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Which acronym do you mean? CTF? I think that acronym, just like BGP, is more well known by itself than what it stands for. More generally, not every piece of w
by bawolff 5mo ago
Which acronym do you mean? CTF? I think that acronym, just like BGP, is more well known by itself than what it stands for.
More generally, not every piece of writing is meant for every audience. Like if someone writes a blog post about CTFs aimed at people who like CTFs, nobody in the target audience needs to have CTF explained to them. Ultimately HN is a link aggregator, but sometimes its a bit like eavesdropping on a conversation. When you are just listening in you don't get the full context sometimes.
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- doublescoop 5mo agoBest practice in writing about technical concepts is to spell out acronyms like this on their first use. There is a ton of stuff I learn about here on HN that I didn't know anything about before. It doesn't help that the linked article never bothers to explain this either.
- MobiusHorizons 5mo agoDoes spelling it out help? From memory, it is a security competition where participants compete to gain certain objectives. I think capture the flag may explain how scoring is kept, but it wouldn’t help me find out what it is, given that capture the flag is also just the name of a game people play outside by running, or in laser tag or in certain video games.
- Aurornis 5mo agoFor a general audience this is good advice. This article was written for a specific audience who follows this blog because they know the term. If you start spelling out fundamental acronyms it makes the content look more basic and general. This always upsets the general audience who stumble upon the article (like this) but it wasn’t meant for a general audience. CTF is extremely well known and the people who would be interested in this topic would wonder what’s happening if it was spelled out. It would be so odd that it would probably attract accusations of ChatGPT writing.
- jltsiren 5mo agoIt's the common practice in technical writing. Even when you are writing for other experts in the same field, your target audience never shares as much context as you would prefer. The world is much weirder and more varied than you would think. Informal writing about technical topics is another story. There you can assume a lot more shared context, as you are only writing for a specific subculture within the field. It doesn't matter much if other people in the field fail to understand you.
- dolmen 5mo agoBut this isn't "technical" writing. This is member of a community talking about the state of that community. Jargon is expected. Even more, this what I look for, even as a foreigner.
- bawolff 5mo ago> There is a ton of stuff I learn about here on HN that I didn't know anything about before. But that is about you right? Its a little entitled to expect every piece of content on the internet to have a 101 explanation attached. If they were specificly aiming to have the blog post appear on HN that would be one thing, but they (presumably) weren't.
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- allenrb 5mo agoWhen I encounter new terms, I look them up. Just like any other new word. Been doing it since I was a kid with a dictionary. Now, it’s too easy not to. There is literally no excuse.
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- Gigachad 5mo agoThe annoying thing is even if you know what it means, multiple groups will use the same initialisms for different terms. So without more context you can’t know what it means. It isn’t common but I feel it would be best when posting to HN to just expand the initialisms even if the source title didn’t.
- shric 5mo agoYou can also over use the same initialism: ATM the ATM is connected via ATM
- 0x20cowboy 5mo agoI dont know what CTF stands for so I dont know if I am interested in this article or learning anything about it. Maybe I am. Are you really arguing for not just typing out whatever 3 words this stands for once in the name of clarity?
- PunchyHamster 5mo agoit's the first result I get on anonymous google search. It's like complaining about not spelling C in "bake cake in 170 C"
- ruszki 5mo agoIf it means capture the flag, then it means a completely different capture the flag for almost everybody. I searched for it, read the first paragraph, and I still don’t know what the fuck is the topic. According to Wikipedia it’s a very new meaning. I could figure out only because of searching for “HCKSYD” and others.
- jere 5mo agoIs 30 years old very new? We're on a site for tech people. I would wager most are familiar with this term.
- ruszki 5mo agoIts article is 5 years old… So, yeah, it’s new.
- C4K3 5mo agoIts article was reorganized (moved from plain Capture the Flag to Capture the flag (cybersecurity)) 5 years ago. It's been on Wikipedia since 2004 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capture_the_flag&oldid=6112381 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capture_the_flag&...
- ergonaught 5mo agoYou could have just said “No”, if you had to say anything at all, rather than continuing the behavior. Actively rude.
- razster 5mo agoWhat I see CTF I think Capture The Flag, Tribe player in me.
- lelandbatey 5mo agoCTF stands for "Capture The Flag" in the parent article. Just the security competition kind, not the FPS game kind.
- watt 5mo agoIf you think you know what every acronym stands for, I recommend CBT.
- MrSkelter 5mo agoIt’s just bad writing. There is no such thing as a universally understood acronym. Even within fields. The cost of clarity is zero. Not elucidating means that over time the writing rots as meanings change and new “universal understandings” supersede old ones.