4 ms·

Definitely read "sf" in the title as "San Fransisco", not "Sci-Fi".

by Jeremy1026 8y ago

mywacaday 8y ago
Same here, wonder if it is down to a pre-disposition from reading too much tech.
- Jeremy1026 8y ago
  I think it might be the audience. We are on a tech-focused website, with a vested interest in the Bay Area since that is where ycombinator is located, as well as a good chunk of their user base. If you used sf on a Sci-Fi dominated forum it'd probably be read as 'sci-fi' the majority of the time.
- lucideer 8y ago
  Even without that predisposition, I'd imagine San Fransisco would still be the common expansion. SF is a large city, world-famous for things other than tech, and I've never heard the already abbreviated Sci-Fi cut down again to SF. The original article has Sci-Fi.
  - irb 8y ago
    'SF' is very commonly used as an abbreviation for science fiction, particularly within the community, and has been for many decades. It's not a further abbreviation of sci-fi, it's an alternative. One of the intentions is to distinguish it from futuristic fiction which is more about the rip-roaring adventure than the science. For example, Star Wars would be labelled sci-fi, 2001 would be labelled SF. If you're thinking it sounds like there's an element of snobbishness in there, you are definitely right. It's much the same as with those authors who prefer to say that they write speculative fiction rather than science fiction (SF as an abbreviation also has the advantage that it works for both of those).
  - eesmith 8y ago
    The original article uses "SF" in several places, including: > It must have something to do with the perceived audience for SF being young men (presumably unacquainted with women or why would they have time to read SF?). Olden time authors also tended to have firm notions as to what kind of story might be genre-appropriate: if SF is about scientists inventing things, or can-do he-men having adventures, well, that’s not what women do. 10% of the comments to the article use "SF" or "SFF" (for Science Fiction & Fantasy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction attests that "SF" use dates from at least the 1970s, eg. "The earliest organized fandom online was the SF Lovers community, originally a mailing list in the late 1970s with a text archive file that was updated regularly."\ Thus, "SF" is neither a new use nor an unusual use.

Definitely read "sf" in the title as "San Fransisco", not "Sci-Fi".

mywacaday 8y ago

Same here, wonder if it is down to a pre-disposition from reading too much tech.

Jeremy1026 8y ago
I think it might be the audience. We are on a tech-focused website, with a vested interest in the Bay Area since that is where ycombinator is located, as well as a good chunk of their user base. If you used sf on a Sci-Fi dominated forum it'd probably be read as 'sci-fi' the majority of the time.
lucideer 8y ago
Even without that predisposition, I'd imagine San Fransisco would still be the common expansion. SF is a large city, world-famous for things other than tech, and I've never heard the already abbreviated Sci-Fi cut down again to SF. The original article has Sci-Fi.
- irb 8y ago
  'SF' is very commonly used as an abbreviation for science fiction, particularly within the community, and has been for many decades. It's not a further abbreviation of sci-fi, it's an alternative. One of the intentions is to distinguish it from futuristic fiction which is more about the rip-roaring adventure than the science. For example, Star Wars would be labelled sci-fi, 2001 would be labelled SF. If you're thinking it sounds like there's an element of snobbishness in there, you are definitely right. It's much the same as with those authors who prefer to say that they write speculative fiction rather than science fiction (SF as an abbreviation also has the advantage that it works for both of those).
- eesmith 8y ago
  The original article uses "SF" in several places, including: > It must have something to do with the perceived audience for SF being young men (presumably unacquainted with women or why would they have time to read SF?). Olden time authors also tended to have firm notions as to what kind of story might be genre-appropriate: if SF is about scientists inventing things, or can-do he-men having adventures, well, that’s not what women do. 10% of the comments to the article use "SF" or "SFF" (for Science Fiction & Fantasy) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction attests that "SF" use dates from at least the 1970s, eg. "The earliest organized fandom online was the SF Lovers community, originally a mailing list in the late 1970s with a text archive file that was updated regularly."\ Thus, "SF" is neither a new use nor an unusual use.