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That doesn’t mean what everyone is familiar with it. For example I’ve been around since internet slang first developed a life of its own. And yet I wasn’t immed

That doesn’t mean what everyone is familiar with it. For example I’ve been around since internet slang first developed a life of its own. And yet I wasn’t immediately familiar with SJW either.

firesteelrain 2y ago
By the time you commented you could have at least searched for the acronym or asked AI.
- hnlmorg 2y ago
  I wasn’t the one who asked. But even if I were, you’re not accounting for the cumulative benefit saving others from having to research the same acronym.
  - firesteelrain 2y ago
    Let’s get real, they can search. HN doesn’t have a repo of acronyms and this isn’t a technical document where you need to spell out the acronym on first use
    - hnlmorg 2y ago
      It doesn’t matter if it’s a technical acronym or not. You’re making a lot of effort here to claim that people should already know this when the evidence here (of people asking what it means) demonstrates that it’s not universal. For the record, I don’t actually mind people not spelling it out on first use if the acronym is guessable from the context of the comment (which, ironically, a lot of technical acronyms are). But in the case of the OP, you wouldn’t know what SJW was u less you already knew what a SJW was. So it’s not an unreasonable request from the GP. And frankly, the comments criticising them for asking is really unfair. They have just as much right to ask as you do to say “it’s common” and the OP had to use that acronym in the first place. Let’s all just be nice rather than moaning that someone didn’t memorise some specific piece of tribalism before coming to HN.
      - firesteelrain 2y ago
        I’ve barely spent 1 min typing. Effort is very low. Much lower than it could have taken to look up the acronym originally.
barotalomey 2y ago
In 2025, most online users have learned how to look things up using.. the internet.
- maigret 2y ago
  Of course, but if everyone does it, it is very inconvenient to read and in some case leaves unnecessary space for misunderstanding. Usually, acronyms are followed by the full wording the first time they are mentioned.
  - barotalomey 2y ago
    > Usually, acronyms are followed by the full wording the first time they are mentioned. I'm sure they did at the time this (SJW) acronym got popular. That was maybe 10-15 years ago.
    - hnlmorg 2y ago
      SWJ wasn’t a popular acronym 10 years (let alone 15) ago in the online communities I hung around in. ;)
      - barotalomey 2y ago
        Sure, I get that. But the term gained popularity in 2012 it seems, according to google trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=SJW&hl=en-US https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=SJW&hl=e... And there's a entry from 2011 in urbandictionary.com, so maybe that's around when it was coined.
rendaw 2y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SJW https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SJW redirects to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice_warrior https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice_warrior
aaron695 2y ago
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That doesn’t mean what everyone is familiar with it. For example I’ve been around since internet slang first developed a life of its own. And yet I wasn’t immediately familiar with SJW either.

firesteelrain 2y ago

By the time you commented you could have at least searched for the acronym or asked AI.

hnlmorg 2y ago
I wasn’t the one who asked. But even if I were, you’re not accounting for the cumulative benefit saving others from having to research the same acronym.
- firesteelrain 2y ago
  Let’s get real, they can search. HN doesn’t have a repo of acronyms and this isn’t a technical document where you need to spell out the acronym on first use
  - hnlmorg 2y ago
    It doesn’t matter if it’s a technical acronym or not. You’re making a lot of effort here to claim that people should already know this when the evidence here (of people asking what it means) demonstrates that it’s not universal. For the record, I don’t actually mind people not spelling it out on first use if the acronym is guessable from the context of the comment (which, ironically, a lot of technical acronyms are). But in the case of the OP, you wouldn’t know what SJW was u less you already knew what a SJW was. So it’s not an unreasonable request from the GP. And frankly, the comments criticising them for asking is really unfair. They have just as much right to ask as you do to say “it’s common” and the OP had to use that acronym in the first place. Let’s all just be nice rather than moaning that someone didn’t memorise some specific piece of tribalism before coming to HN.
    - firesteelrain 2y ago
      I’ve barely spent 1 min typing. Effort is very low. Much lower than it could have taken to look up the acronym originally.

barotalomey 2y ago

In 2025, most online users have learned how to look things up using.. the internet.

maigret 2y ago
Of course, but if everyone does it, it is very inconvenient to read and in some case leaves unnecessary space for misunderstanding. Usually, acronyms are followed by the full wording the first time they are mentioned.
- barotalomey 2y ago
  > Usually, acronyms are followed by the full wording the first time they are mentioned. I'm sure they did at the time this (SJW) acronym got popular. That was maybe 10-15 years ago.
  - hnlmorg 2y ago
    SWJ wasn’t a popular acronym 10 years (let alone 15) ago in the online communities I hung around in. ;)
    - barotalomey 2y ago
      Sure, I get that. But the term gained popularity in 2012 it seems, according to google trends. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=SJW&hl=en-US https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=SJW&hl=e... And there's a entry from 2011 in urbandictionary.com, so maybe that's around when it was coined.

rendaw 2y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SJW https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SJW redirects to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice_warrior https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_justice_warrior

aaron695 2y ago

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