. Stop insisting it was someone else’s fault when you started the vitriol. You are the ones who are so upset that you started a whole other thread about it. Your side is the one throwing around insults about people not getting out. You are the ones making this heated. I started it? I started no other thread. You’re confusing me with someone else. This is post 11 from that thread. > [@My direct report is dating a C-level above me](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-direct-report-is-dating-a-c-level-above-me/683590/11): > > Is “direct report” a standard term for employees? > I figured it out from context, but it just sounds silly. > A report is a file of papers, stapled in a plastic folder. > > This reminds me of Mitt Romney’s gaffe in the last election when he referred to his female staff as “binders of women”. Up until then a few posters expressed confusion and a few posters answered. Here is the first negative sounding post. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-jargon-when-posting-questions/683962)._