its true there are things like airport codes and fare classes that have strange abbrieviations, until you learn them, but some of the stuff here is unnessesarily abbreviated out of laziness...how hard is it to type upgrade instead of UG or boarding pass instead of BP...was this site started by court stenographers?
If you continue to make up abbreviations, dont be snotty if someone occasionally asks for a translation.
If we are making up abbr i think we ought to call skymiles skypesos because SM could also mean SkyMall... so if we start calling delta's FF points SP would it catch on?

Please see my post above ... btw, totally unimpressed that with less than two months as a registered member, you are going to tell people posting here for years and having no problems conversing how they should change their habits to what? Accomodate laziness? Inability to look things up? Says a lot right there.


For the original poster - none of my posts refer to you or your original post, but to subsequent posts/comments

No worries.

When in Rome....

If you don't have one already, I'd develop a seriously thick skin as well. There's a lot of snarky, elitest folks on here that enjoy pouring extra portions of misery and/or status ranking on others, rather sad actually.

[QUOTE=GoingAway;13969208]Please see my post above ... btw, totally unimpressed that with less than two months as a registered member, you are going to tell people posting here for years and having no problems conversing how they should change their habits to what? Accomodate laziness? Inability to look things up? Says a lot right there.

would it impress you more to know that I first joined about the same time as you did, struggled for the first month to make sense of the spew of anagrams and abbreviations, and after 6 moths quit reading. I came back, rejoined, and now post because I am interested in points, and want to help others with current info. I wonder how many of your 10000+ posts are insults and jabs at newer members looking for answers, and how many are informative posts.

Yes, you have a point, if you spent a month trying to make sense of the anagrams and abbreviations readily available in the glossary, then I am fairly certain it is not laziness!

Welcome to the world of internet forums. All forums are likes this. Longtime members get accustomed to doing things a certain way, and they don't like to take time out of what they are doing to deal with someone who is new to a site. Most don't like newbies at all. However, new members here or anywhere shouldn't be put off by the snarkiness of certain members. There's always longtime members who are willing to point you in the right direction, in a kind and helpful way. Just ignore the ones who would rather call you lazy and dumb and move on. Don't judge the entire site by a few members.

Anyway, when I first started coming here, I tried to find a glossary of terms. I knew all the airport codes, but not the day to day abbreviations. The first place I looked was for a stickied post going over the glossary, as it is in most forums. I never thought to look under HELP, assuming that would be about account and contact help. See, how would you expect a new member to decipher a PM like that if they had no idea where the glossary was?

Perhaps a stickied thread or a thread going over everything newbies should know would help out both longtime members and new recruits.

One last thing... I really do appreciate everything that is contributed by all members here. I have learned a lot and saved a lot with this information, long before I became a member. Flyertalk as a whole is extremely helpful.

To the OP, I've been a member for going on eight years and I still have to look up certain terms. For instance, it took me a while to realize that DW and DH were Dear Wife and Dear Husband.

THANKS!!!! I gave up on what the "D" meant years ago.

We were ALL newbies at one time. Often you can figure out Abbr. by the context of the sentence. Some Abbrevs. are specific to FT and others are used by sites through the web. Just like any other social group, acceptance comes easier when you are willing to make an effort to understand what is going on before complaining about how things are done. I think most of us have spent time in the glossary or perhaps doing a search on abbreviations or other lingo.

It's not laziness it is just the nature and culture of the beast that causes us to abbreviate. it happens in hobbies, sports and in professions. Every group whether they be in IT, doctors or "shredders" (snow boarders) use abbreviations and slang in discussing their interests. This is no different. No one knows everything right away. Don't forget that even going from one Airline forum to the next will require learning new terminology. Just give it a little time and effort. And Welcome.

The people that are using the "slang" aren't the ones being referred to as lazy

Thanks for all the good posts. I've noticed improvement in my understanding over the last few months. I'm sure all the slang in my field (medicine), would be difficult for an outsider.

Now anagrams would be fun! (Perhaps you means acronyms?)

Mileage Plus = Plague Slime
Star Alliance = Tall Canaries, Anal Articles, or Nasal Recital

Ah - so that's what they mean -

I have enjoyed reading the acronyms - figuring out what they mean - learning the airport codes - it's all rather like a puzzle and eventually the pieces do fall into place. I've run across some incredibly helpful members and conversely, even found myself being flamed once for asking what I thought was an okay question. Obviously it wasn't okay to that particular person. (First layer of thick skin applied at that point.) There are a couple of terms which may pop up that are not in the 'Glossary' but I'm sure their meanings will present themselves in due time.... sort of like DW and DH.