Acronym soup for beginners

[Peace River]

I appreciate the effort from all of you for helping me out. Thanks.

To the Forum moderators - If part of your mission statement is to attract new reef enthusiasts then please stop chasing them away. We come here to learn from the experts, but acronyms prevent us from understanding what the experts are saying. This forum is on acronym steroids. You could ask senior members to refrain from using them for the sake of your mission statement. Please.

Good point! @ClearLife - whether or not acronyms usage goes away, you raise a valid point about considering the audience. Thanks for being part of this community and thank you for stepping out there and raising this question!

 

[ClearLife]

LMGTFY - Let Me Google That For You

For all those people who find it more convenient to bother you with their question rather than to Google it for themselves.

lmgtfy.com

Adding site:reef2reef.com after your search term will restrict the results to this site, narrows the search a good bit.



Seriously, just ask if you don’t understand a specific acronym. Asking an entire forum to change for the preferences of one seems unlikely to happen.

Its not just one person mate. Its every beginner that comes to this forum for help. I don't understand why this forum is OK with alienating those that wish to enter the hobby. Does Reef-2-Reef have a mission statement? I'll be they do and I'll bet acronyms on steroids undermines that mission staement.
That's all.

 

[ZoWhat]

Googling UNLS and many other acronyms with Google result in articles that have nothing to do with reefing. Try it and you will see that googling reefing acronyms result in nothing about reefing.
I'm not a big fan of bad company policy that undermines their mission statement.

If you Google "Reef" and "ULNS" here's what the search results are:

 

[ClearLife]

If you Google "Reef" and "ULNS" here's what the search results are:

You are amazing. Not only have you helped me with that great acronym list, but you also taught me something about google search. If only you had enough pull to convince the moderators to send a short message to all senior members to curtail acronyms.

 

[andyg1960]

maybe "why do I have to put up with meaningless acronyms" should have been "I'm new, and I'm confused by the acronyms, can anyone direct me to a list or some souce that would help me?"

 

[ClearLife]

maybe "why do I have to put up with meaningless acronyms" should have been "I'm new, and I'm confused by the acronyms, can anyone direct me to a list or some souce that would help me?"

That would be fine if I was thinking only of myself, but I would like to think I speak for many beginners who come here, only to be confused with acronyms. My goal was to help make this forum better for everyone going into the future. I believe this forum will benefit from encouraging clear, acronym free posts.

 

[Kyuss414]

Nobody is getting paid here. The people giving advice have already put in the work, figured things out, and then also take the time and effort to help others. As already posted, there is a stickied thread in the new reefer forum (literally the third post down) for just this that even shows up if you use the search for, you guessed it, "acronyms". Pretty bold to complain about it rather than just kindly ask for clarification for something that's already readily available, when it takes just a small amount of effort on your own part.

 

[N2950H]

If it doesn't exist already, I would agree that a list of common acronyms in a sticky somewhere would be a good thing for people just coming into the hobby.

That said, familiarizing oneself with the jargon of the trade or hobby they are entering always takes some effort. When I got into aviation and aerospace, the number of acronyms was astonishing but I came to learn what they meant by reading everything I could get my hands on. It will feel like you're drowning in the beginning, but the effort eventually pays off.

NTTBAJJRME

(Not Trying to Be a Jerk, Just Relating My Experience)

 

[N2950H]

And just like that, I typed "acronyms" into the search function and this wonderful submission by Seawitch late last year was in the 2nd thread that popped up (below yours):

Acronyms, Abbreviations, Vocabulary, and Slang for the Reef Aquarist, Revised December 2018

Seawitch submitted a new Article: Acronyms, Abbreviations, Vocabulary, and Slang for the Reef Aquarist, Revised December 2018 The Pacific Ocean Photo is a royalty-free image from Pixabay. Okay, one more time. If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. Some years ago, Uninja, with the...

www.reef2reef.com

I would echo the statements above. Either don't be afraid to ask questions here (we don't bite, seriously!) or just hone your search skills a bit.

 

[reef_daddy]

There is a pretty simple solution to this, and is common practice in most technical writing, spell out the acronym the first time it’s used in the article. If someone is reading a thread and wants to respond using an acronym, all they have to do is say: “I love my Ultra Low Nutrient System (ULNS)”. Then they anyone can say ULNS all they want in the thread. All we can do is practice it on our own and hope people eventually follow along.