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>JAG >URL JOs >BAH if only i knew what any of those words mean. Why haven't people learned to describe their abbreviation unless they already pre-established

>JAG >URL JOs >BAH if only i knew what any of those words mean. Why haven't people learned to describe their abbreviation unless they already pre-established that the audience will definitely know them?

umvi 4y ago
Quick googling reveals JAG = Judge Advocate General aka a military lawyer
- kshacker 4y ago
  If you have seen JAG or NCIS (tv shows), you probably know some of these and with NCIS being a top (broadcast) show for a few years, it is quite likely a lot of (dare I say older) people have heard of these
  - imwillofficial 4y ago
    I was Navy for 5 years and a navy contractor for 10 and I’ve never seen URL in my life. (Besides, you know, the web meaning)
  - Sebb767 4y ago
    Only ~30% of people on HN are from the US and I'd assume that the number of non-US people who watched NCIS in the original language are comparatively low.
    - password4321 4y ago
      > Only ~30% of people on HN are from the US Does anyone have time to cite a source for this? I was thinking this number was a lot higher.
      - Sebb767 4y ago
        Sure! There are no definitive numbers, but we have a few data points: Dang mentions quite often that HN has a very international readership, for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363430 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23438403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23438403 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27052434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27052434 An old poll with 32% US (probably the number I remembered): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13819771 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13819771 There's also a recent poll w/ 47% (2346 of 4891), although this might be timing related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30210378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30210378
        jhgb 4y ago
        > An old poll with 32% US > There's also a recent poll w/ 47% Clearly you need one more poll to decide this, as per XKCD 927.
  - rvba 4y ago
    People dont own TVs anymore?
aidenn0 4y ago
URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrestricted_Line_Officer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrestricted_Line_Officer basically any officer that isn't a specialist. Doctors and lawyers have artificially high ranks compared to non specialists, but you wouldn't expect them to command a ship.
- Maursault 4y ago
  > but you wouldn't expect them to command a ship. I know what you mean, but I don't think it would merely be unexpected if one did somehow. I'm pretty sure it isn't possible because, being specialists, they can't also be a line officer. It seems like logic stops them, but then leads me to wonder about the vague possibility of a horribly unfortunate event leaving only specialists on-board... what then? Would logic stop them from sailing, or inexperience and lack of expertise?
jwithington 4y ago
Because I’m replying to someone who would know what those acronyms are. The ELI5 is that the Navy pays officers who do the core ship/flying activities quite well. Compared to their civilian peers, Navy lawyers, doctors, and cyber people don’t get paid well. The posted article is about rust on ships. A ships management team is paid well. Low pay is unlikely to be the cause of dissatisfaction. To be clear, “paid well” is not “paid well” as measured by FAANG tech salaries. A submarine officer with 8 years of experience is making something equivalent to $200Ks if I am to believe the calculators that adjust for tax advantages of military pay, discounted value of future retirement cash flows, etc.
- Brian_K_White 4y ago
  "Because I’m replying to someone who would know what those acronyms are." That only flies in an email or on a specialized forum. It's curious that you are smart enough to come up with an arguement yet apparently at the same time innocently simple enough not to know why it's invalid.
  - unethical_ban 4y ago
    >That only flies in an email or on a specialized forum. Counterpoint: It doesn't. They made a reply to a military member on a thread about military equipment. Googling a few acronyms + "military" would surely lead one to the answer.
    - andrewaylett 4y ago
      It would indeed. But why push the burden onto all the non-specialist readers, who after all come here to both learn and to take part, rather than expand the initialisms the first time they're introduced in a thread? I'm reminded of an acronym at work: CIM. They come in two variants, CIM-A and CIM-B. I'd been there a year before I finally decided I needed to ask a more senior colleague what they stood for, and he didn't know either. The intention was obvious from the context of their use (although whether -A or -B was more serious wasn't) but most of the people in the weekly meetings discussing Critical Incident Management didn't actually know that was what they were discussing. Nowadays we have a culture that better encourages definition of terms upon first use, and it's less common that someone needs to ask "stupid" questions.
grogenaut 4y ago
JAG was a TV show for like 10 years. Judge Advocate General. Lawyers. BAH has a description in parens immediately following, but could be better. Why do people on technical message board with lots of jargon refuses to do even a modicum of research? If I didn't drop a description of a monad after I said it here would you also be mad? How about Term Sheets. I see Alpha used all the time and I have to look it up.
nemosaltat 4y ago
Since this doesn’t seem to be answered down thread- URL refers to Unrestricted Line officers, for example officers in the aviation, surface or submarine warfare communities etc. Restricted line officers can be found in the medical, supply, or intelligence communities etc. A third type of officer, and one of my personal favorite abbreviations, is the Direct Input Limited Duty Officer. DILDOs are required to have prior enlisted experience, but not required to have a bachelors degree. Restricted line officers and DILDOs could be given command of a training unit, or medical facility, but would not be given command of a ship or squadron.
Teever 4y ago
It's part of the indoctrination of military culture/mindset. The heavy use of acronyms especially in a public context like this serves to signal in group/out group status.

umvi 4y ago

Quick googling reveals JAG = Judge Advocate General aka a military lawyer

kshacker 4y ago
If you have seen JAG or NCIS (tv shows), you probably know some of these and with NCIS being a top (broadcast) show for a few years, it is quite likely a lot of (dare I say older) people have heard of these
- imwillofficial 4y ago
  I was Navy for 5 years and a navy contractor for 10 and I’ve never seen URL in my life. (Besides, you know, the web meaning)
- Sebb767 4y ago
  Only ~30% of people on HN are from the US and I'd assume that the number of non-US people who watched NCIS in the original language are comparatively low.
  - password4321 4y ago
    > Only ~30% of people on HN are from the US Does anyone have time to cite a source for this? I was thinking this number was a lot higher.
    - Sebb767 4y ago
      Sure! There are no definitive numbers, but we have a few data points: Dang mentions quite often that HN has a very international readership, for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23363430 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23438403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23438403 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27052434 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27052434 An old poll with 32% US (probably the number I remembered): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13819771 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13819771 There's also a recent poll w/ 47% (2346 of 4891), although this might be timing related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30210378 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30210378
      - jhgb 4y ago
        > An old poll with 32% US > There's also a recent poll w/ 47% Clearly you need one more poll to decide this, as per XKCD 927.
- rvba 4y ago
  People dont own TVs anymore?

aidenn0 4y ago

URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrestricted_Line_Officer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unrestricted_Line_Officer basically any officer that isn't a specialist. Doctors and lawyers have artificially high ranks compared to non specialists, but you wouldn't expect them to command a ship.

Maursault 4y ago
> but you wouldn't expect them to command a ship. I know what you mean, but I don't think it would merely be unexpected if one did somehow. I'm pretty sure it isn't possible because, being specialists, they can't also be a line officer. It seems like logic stops them, but then leads me to wonder about the vague possibility of a horribly unfortunate event leaving only specialists on-board... what then? Would logic stop them from sailing, or inexperience and lack of expertise?

jwithington 4y ago

Because I’m replying to someone who would know what those acronyms are. The ELI5 is that the Navy pays officers who do the core ship/flying activities quite well. Compared to their civilian peers, Navy lawyers, doctors, and cyber people don’t get paid well. The posted article is about rust on ships. A ships management team is paid well. Low pay is unlikely to be the cause of dissatisfaction. To be clear, “paid well” is not “paid well” as measured by FAANG tech salaries. A submarine officer with 8 years of experience is making something equivalent to $200Ks if I am to believe the calculators that adjust for tax advantages of military pay, discounted value of future retirement cash flows, etc.

Brian_K_White 4y ago
"Because I’m replying to someone who would know what those acronyms are." That only flies in an email or on a specialized forum. It's curious that you are smart enough to come up with an arguement yet apparently at the same time innocently simple enough not to know why it's invalid.
- unethical_ban 4y ago
  >That only flies in an email or on a specialized forum. Counterpoint: It doesn't. They made a reply to a military member on a thread about military equipment. Googling a few acronyms + "military" would surely lead one to the answer.
  - andrewaylett 4y ago
    It would indeed. But why push the burden onto all the non-specialist readers, who after all come here to both learn and to take part, rather than expand the initialisms the first time they're introduced in a thread? I'm reminded of an acronym at work: CIM. They come in two variants, CIM-A and CIM-B. I'd been there a year before I finally decided I needed to ask a more senior colleague what they stood for, and he didn't know either. The intention was obvious from the context of their use (although whether -A or -B was more serious wasn't) but most of the people in the weekly meetings discussing Critical Incident Management didn't actually know that was what they were discussing. Nowadays we have a culture that better encourages definition of terms upon first use, and it's less common that someone needs to ask "stupid" questions.

grogenaut 4y ago

JAG was a TV show for like 10 years. Judge Advocate General. Lawyers. BAH has a description in parens immediately following, but could be better. Why do people on technical message board with lots of jargon refuses to do even a modicum of research? If I didn't drop a description of a monad after I said it here would you also be mad? How about Term Sheets. I see Alpha used all the time and I have to look it up.

nemosaltat 4y ago

Since this doesn’t seem to be answered down thread- URL refers to Unrestricted Line officers, for example officers in the aviation, surface or submarine warfare communities etc. Restricted line officers can be found in the medical, supply, or intelligence communities etc. A third type of officer, and one of my personal favorite abbreviations, is the Direct Input Limited Duty Officer. DILDOs are required to have prior enlisted experience, but not required to have a bachelors degree. Restricted line officers and DILDOs could be given command of a training unit, or medical facility, but would not be given command of a ship or squadron.

Teever 4y ago

It's part of the indoctrination of military culture/mindset. The heavy use of acronyms especially in a public context like this serves to signal in group/out group status.