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Appendix A: Acronyms and Smilies
Appendix A: Acronyms and Smilies |
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Acronyms are widely used over the Internet in order
to save typing time. There is no official list of acronyms, but
here are some of the more widely used ones:
| AFAIK | As Far As I Know |
| AFAICT | As Far As I Can Tell |
| BTW | By The Way |
| FWIW | For What It's Worth |
| FYI | For Your Information |
| IAE | In Any Event |
| IANAL | I Am Not A Lawyer |
| IMO | In My Opinion |
| IMHO | In My Humble Opinion |
| IMNSHO | In My Not So Humble Opinion |
| IMCO | In My Considered Opinion |
| IOW | In Other Words |
| ISTR | I Seem To Remember |
| L8R | Later |
| NRN | No Reply Necessary |
| OTOH | On The Other Hand |
| ROF,L | Rolling On Floor, Laughing |
| ROTFL | Rolling On The Floor Laughing |
| ROTM | Right On The Money |
| RSN | Real Soon Now [which may be a long time coming] |
| RTFM | Consult The Documentation |
| SITD | Still In The Dark |
| SO | Significant Other (i.e. partner) |
| SysOp | System Operator |
| TIA | Thanks In Advance |
| TIC | Tongue In Cheek |
| TLA | Three Letter Acronym (such as this) |
| TSR | Terminate and Stay Resident program |
| WIT | Wordsmith In Training |
| WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get |
| YMMV | Your Mileage May Vary (Your experience may differ) |
| YKYBHTLW | You know you've been hacking too long when... |
Because of the limitations of written communication, where the tone of voice is not available to the reader, there is widespread use of `smilies' (or 'emoticons') in postings. The most common of these is :-) (a smiling face - look at it sideways). This is meant to show that the writer is smiling when she writes, and no offence is intended. The international Internet audience covers a wide range of cultures and familiarities with the English language, so opportunities for misunderstandings to arise are frequent - Anglo-Saxon irony is one such pitfall - so smilies can be useful.
Other smilies are:
| ;-) | Winky smiley. User just made a flirtatious and/or sarcastic remark. More of a "don't hit me for what I just said" smiley |
| :-( | Frowning smiley. User did not like that last statement or is upset or depressed about something |
| :-I | Indifferent smiley. Better than a frowning smiley, but not quite as good as a happy smiley |
| =:-O | Scary |
| :-P | Sticking tongue out |
| %-) | User has been staring at a green screen for 15 hours straight. |
| :*) | User is drunk |
| 8-) | User is wearing sunglasses |
| B:-) | Sunglasses on head |
| ::-) | User wears normal glasses |
| B-) | User wears horn-rimmed glasses |
| {:-) | User wears a toupee |
| }:-( | Toupee in an updraft |
| :'-( | User is crying |
| :'-) | User is so happy, she is crying |
| :-@ | User is screaming |
| :-# | User wears braces (US English - i.e. on her teeth) |