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But do you realize that IAM is an industry wide standard acronym? It's not exactly unique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_management https://en.wikipedi

by opmac 8y ago

But do you realize that IAM is an industry wide standard acronym? It's not exactly unique: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_management > Identity management, also known as identity and access management (IAM)

gist 8y ago
I hope Jeff Barr is reading this. While it might be an 'industry wide acronym' and it might make sense for people with experience [1] it is not immediately apparent to certain people who would like to try AWS or who aren't doing these things for a living. Things should be labeled easily for the lowest common denominator. If you want to use an acronym it should appear after the full name of the item. Not this: IAM But this: Identity and Access Management (IAM). And the full description should appear everywhere. Not just in one place (like in a legal contract or the beginning of Jeff Barrs blog post) but everywhere. Why not? Why not do everything to make it easier. It's not like we are talking a printed piece where space matters. People reading on mobile? So what still spell it out. There are always new users who don't know the jargon. And if you want to have an express page then take the verbose page and make an express page from it for people who don't want it spelled out. [1] Just like people with experience know what a MAC address is vs. a Mac Computer
- jeffbarr 8y ago
  > I hope Jeff Barr is reading this. IAM.
  - QuinnyPig 8y ago
    I saw that.
- jeffbarr 8y ago
  This is great feedback, and I appreciate your taking the time to write it up. I definitely try to do this in my blog posts, but I do assume that my readers have been following along for some time, and that they have internalized some of names. As you noticed, I like to use the full ("formal") name at the start of each post, and then switch to the informal name after that. In fact, I have a shortcode system that makes this fairly easy. The first reference spells out the entire name and is linked; the others use a short name and are not linked.
  - kartickv 8y ago
    Many posts, especially when posted to HN or linked from some other blog, are read by people who're not regulars. Besides, people scan, not always read end to end.
- morpheuskafka 8y ago
  Should EBS no longer be called Elastic Block Store because people new to Linux don't know the difference b/w block and object storage? Where does it stop? Should programming languages no longer use terms like lambda functions and generics that take some technical reading to understand? New users can read one of the countless AWS books on Safari or one of the countless guides online if they need a technical brushup beforehand. AWS is a technical product, it's not Wordpress or Mailchimp. Just like Cadence makes EDA products and MATLAB makes maths software, AWS makes datacenter computing available on the cloud. It's not aimed at users who have a few minutes of experience with some Lubuntu desktops at home.

by opmac 8y ago

gist 8y ago

I hope Jeff Barr is reading this. While it might be an 'industry wide acronym' and it might make sense for people with experience [1] it is not immediately apparent to certain people who would like to try AWS or who aren't doing these things for a living. Things should be labeled easily for the lowest common denominator. If you want to use an acronym it should appear after the full name of the item. Not this: IAM But this: Identity and Access Management (IAM). And the full description should appear everywhere. Not just in one place (like in a legal contract or the beginning of Jeff Barrs blog post) but everywhere. Why not? Why not do everything to make it easier. It's not like we are talking a printed piece where space matters. People reading on mobile? So what still spell it out. There are always new users who don't know the jargon. And if you want to have an express page then take the verbose page and make an express page from it for people who don't want it spelled out. [1] Just like people with experience know what a MAC address is vs. a Mac Computer

jeffbarr 8y ago
> I hope Jeff Barr is reading this. IAM.
- QuinnyPig 8y ago
  I saw that.
jeffbarr 8y ago
This is great feedback, and I appreciate your taking the time to write it up. I definitely try to do this in my blog posts, but I do assume that my readers have been following along for some time, and that they have internalized some of names. As you noticed, I like to use the full ("formal") name at the start of each post, and then switch to the informal name after that. In fact, I have a shortcode system that makes this fairly easy. The first reference spells out the entire name and is linked; the others use a short name and are not linked.
- kartickv 8y ago
  Many posts, especially when posted to HN or linked from some other blog, are read by people who're not regulars. Besides, people scan, not always read end to end.
morpheuskafka 8y ago
Should EBS no longer be called Elastic Block Store because people new to Linux don't know the difference b/w block and object storage? Where does it stop? Should programming languages no longer use terms like lambda functions and generics that take some technical reading to understand? New users can read one of the countless AWS books on Safari or one of the countless guides online if they need a technical brushup beforehand. AWS is a technical product, it's not Wordpress or Mailchimp. Just like Cadence makes EDA products and MATLAB makes maths software, AWS makes datacenter computing available on the cloud. It's not aimed at users who have a few minutes of experience with some Lubuntu desktops at home.