4 ms·
Sorry to raise an irrelevant point to the question asked, but if you are a United-States American, could you please either not use two-letter state abbreviation
by NeoTar 5y ago
Sorry to raise an irrelevant point to the question asked, but if you are a United-States American, could you please either not use two-letter state abbreviations, or spell them out on first use.
A lot of people who use this site are located outside of the USA, and for these people, the abbreviations are not commonly known.
This can genuinely cause confusion - in this case I thought `CO` might be the abbreviation for an senior position which is unknown to me (i.e. like CEO, CTO, etc.).
- aerovistae 5y agoI'm from the US and I skimmed past this post 6x before finally stopping and thinking about it because I had no idea what CO was. Although it's obvious in context if you're American, without context nobody would recognize state abbreviations, they're far too generic. MS ME MN MA etc could stand for so many things. I thought CO was "Chief Officer" at first.
- fetus8 5y agoI'm a Colorado resident, and even I didn't realize the OP was talking about the state at first...
- function_seven 5y agoMy personal rule is that two-letter state abbreviations should only be used on postal addresses. For writing, spell it out, or use the longer abbrev. (like Calif., or Colo.) I live in Ontario, CA. Pop quiz, where do I live? :)
- joegahona 5y agoThis is the correct advice. Postal abbreviations should be used for postage only. If you're a newspaper writer who for whatever reason is constrained for space, feel free to use Associated Press abbreviations like "Calif." if and only if it's preceded by a city. In all other cases, spell it out. Nobody should have to think more than a nanosecond what state you mean when you write MS (Mississippi? Missouri? Massachusetts?) or AK (Alaska? Arkansas?).
- kvonhorn 5y agoOntario.
- function_seven 5y agoMy quiz should have been: "Does my milk come in a carton or a bag?"
- kvonhorn 5y agoCanada. I suspect that most Americans don't know that bag is an option.
- diggernet 5y agoCalifornia. If it were Canada, you would have said "where do I live, eh?"