[Afton]

That's because you find them obscure. If your community used them more frequently you would just read them in place, like people do with IANAL, LGTM, AFAIK, etc.

Incidentally, I didn't understand this one, but I don't blame OP (oops, I mean 'original poster') for misunderstanding the linguistic norms of HN (hacker news).

[TeMPOraL]

I agree. Nowdays I read things like "IANAL" or "AFAIK" as words, not acronyms. When one reaches this point, such acronyms are pretty convenient.

[lione]

Incidentally, first time I've seem LGTM, had to google it.

[vacri]

.lgbt as a gTLD? LGTM.

[sigzero]

Just spell it out!