Acronym Convergence

Anil Dash mentions the rise of the term TL;DR: the self-describing acronym for short attention spans in “social networking.” The antecedent to that one is RAEBNC, from APA hacking (what we did in fandom before rec.arts.sf.fandom and Live Journal).

It’s not new, Anil, it’s just that the cycles are shorter.

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This entry was written by Bill Humphries and posted on November 2, 2006 at 10:26 am and filed under weblogs, writing. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the Atom feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
  • Mr. Higgins: There is, apparently, a fine art of writing stuff that remains free of comment hooks. I seem to have mastered it unknowingly. Tell me, what's the secret of generating comments? I wish I knew.

    Mr. Humprhies: Whaddayamean "before" Usenet and LJ?!? Before, during, and after, TYVM.
  • APAs and Fanzines are still going strong, Bill. Check out http://efanzines.com/ for example. And outside of this electronic incarnation, paper zines and APAs are still being circulated.

    Let me know if you want more info on where to look.
  • RAEBNC avers having read the apazine. TL;DR is considerably more rude.

    I used to get bored and comment with anagrams of "Read and enjoyed, but no comment hooks." Unfortunately, this drove my correspondents crazy.
  • MCB
    The antecedent of "TL;DR" that I'm most familiar with is MEGO, in the Usenet days: "My Eyes Glazed Over".
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