The fact is that we are trying to cultivate a multi-cultural environment. Suggestions for improving that environment should be taken seriously, even if, in the end, they are not acted on.
Peter
Ben Fowler wrote:
At 5:24 pm +0200 27/2/2003, Johan Åbrandt wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
... This "lingo" thing feeld like slang, something that restrict groups use to encode meaning in a way outsiders cannot percieve. Reading text stuffed with it is like talking to my teenager niece: sometimes I cannot understand a word... But I must learn to live with it, otherwise when my 7-month old daughter begins to talk I willl be excluded....
So I guess "This 'lingo' thing" servers the same purpose as quoting philosophers after your signature, i.e. to show that you belong to a group - to which only persons of a certain standard - for example knowledge of contemporary philosophy - or internet abreviations - can belong. It increases your standing with persons who understand - and helps in keeping distance from those who dont.
Is this what you meant?
I don't think that it is what he meant (but there is nothing wrong with your argument).
As I read it, the OP saw a 4 letter acronym and thought that it related to XSLT, XSL-FO, XHTML or some such, and felt hurt and a little sore when after some effort he found that PITA did not relate to the subject domain.
I agree that a little help may be needed to get everyone up to speed with abbreviations and acronyms used on mailing lists (AFAICT, FWIW, IIRC et cetera), but I would argue that such abbreviations are for use rather than ornamentation, and strongly concur with posting sites where they can be interpreted. I would add, for the benefit of the OP, that they can be assigned the same meaning in different languages with no penalty, save that the the letters don't match exactly:
<URL: http://www.intersolinc.com/newsletters/newsltr5.htm >
SI -> Système International -> International System of Units <URL: http://www.plexoft.com/SBF/S06.html > SIDA -> Syndrome immunodÈficitaire acquis -> Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome <URL: http://www.teenaids.org/gnTeens/glossary.html >
-- Peter B. West [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.powerup.com.au/~pbwest/ "Lord, to whom shall we go?"
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