List of acronyms used in forums and IRC

[Christmas]

Since most of the people providing help in the forums often use acronyms, forgetting that the person asking can be a newbie and may not understand the help he's given, I decided to make a list containing the most used acronyms on IRC and forums. I don't say it's complete, but is a good start for newbies. I myself had to learn them two years ago on IRC and I think that it's a good idea to put them all together here.

So, here we go, the list is alphabetically sorted and I'll add new ones once I remember or find them.

AAMOF -> As a Matter of Fact
AFAIAC -> As Far As I Am Concerned
AFAICT -> As Far As I Can Tell
AFAIK -> As Far As I Know
AFAIR -> As Far As I Remember
AFK -> Away From the Keyboard
ASAP -> As Soon As Possible
ASL PLS -> Age Sex Location Please
ATM -> At the Moment
BBIAF -> Be Back in a Few
BBL -> Be Back Later
BBS -> Be Back Soon
BRB -> Be Right Back
BTW -> By the Way
CYA -> See Ya
D/C -> Disconnected
E.G. -> Exempli Gratia (from latin, in english it means "For Example")
FWIW -> For What It's Worth
FYI -> For Your Information
GTG -> Got to Go
IFYPFY -> I Fixed Your Post for You
IMHO -> In My Humble Opinion
IMO -> In My Opinion
IIRC -> If I Recall Correctly
IRL -> In Real Life
ISAGN -> I See a Great Need
ISTR -> I Seem to Recall
ITT -> I Think That
JK -> Just Kidding
KWH -> Kilroy Was Here (see TeeAhr1's post for explanations on this)
LE -> Later Edit
LMAO -> Laughing My *** Off
LOL -> Laughing Out Loud
LTNS -> Long Time No See
MOTD -> Message of the Day
NP -> No Problem
N/T -> No Text
OMG -> Oh, My God
OP -> Original Poster (the person who started a thread)
PPL -> People
ROTFL -> Rolling on the Floor Laughing
RTFM -> Read the ******* Manual
TY -> Thank You THX -> Thanks
TMI -> Too Much Information
W8 -> Wait
WB -> Welcome Back
*** -> What the ****
YMMV -> Your milage may vary
<3 -> Heart (or "love", details on landefor's post)

And a small list of *technical* acronyms:

AMD -> Advanced Micro Devices
ANSI -> American National Standards Institute
CLI -> Command Line Interface
CPU -> Central Processing Unit
DNS -> Domain Name Server
FAQ -> Frequently Asked Questions
DRM -> Digital Rights Management
GUI -> Graphical User Interface
HTTP -> HyperText Transfer Protocol
Intel -> Intelligent Electronics
IP -> Internet Protocol
IRC -> Internet Relay Chat
IT -> Information Technology
MAC -> Media Access Control
OS -> Operating System
PC -> Personal Computer
POSIX -> Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX (this is actually a backronym (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backronym), details here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POSIX)) RAM -> Random Access Memory
ROM -> Read Only Memory
USB -> Universal Serial Bus
WWW -> World Wide Web
WYSIWYG -> What You See Is What You Get

Linux and Ubuntu-related acronyms:

APT -> Advanced Package Tool
FSF -> Free Software Foundation
GNU -> GNU's Not UNIX
SU -> Switch User
SUDO -> Super-User Do
Ubuntu -> Humanity to Others ;)

NOTE You can also find a very good database of acronyms at this address http://www.acronymfinder.com/ and you can of course search Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) for acronyms or see Wikipedia's list of acronyms here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acronyms but this last list includes more than just IRC acronyms.

[5-HT]

Thanks for posting this.



RTFM -> Read the FAQ Manual
;)



IRL -> In Real Life :p This one always cracks me up.

[endersshadow]

Yeah, that F in RTFM doesn't stand for FAQ... :wink:

Good list, otherwise...maybe add:

*NIX as a POSIX system...and...STFU is one that often appears but quickly detracts from the IQ of the given conversation...

[Mustard]

IIRC -> If I Recall Correctly

[bjweeks]

you missed all the fun ones

OMG
***
BBQ
LMAO
ROFL

and

OMGWTFBBQLOLROFL

[Christmas]

Yeah, that F in RTFM doesn't stand for FAQ... :wink:

Well I didn't know the *official* version is not FAQ, anyway sounds less obscene like that ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stfu
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=stfu

Looking at these two I'm thinking... should we say "Read the Freaking Manual!"? :)

[Christmas]

you missed all the fun ones

OMG
***
BBQ
LMAO
ROFL

and

OMGWTFBBQLOLROFL

Thanks I'll add them right now.

[endersshadow]

Well I didn't know the *official* version is not FAQ, anyway sounds less obscene like that ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stfu
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=stfu

Looking at these two I'm thinking... should we say "Read the Freaking Manual!"? :)

If you'd like to be polite about it :KS

[Iandefor]

Well I didn't know the *official* version is not FAQ, anyway sounds less obscene like that ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stfu
http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=stfu

Looking at these two I'm thinking... should we say "Read the Freaking Manual!"? :) The both of you are wrong. It's "Read the Fine Manual" ;).

[Christmas]

The both of you are wrong. It's "Read the Fine Manual" ;).

Yeah it seems that version is also used. I also found this: http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=rtfm&Find=Find

[Alpha_toxic]

You missed the most important one!
"10x"
Where would we be without that one..?

[Iandefor]

You missed the most important one!
"10x"
Where would we be without that one..? 9x. We'd be at 9x. Or 11x.

I'm not familiar with this one. It means 10 times?

[Christmas]

10x stands for "thanks". I don't know if it's widely used though.

[bjweeks]

10x stands for "thanks". I don't know if it's widely used though.

news to me

[Alpha_toxic]

You are realy not familiar with this one? hmmm... And I thought it's like an universal way for thanking someone on the internet... My mistake perhaps.

[prizrak]

You are realy not familiar with this one? hmmm... And I thought it's like an universal way for thanking someone on the internet... My mistake perhaps.
ty=thank you is the one i seen most often

[bjweeks]

ty=thank you is the one i seen most often

ty or thx or just thanks

[bonzodog]

"ASL" is considered rude, and very n00bie luser like. I would request that you DO NOT USE THIS, as it could earn you a kicking by the ops.
I am a frequent user and lurker in #ubuntuforums on Freenode, we need more people in there!!!
Also, if you come in there, you could easily find forum admins and staff available, so if you have any queries about the forums, thats the place to ask.

[bjweeks]

"ASL" is considered rude, and very n00bie luser like. I would request that you DO NOT USE THIS, as it could earn you a kicking by the ops.
I am a frequent user and lurker in #ubuntuforums on Freenode, we need more people in there!!!
Also, if you come in there, you could easily find forum admins and staff available, so if you have any queries about the forums, thats the place to ask.

I think ASL would have more use in a darker part of irc...

[endersshadow]

ASL is used in teenie bopper chat rooms...and thx is more widely used for thanks than 10x...in fact, I haven't seen 10x until just now...

kthxbye

[ddonky]

don't forget proper punctuation!!!11!1!!1!!!1!!!one,one

[ice60]

i have this bookmarked
http://www.net-comber.com/acronyms.html

i've put this in my search.ini for Opera so i have an acronym search box ~/.opera

[Search Engine put correct number here]
Name=Acronym Finder
URL=http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?String=exact&Acronym=%s&Find=Find
Query=
Key=acro
Encoding=iso-8859-1
Is post=0
Has endseparator=0
Search Type=0
VerbText=17063
Position=-1
Nameid=0

[curuxz]

You have not got D/C on your list, meaing disconnected. Used all the time for people that get junked by the server. (sometimes written d.c)

anyone remember planitarium when the american users did not know about the meaning of ROTLF and we brits managed to convice them it was an insult so that they would start calling us ROTLF's hahahaha those were the days. Round 1 im talking about btw I have avoided the game for years since it went down hill....fast.

[TeeAhr1]

YMMV = Your milage may vary
KWH = Kilroy was here (I've seen this used infrequently on some help forums, it means: "I have no answer to your question, but I want to help you by bumping your thread back up")
N/T = No text (the topic or attachment is the entire message)

[Christmas]

I'll add the new ones right now. Thanks for contributing!

[Mustard]

ASL is used in teenie bopper chat rooms...and thx is more widely used for thanks than 10x...in fact, I haven't seen 10x until just now...

kthxbye

I have seen 10x used. I didn't have a clue what they meant at the time. :)

It was usually after I had helped them with a problem on IRC and they had been succesful in fixing it. This would fit in with what people are saying it means.

[doclivingston]

ISTR = I seem to recall
ISAGN = I see a great need
FYI = For your information
TMI = Too much information
FWIW = For what it's worth
IFYPFY = I fixed your post for you
OP = Original poster (person who started the thread)

[eriqk]

Acronyms and jargon can be used to abbreviate film scripts just fine: http://www.hohto.to/forums/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=17720

Groet, Erik

[Christmas]

Thanks guys, I just added the new ones. Looks there are lots of them which I didn't have a clue about their means.

[ddonky]

How about this one?

<3

I didn't know what it meant the first couple of times I saw it.

[Christmas]

How about this one?

<3

I didn't know what it meant the first couple of times I saw it.

And... what does it mean? :oops:

[xyz]

this list is a "mery christmas" gift!tx

[ESPOiG]

ive been banned for over a month now, from #ubuntu and #ubuntu-offtopic for using these acronyms

[Iandefor]

And... what does it mean? :oops: It's not really an acronym... but look at it as a sideways heart. It can be used to mean "Love" or "Like", eg "I <3 Linux" or "I <3 kittens".

[mrtaber]

ive been banned for over a month now, from #ubuntu and #ubuntu-offtopic for using these acronyms

Pretty touchy on those channels, eh?

[Parkotron]

I spend the majority of my time in a world where sentences start with capital letters and end with periods, so I had to rely pretty heavily on acronymfinder.com when I first joined the Linux community.

[ESPOiG]

yeh not wrong, i have only just be un-banned

[public_void]

Another one for the list

ITT - I think that

EDIT: On http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_slang ITT is listed as "In This Thread". Now I'm confused. Shows why using acronyms isn't always the best idea.

[truthfatal]

I dislike acronyms. No persons time is so precious that proper spelling and grammar should be ignored.

That said, thanks for the thread. I've seen the term "IIRC" before and had no idea what it meant until now.

[Christmas]

Thanks again for contributing, I added the new one.

I dislike acronyms. No persons time is so precious that proper spelling and grammar should be ignored.
I agree with you on this one. It's true, at least in real life when you speak you can't just use acronyms :D and neither when working at a project etc. The need of acronyms came I think when people writing their ideas on IRC or mail or forums very fast needed a short form for the most common used expressions. As long as everybody knows what they mean, it's not a bad thing. Of course there are many people out there who don't speak english very well (me, for example) but as long as it's faster, most of them don't care about the proper grammar.

[Engnome]

If you really want to use acronyms in every :-# sentence do so. Only problem is fewer people will listen.

Want some more? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_slang is the longest list I know so plenty of reading ;)

I try not using acronyms all the time, specially not here. But chatting with my
"hacker" friends over IM I do it all the time :D Sometime it feels like war and the winner is the one with most acronyms. However using the built in functions in msn to substitute word combinations with flashy graphics is considered "fjortis aktigt", a very good term for persons that think they are cool/mature.