[prepend]

I think acronyms (or initialisms) are a form of community enforcement. If using jargon to reinforce that people in the group understand.

Or maybe that’s my best interpretation. As it’s also just faster to type PNW than Pacific Northwest and someone who lives there must need to type it quite a bit.

But either way, HN is a community and many people value efficiency and, more specifically, code systems for efficient communication.

[tdehnke]

The frequent flyer community is so into this.. F / J / Y for classes, 3 letter airport codes, 2 letter airline codes etc. It's annoying really.

[funkattack]

Community enforcing as in shibboleet? https://xkcd.com/806/

[goodpoint]

> I think acronyms (or initialisms) are a form of community enforcement

aka jargon or lingo meant to exclude outsiders. Not nice.

[prepend]

It’s ok to have groups of people with common interests that not everyone likes. It’s not about excluding people, it’s about including some people.

Would you complain if the backgammon club doesn’t play polo? Is that excluding polo players?