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Meta Home Improvement: Is it necessary to expand acronyms like OSB?

Some amount of jargon specific to the site domain is expected and necessary. However, "home improvement" is very broad and not a specialized niche. You don't go to college to get a degree in Home...

posted 1y ago by Olin Lathrop‭  ·  edited 1y ago by Olin Lathrop‭

Answer
#2: Post edited by user avatar Olin Lathrop‭ · 2023-08-14T21:28:37Z (over 1 year ago)
  • Some amount of jargon specific to the site domain is expected and necessary. However, "home improvement" is very broad and not vary specialized niche. You don't go to college to get a degree in Home Improvement.
  • People tend to overestimate how universal an acronym is that they happen to be familiar with. Maybe it is largely universal in their geographic region. This site is international, so unless you're really sure, err on the side of assuming your abbreviations are unique.
  • I've done a decent amount of home building. I've added a lot of stuff to an unfinished basement, created rooms with finished sheetrock walls, including plumbing and electrical items, built an outdoor utility shed from scratch, and the like. Of your three abbreviations OSB, MDF, and PVC, I only immediately recognized PVC, assuming you mean the material used for "plastic" pipes. Now that you've defined OSB, I have definitely used it, particularly in the utility shed. I don't remember what it was called back when I bought it, but "OSB" doesn't sound familiar.
  • It may be that it has a different name around here (New England), or maybe it was sold as a specific tradename. For example, I've seen many people use the term "Masonite", although that's just a particular brand name of "hardboard" or "tempered hardboard". Lots of hardboard isn't Masonite, but yet that's what it's often called.
  • The point is, this site has a particularly wide audience, so you should define any terms that you aren't really sure are common and universal. Just because you and everyone around you knows it doesn't say much about whether most of the audience will know it.
  • Expanding an abbreviation in parenthesis after its first use is cheap and easy. The extra second is well worth not alienating possible members by appearing snobby and elitist.
  • Some amount of jargon specific to the site domain is expected and necessary. However, "home improvement" is very broad and not a specialized niche. You don't go to college to get a degree in Home Improvement.
  • People tend to overestimate how universal an acronym is that they happen to be familiar with. Maybe it is largely universal in their geographic region. This site is international, so unless you're really sure, err on the side of assuming your abbreviations are unique.
  • I've done a decent amount of home building. I've added a lot of stuff to an unfinished basement, created rooms with finished sheetrock walls, including plumbing and electrical items, built an outdoor utility shed from scratch, and the like. Of your three abbreviations OSB, MDF, and PVC, I only immediately recognized PVC, assuming you mean the material used for "plastic" pipes. Now that you've defined OSB, I have definitely used it, particularly in the utility shed. I don't remember what it was called back when I bought it, but "OSB" doesn't sound familiar.
  • It may be that it has a different name around here (New England), or maybe it was sold as a specific tradename. For example, I've seen many people use the term "Masonite", although that's just a particular brand name of "hardboard" or "tempered hardboard". Lots of hardboard isn't Masonite, but yet that's what it's often called.
  • The point is, this site has a particularly wide audience, so you should define any terms that you aren't really sure are common and universal. Just because you and everyone around you knows it doesn't say much about whether most of the audience will know it.
  • Expanding an abbreviation in parenthesis after its first use is cheap and easy. The extra second is well worth not alienating possible members by appearing snobby and elitist.
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Olin Lathrop‭ · 2023-08-14T21:21:11Z (over 1 year ago)
Some amount of jargon specific to the site domain is expected and necessary.  However, "home improvement" is very broad and not vary specialized niche.  You don't go to college to get a degree in Home Improvement.

People tend to overestimate how universal an acronym is that they happen to be familiar with.  Maybe it is largely universal in their geographic region.  This site is international, so unless you're really sure, err on the side of assuming your abbreviations are unique.

I've done a decent amount of home building.  I've added a lot of stuff to an unfinished basement, created rooms with finished sheetrock walls, including plumbing and electrical items, built an outdoor utility shed from scratch, and the like.  Of your three abbreviations OSB, MDF, and PVC, I only immediately recognized PVC, assuming you mean the material used for "plastic" pipes.  Now that you've defined OSB, I have definitely used it, particularly in the utility shed.  I don't remember what it was called back when I bought it, but "OSB" doesn't sound familiar.

It may be that it has a different name around here (New England), or maybe it was sold as a specific tradename.  For example, I've seen many people use the term "Masonite", although that's just a particular brand name of "hardboard" or "tempered hardboard".  Lots of hardboard isn't Masonite, but yet that's what it's often called.

The point is, this site has a particularly wide audience, so you should define any terms that you aren't really sure are common and universal.  Just because you and everyone around you knows it doesn't say much about whether most of the audience will know it.

Expanding an abbreviation in parenthesis after its first use is cheap and easy.  The extra second is well worth not alienating possible members by appearing snobby and elitist.