3 ms·

why on earth would you expect a sysadmin to break those out? both acronyms have a pretty high usage saturation level. if you don't know these acronyms, a sysadm

why on earth would you expect a sysadmin to break those out? both acronyms have a pretty high usage saturation level. if you don't know these acronyms, a sysadmin isn't doing you a favor by telling the reader in a blog post about security features.

papaf 11y ago
In several style guides I have seen, both in academia and journalism you always Introduce An Acronynm (IAA) before using it. You don't get to pick your audience on the internet and IAA strikes me as a sensible thing to do.
- zeckalpha 11y ago
  Particularly since it's not dead print, you can have hovertext or a link to the expanded text without it taking up more space.
brudgers 11y ago
I take the purpose of the comment as to inform HN'ers who aren't system administrators. To the degree it is a literary criticism, it lets the article and its author off the hook by classifying the style as typical of the genre. Again, I take this as informative since the lack of definitions in the article supports the claim. The tone of this comment's grandparent is certainly less confrontational than the tone of it's parent. And whatever offence there is in the grandparent hardly rises to the level internet outrage.
- dvanduzer 11y ago
  speaking to "you" rather than throwing vague shade at the group of all sysadmins is merely direct, not confrontational. it is not an expression of outrage to point out how weirdly passive aggressive the remark was. the sysadmin is a subset of hacker, a culture proud of its autodidactic tradition. and the spirit of the internet is to share useful information once you've learned it. it is totally appropriate to come to this website and post that you were interested in the subject of security in networked file systems, didn't know what the acronyms meant, and here's that information if anyone else wanted to know. it is extremely important to learn how to learn. and i am genuinely curious about this apparent expectation that literature in a highly technical field should have a glossary everywhere. would you expect a blog about routers to always explain what TCP/IP stands for?
  - brudgers 11y ago
    I went from the article directly to the HN comments to learn the acronyms and lo, there an author had posted them for an intended technical audience of HN'ers analogously to the blog's author writing for their intended audience. Alas, the comments to the comment had devolved from informing a technical audience to non-denominational internet argument for argument's sake. The mere possibility of a slight slight doesn't justify provoking a pissing contest. The present pop psychology pathologizing of parent poster's purpose hardly makes the proposed proposition of "you"'s previous use as primarily a literary device particularly plausible. But at least there is no pretence that it was primarily a charitable or polite reading.

papaf 11y ago

In several style guides I have seen, both in academia and journalism you always Introduce An Acronynm (IAA) before using it. You don't get to pick your audience on the internet and IAA strikes me as a sensible thing to do.

zeckalpha 11y ago
Particularly since it's not dead print, you can have hovertext or a link to the expanded text without it taking up more space.

brudgers 11y ago

I take the purpose of the comment as to inform HN'ers who aren't system administrators. To the degree it is a literary criticism, it lets the article and its author off the hook by classifying the style as typical of the genre. Again, I take this as informative since the lack of definitions in the article supports the claim. The tone of this comment's grandparent is certainly less confrontational than the tone of it's parent. And whatever offence there is in the grandparent hardly rises to the level internet outrage.

dvanduzer 11y ago
speaking to "you" rather than throwing vague shade at the group of all sysadmins is merely direct, not confrontational. it is not an expression of outrage to point out how weirdly passive aggressive the remark was. the sysadmin is a subset of hacker, a culture proud of its autodidactic tradition. and the spirit of the internet is to share useful information once you've learned it. it is totally appropriate to come to this website and post that you were interested in the subject of security in networked file systems, didn't know what the acronyms meant, and here's that information if anyone else wanted to know. it is extremely important to learn how to learn. and i am genuinely curious about this apparent expectation that literature in a highly technical field should have a glossary everywhere. would you expect a blog about routers to always explain what TCP/IP stands for?
- brudgers 11y ago
  I went from the article directly to the HN comments to learn the acronyms and lo, there an author had posted them for an intended technical audience of HN'ers analogously to the blog's author writing for their intended audience. Alas, the comments to the comment had devolved from informing a technical audience to non-denominational internet argument for argument's sake. The mere possibility of a slight slight doesn't justify provoking a pissing contest. The present pop psychology pathologizing of parent poster's purpose hardly makes the proposed proposition of "you"'s previous use as primarily a literary device particularly plausible. But at least there is no pretence that it was primarily a charitable or polite reading.