[alias_neo]

It was drilled into us in university (engineering) that you spell out abbreviations and acronyms on first use, no matter how well known you think it is.

Some cases I've seen lately seem to forgo this not out of ignorance but as a form of eletism/knowledge gate keeping.

[everdrive]

> Some cases I've seen lately seem to forgo this not out of ignorance but as a form of elitism/knowledge gate keeping.

It's a natural tendency for ingroups. Nearly any video game forum, or anything else that's full of hobbyists will ultimately contain posts that are absolutely full of acronyms. And they're impenetrable. Bear in mind, I'm not defending this behavior, and certainly not disagreeing with you.

[Avamander]

This is why I like Discourse with it's abbreviation explainer. Musicbrainz's community forums have it and it's incredibly nice.

[yjftsjthsd-h]

I'll defend it. Not the elitism, but using jargon/abbreviations/etc. When you're writing something for a larger audience, you should of course target that audience. But when you're on the "inside" writing for people who already have the background knowledge, it's unnecessary friction to stop and think "what terms would a newbie need defined in this?" It breaks the flow of writing/discourse and is probably mostly not needed, because someone coming in not knowing the terms in play can either go look them up, or just ask in their own post. (Granted, this also depends on that being easy; either a jargon dictionary being available, or the forum members being friendly to newbie questions.) I think it's also understandable to apply a small amount of gatekeeping, insofar as that continual beginner questions in the middle of an advanced discussion are just a distraction. The answer to that should be directing them to a more beginner-friendly subforum, but FWIW I do understand why people sometimes act poorly out of frustration.

[ameister14]

The solution to the "unnecessary friction to stop and think "what terms would a newbie need defined in this?"

If you're writing a paper, define every acronym the first time you use it.

If you're in a forum with a set of acronyms known to all, define them in a sticky or the forum readme.

[alias_neo]

Oh no, I understand your point, no misunderstanding here. It's one of the reasons I keep a technical blog, as an engineer, if I learn the hardest thing I've learned this $timeperiod, I want to share it, as clearly and understandably as I can. I fully support and encourage knowledge sharing, and it hurts just that little bit more when I see it being hoarded.

[yazan94]

Seriously? You want to be able to join a community you might not be familiar with and understand the lingo/jargon off the bat? Of course people will abbreviate things when the word/phrase is sufficiently long, commonly used, and the abbreviation mutually understood (brb, tldr, OOP, etc.). There is no elitism involved, if you don't understand something either Google it or ask. No reason to act snobbish because people cater the the most common denominator in a community rather than the lowest.

[alias_neo]

Not exactly, what I'm arguing against is writing something technical, intended to educate non-experts in the field (the experts don't need your report/paper/thing) and then not providing them with the information they need to background research the things you refer to in abbreviations or acronyms.

And I'm not saying this is _my_ solution, this was literally taught to me in engineering first year.

[ksec]

>no matter how well known you think it is.

May be this is specific to I.T or Computer Science? Where there are thousands of abbreviations and acronyms which itself is often the name people use. SQL, DRAM, CPU, HTTP, SRAM, FPGA, URL, TCP/IP, UDP, NAT, DHCP, GPL, etc.

I mean if you are discussing technicals of Neural network you expect your audience to at least know CPU, GPU, and FPGA. And if you are discussing software development I hope I dont have to spell out GPL.

So I dont think it is a form of eletism/knowledge gate keeping. In the age of internet you can search those "acronyms" meant without the full name, which isn't something could be easily done 15 to 20 years ago.

In other industry such as Mobile Wireless Networking, those acronyms are often clearly spell out because there are comparatively little of it. FDD, TDD, MIMO, NR or LTE are often spelt out in full when they first use.

[franga2000]

> And if you are discussing software development I hope I dont have to spell out GPL.

I'm my university first-year CS class, a third of the students had never heard of GitHub. Now, that's easy to look up, and GPL seems to be a lucky acronym as well, but CNN certainly isn't. Expanding it the first time or adding a footnote costs you nothing, but people not right in your field or still learning tremendously. Someone who got their Master's in CS 10 years ago likely wouldn't have heard of CNNs at all, and neither would most new CS students.

A scientific publication in such a broad field with such a widely-applicable topic and one of the most clashing acronyms right in the title should most certainly at least expand their key terms.

[alias_neo]

I agree with all of that, however, I still stand by; if you're writing a technical document/paper you should spell out all of them, it's just how I was taught.

It doesn't have to be a hard rule, but major topics of a subject should be spelled out, at least, then you're giving people something to work with in their web search.

[logfromblammo]

You spell it out the first time, and if you intend to use it as an acronym later, you put the acronym in parentheses immediately following.

For example: images generated by convolutional neural networks (CNN) are easy to identify.

[tatersolid]

Even something like a major country shouldn’t always be abbreviated:

UK reports rampant student marijuana use before class

That headline has quite a different meaning if “UK” is abbreviating “United Kingdom” versus “University of Kentucky”.

[ImaCake]

The same could be said for my biology education. But it never seems to stop those biologists publishing papers from invocing obscure acroynms and phrases without definition.

[TazeTSchnitzel]

The HTML <abbr> element is perfect for this!