Wikipedia talk:WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!

Translation section
Adding a translation section makes the page too long and reduces the impact. Leaving in the wonderful ABBized version makes it too unreadable and reduces the impact too. ARGH! Choices choices, what to do? Kim Bruning 14:50, 21 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Nah. Works fine! - David Gerard 02:05, 22 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I think it is great because it demonstrates the extremes which reinforces the need for a balance. -- Tony 17:18, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

I have but one response to this...
LOL!!! B-) Slambo (Speak)  17:05, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Er, yes.
I shall attempt to cut down the jargon. Well, sometimes. - David Gerard 02:05, 22 January 2006 (UTC)

This page might be funny, but that is not the primary intent
I shan't revert off the accursed humor tag, else I'll even get 3RRed on the sodden mess. Pages need not be categorised if none apply. It's just a straightforward request to people to stay sane. Do we have a category "pages appealing to sanity" yet? Is it no longer permitted to be FUNNY when writing sane guidelines? :-P Could you leave off the darn tag? Sheesh!

Kim Bruning 03:45, 22 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Could put it in Wikipedia Essays? Or try and make it a guideline? (Though that has the stigma of being something that's "enforced" when I think this is really just a suggestion/request). —Locke Cole • t • c 22:11, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Could we just for once, like, drop the stupid cats and boxes? Why do you need to put every page in some ill-fitting box? :-P Kim Bruning 22:57, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree. -- Netoholic @ 23:27, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Because nobody will find it unless it's by accident? :P At least if it's categorized people will come across it all on their own. —Locke Cole • t • c 09:10, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Trust me. People will find it :-) Kim Bruning 18:35, 28 January 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't see any reason not to categorise it, in any of the above. if you'd like to cite this discussion when reverting, it'd help if there was something to read. ;) If you feel that none of the other categories fit, there's no harm in creating a new category (or an oxymoronic uncategorised category until we find a place for it). This is either humour or an essay, in my opinion. // Pathoschild (admin / talk) 04:40, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Cats and boxes? - Fremmler81

LOL!
This is my new favorite project namespace page. &mdash; Ilyan  e  p  (Talk)  00:26, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

But...
"BEANS", "BALLS", and "FU" aren't three letters long at all! æle ✆ 01:37, 16 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Ah, but they are Extended Three Letter Acronyms. --cesarb 02:13, 16 February 2006 (UTC)


 * ARGH! &mdash; Ilyan  e  p  (Talk)  03:36, 16 February 2006 (UTC)


 * What about "FU"? That's two letters. æle ✆ 21:22, 16 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Extension by Truncation.   &#08492;  astique  &#09660;  par &#08467; er  &#09829;  voir  &#09809;  16:21, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * It's obviously a Reduced TLA ☺. --cesarb 16:54, 17 February 2006 (UTC)
 * I thought the page said FUC, not FU... Dr Santa talk 17:06, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Changed since. æ² ✆ 2007&#x2011;01&#x2011;11t14:04z

I suggest we create a "longcut"...
... at What The Fuck? Oh My God! Too Many Damn Three Letter Acronyms. ARRRGGGHHH!!!!~!@!~1`2 æle ✆ 23:59, 8 March 2006 (UTC)
 * A longcut? heh &mdash; Ilyan  e  p  (Talk)  23:31, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
 * Too redundant. See diff.  21 6 55  ωhατ δo γoυ ωαητ? 14:42, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

How-to
I'd like to add a guideline tag, or would this spoil it? --&#160;Omniplex 18:30, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm for it. - Jmabel | Talk 21:15, 25 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Made it an old-style descriptive guideline :-) Kim Bruning 10:22, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

great
This is hilarious.

And very sensible.

Especially for article talk pages. Wierd shortcuts (even worse when people don't link them, using things like "AGF" as if they're normal words) makes it hard for new people to understand.

not that i haven't been guilty of it myself

but this is good. Cookies to whoever wrote this. -- `/aksha 10:31, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Emoticon
Can we just decide whether we want an emoticon at the end of "Moral of the story" or not? I think we should have it: the page is an essay, not an article. Just trying to avoid any future RVs. ;-) Dr Santa talk 17:04, 10 January 2007 (UTC)


 * I've never liked emoticons, smileys, etc., so I had been waiting for a time when I saw one on Wikipedia in an article so that I could remove it. I understand the seriousness of Wikipedia, but at the same time, I love the idea of being able to edit out some of my pet peeves (such as the word "utilize" when "use" will do) and make grammar, punctuation, and spelling corrections. RSLitman 04:25, 16 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Placing an emoticon on this page appears to be a subtle application of WP:POINT. If shortcuts are potentially confusing to new users, what about an unlinked emoticon? Does the author assume these gibbering characters are part of some universal language, and that all new users will automatically understand them? Then to add insult to irony, the sentence after the emoticon says:
 * This is an encyclopedia, not text messaging.
 * Uhm, hello. Are not emoticons also annoying staples of texting? Do they have any more place in an encyclopedia than ZOMG? Is this self-contradictory humor intentional, or unintentional? I can't decide.
 * As to whether emoticons are a good idea, if a joke needs a smiley, it's like a sitcom that needs a laugh track: unfunny. If someone needs to be told when to laugh, like a trained monkey or a sitcom viewer, is that someone intelligent enough to contribute to an encyclopedia? Not how I would bet. --Teratornis (talk) 01:26, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Don't cite essays or proposals as if they were policy
My edit to add a "see also" link to Don't cite essays or proposals as if they were policy was reverted on the grounds that it was a 'link to a fairly bad essay'. Does anyone think a link to the essay is objectionable, as I think it's quite a useful essay that shares some of the same principles as this one. --Barberio 08:57, 21 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, "don't cite essays" does say not to cite it. How's that for a paradox? Anyway, it is pretty much unrelated to this one. This page says "try t. avd. abbrv. snc. it's confus." DCEPITWP alleges that you should read a deeper meaning into simple citations, and concludes that therefore simple citations should be avoided.  &gt; R a d i a n t &lt;  14:33, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * A 'see also' is not a citation to it. And it raises a similar issue of citing things in a confusing way. Of course it's not the same issue as this one, if it were it wouldn't be a separate page. (Incidentally, can you please not use bullet point *'s to indent your discussion page comments, it confuses the formatting and clashes when people use bullet points for actual lists.) --Barberio 15:09, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * No, but you are welcome to try and create a policy against using bullets for conversation indenting. The difference is that WOTTA refers to things that are confusing because they're unclear, and DCEP refers to things that are confusing because some editors make unfounded incorrect assumptions based on inferral of what people didn't actually say. In other words the "error" lies on the other side.  &gt; R a d i a n t &lt;  15:37, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * So? There is still the similar issue of not making references that may be confusing to the person reading it. And yes, it actually is unclear to a new editor that not all pages in the Wikipedia namespace are "official" policy. --Barberio 15:48, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, that's why policies have a big "this is policy" tag on top.  &gt; R a d i a n t &lt;  15:51, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Again, this does not allay what is an easy to make assumption by new editors that the wikipedia name space is all "official policy". --Barberio 15:53, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * No, but neither does your essay.  &gt; R a d i a n t &lt;  16:01, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * It doesn't intend to. It warns editors that such an assumption exists, and they should moderate their own behaviours because of it. --Barberio 16:11, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, but the error you're making is that you expect everybody to change their behavior because some novice editors make a false assumption. We're an encyclopedia; we should be educating the ignorant, not accomodating their ignorance.  &gt; R a d i a n t &lt;  16:14, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Wikipedia is however constantly getting new editors day after day, saying we should expect them all to be instantly 'educated' in all our 'ways' is folly. The change requested is minor, and does not make an editors task any harder. It does however lessen a significant problem for new editors.
 * Wikipedia must not become a clique where we only accept editors who 'know our ways', and exclude those otherwise good editors who don't by being obscure, jargonistic and referring to our built up layers of bureaucracy. --Barberio 16:35, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Er, what? Please do point out those layers of bureaucracy so that I can get some practice with my flamethrower. As I said, we do not require people to "know our ways" to edit, and hence "our ways" are rather vaguely defined at best. My point is still that you can't expect everybody to change their behavior because you allege it confuses some people. It may be well-intended and it may be good if people would, but because of human nature it's Not Going To Happen. Perhaps instead you could edit some of our welcomeing templates to help educating novice users faster.  &gt; R a d i a n t &lt;  16:05, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, I guess it's you right to hold the view that editors shouldn't self moderate to avoid confusion. But that seems to conflict with the message of both of these essays. So I'm going to restore the link, since they share a common vein of self-moderation to avoid confusion.
 * As to wikipedia bureaucracy... In Category:Wikipedia_essays we have 332 essays claiming to tell us the ways of wikipedia. And that's not counting the pages that are incorrectly marked as help or how-to, which should be marked as essays or proposed guidelines. Are you offering to start helping culling these kinds of things? --Barberio 16:56, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
 * You're entirely missing my point. I'm not saying that people shouldn't, I'm saying that people are not going to do that simply because you want them to.
 * What do you mean by culling? If you mean deprecating "help" or "how-to" because you don't appear to understand the difference between that and essay, then no. If you mean deleting essays, well, I personally wouldn't mind seeing some of them gone but they'd have to go thru WP:MFD which will probably disagree with me on that. If otherwise, please tell me what you mean. The problem (that Wikispace is convoluted) is a direct result of design (that everybody can edit it).  &gt; R a d i a n t &lt;  09:34, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Radiant: You could always delete Articles for deletion? ;-) --Kim Bruning Note: this message complies with the suggestion to expand abbreviations. ;-) 

Radiant, you reverted the link away again, but still haven't clearly made an argument why the essay shouldn't be linked to. Would you please explain why the essay, which has a similar theme to this one, should not be linked to? (Beyond your disagreement with what the essay says.) --Barberio 17:17, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
 * I am adding the link back. User_talk:Radiant! seems not to like the essay, but that is not a basis not to include a link to the essay.  The question is whether it is thematically related and not being unduly self-promoted.  I believe it is related and that it is not being unduly promoted.  I also take issue with Radiant's stance on the essay itself.  First of all, to claim to educate new users while doing it wrong is a very confusing premise.  That is, since essays are not policies, I fail to see how treating them like they are makes you an expert on how wikipedia works, much less is educating the newbie.  If you are going to educate, teach the correct approach and the proper facts.  Second, making the distinction between suggestions, guidelines, and policies is in itself educating the users, and will make better editors; better editors make a better encyclopedia.  Third, these distinctions are indeed confusing to the uninitiated, and honestly  you don't have to be a newbie to be confused by this.  Wikipedia has a Gordian Knot of guidelines, etc to wade through which is one reason for Ignore All Rules.  The confusion is only exacerbated when people misuse the policies, guidelines, etc and blur the distinction, and confusion is not constructive nor is it educational.  Rifter0x0000 (talk) 17:56, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

Rebuttal?
The page has an essay tag to tell people it's just an essay, it doesn't need a "Rebutal" section saying it's just an essay. --Barberio 22:55, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Yes, and I disagree with the essay. I edited the essay ...in a funny(???) way... to reflect the fact that some wikipedians (viz., me) disagree with the idea that using WP:TLA is inappropriate. If you don't want your WP:essay to be edited mercilessly(per WP:OWN), put it on your WP:UP. LOL!!! Peace, MPS 02:39, 25 January 2007 (UTC)
 * The rebuttal seems extraneous to me. æ² ✆ 2007&#x2011;01&#x2011;25t04:18z
 * I've expanded the rebuttal to explain that it is, of course, individual freedom to be unclear and confusing. --Barberio 16:58, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I couldn't quite understand your reasoning, so I've removed the section. O:-) --Kim Bruning 14:37, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Rebuttal from efficiency
Explicitly states that use of Three Letter Acronyms makes for a great shibboleth. Um, wikipedia has a large throughput, with new editors joining and old editors leaving all the time. We need to be welcoming to newcomers. Wouldn't use of shibboleths be anathema in that kind of situation?

Hmm, note that nowhere does WOTTA say to not use TLAs in edit summaries or when they're handy. Just well... maybe not while you're discussing stuff in places where you can expect (new) folks to look first. :-)

In fact you can even use TLAs on talk pages, just make the first usage in english and link, and after that just use the TLA to save your poor aching wrists.

(But putting all that in the article just bloats it and reduces the impact, of course. ;-) ) --Kim Bruning 04:33, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
 * You just reverted, and I just restored. (1) Rebuttal does not say anything about shibbloths; I never put anything in about shibboleths. (2) WOTTA implies that TLAs are evil and frustrating; rebuttal says yes sometimes, but not alwasy. In many cases, it is due to user inexperience. (3) bloat? not sure what you are talking about. MPS 22:12, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
 * "it is due to user inexperience". Well, if a practice distinguishes between two different groups (such as inexperienced versus experienced), that's a textbook example of a shibboleth.
 * WOTTA states that Three Letter Acronyms are fine when talking with the computer. Just not when talking with people. So no, TLAs are not evil nor frustrating. They have good uses, but you shouldn't overdo it.
 * Bloat? Do you mean like instruction-creep? Or making the page longer? If you read carefully, isn't the new section actually already contained in what was said above it? If not, it's probably pretty close. What's missing? --Kim Bruning 23:22, 7 February 2007 (UTC)
 * WOTTA states "it's probably a bad idea to make a point of using these three letter acronyms in daily conversation" and "Always use a proper name for a Wikipedia namespace page when discussing it" ... this is a blanket condemnation of TLAs. There is nothing in WOTTA (outside of the rebuttal) that admits that WP:TLAs are useful within wikipedia. BTW, why have you been using "WOTTA" instead of WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!??? Did you maybe think that the context would be obvious??? hmm... maybe you should think about that for a second... ; ) MPS 15:02, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
 * If I were to make a humor-free guideline, I'd state that the first instance of use in a post should be fully expanded, and further instances can be abbreviated. Second rule I use is that it is ok to use the abbreviation for the (talk of the) page you are actually posting on, since it has been adequately defined locally. The meta rule is to always ensure that there is at least one (and only one possible) full expansion which is obvious-in-context, for each Three Letter Acronym applied.
 * But that's much harder to write and explain than WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG! ;-) --Kim Bruning 16:22, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
 * IMHO, putting the TLA in double brackets makes the context available at the click of a mouse... Thus the super-rule is always fulfilled for all "wikilinked" TLA. my humor free guideline would be that as long as you wikilink your TLA and as long as you only have one or two USEFUL TLA per sentence you should be ok. MPS 17:34, 8 February 2007 (UTC)
 * Everyone else will have to open up several tabs, when simple expansion on your side saves everyone the trouble. Which is more polite? :-) --Kim Bruning 17:51, 8 February 2007 (UTC) Though I agree that wikilnking is at least a good start, and a minimal requirement. Some people don't do even that, leaving everyone confused.
 * Also it is not so accurate to say that the meaning is available at the click of a mouse. Making someone go to the page essentially gives the impression that one needs to read an entire page (and in most cases a whole long tree of subpages, just to find out what you are on about.  I would submit that making what you say more easy to understand is available at the click of a few extra keys.  It is chuckle-worthy to deride the laziness of others in defense of your own indolence. :D Not meaning to be uncivil or or assuming bad faith here, but that is what decrying the suggestion to be more clear in your remarks by expanding the acronyms sounds like to me. It is more efficient in my view to give people the gist of what you are saying right off than to send them on a long rabbit trail from which they still may not return any more understanding of your point, and which might instead lead them to not edit or to get distracted by the forest of wikitrees.  Sure they can and should read the pages at some point, but they should not have to to understand what you mean when it can be summarized in a short phrase.  Rifter0x0000 (talk) 18:27, 4 July 2011 (UTC)

What the rebuttal and it's target are missing
TEXT OF ORIGINAL POST IS REFORMATTED FOR READABILITY

Short version: "Speak English, darnit!" ;-) (But there's no fun sequence of pre-existing TLA to say that ;-) ) --Kim Bruning 18:50, 3 April 2007 (UTC) that and sed is already taken
 * Why? What good could possibly come from that?  (Sorry, just saw an episode of 3rd Rock where that line was used and I had to try it.) --  Tony 14:49, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Hmm, that and would you see a way to succinctly add the above to the text in a new section perhaps? :-) --Kim Bruning 18:50, 3 April 2007 (UTC)


 * First, FYI, I realized how difficult it will be to see the initial post as its own, so I blockquoted put it in its entirety into a table. If there is a better way to format its isolation for better readability, please feel to do so. k?


 * I could trim it down a bit. Most of the rationalization probably could be kept here in the discussions instead of with what would be the main text.  Or...could we all refine it into a sub-essay (or a related essay)?  Which would be the best?  I thought it was a short and easily explained concept...until I actually explained it to my satisfaction. --  Tony 14:44, 4 April 2007 (UTC)

Ironically enough
... this page has so many shortcuts pointing to it that the list looks about fit to burst out of the essay box. æ² ✆ 2007&#x2011;08&#x2011;14t04:54z

Some of the redirects to this page
Some of the "shortcuts" to this page from the main space seem utterly redundant considering others; ie: we have WP:OMG AND WP:OMG!. Waste of a shortcut if you ask me. -- Anonymous Dissident  Talk 11:42, 23 October 2007 (UTC)
 * Redirects are cheap. Powers T 12:29, 23 October 2007 (U

Trust me. People will find it (from a 2006 post) . ..
"Trust me. People will find it." (Kim Bruning, January 2006.) I have been editing for three years, and I just now found this page (and it's a good one, too). Sincerely, GeorgeLouis (talk) 07:12, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

undiscombobubot
Why not just have a bot that replaces 3LAs with expansions, allowing for typing shortcuts (tip: if you require that many typing shortcuts, maybe you're putting too much effort into wikipedia?) AND newbie comprehension:

rv as per WP:OR, newbie: don't break 3RR

would be auto-replaced to:

revert edit as per "no original research" policy, newbie: don't break the rule that states that you shouldn't revert an edit more than 3 times in a day.

everyone's happy, everyone can understand everything, just at the expense of someone writing a bot. --Arkelweis (talk) 20:42, 19 September 2009 (UTC)
 * My feeling was that a template would also be useful and easier to set up than a bot, but likely difficult to keep up with changing policies without also breaking past uses. Foxyshadis (talk) 02:50, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

Understandable title
It's funny. The title of the article does not explain what this important essay is about.

And why? Oh, the irony...

Because it consists of nothing but acronyms. :)

I suggest changing the title to something clearer such as

Overuse of acronyms like NFCC, PRJ, RDR, and so on

Or something else that is clear. --Timeshifter (talk) 14:56, 1 August 2010 (UTC)
 * This essay is awesome. When I was a newbie, I was overwhelmed by all the WP:...'s. Later, I thought of doing an essay like this but would have named it WP:THIS AND THAT.--NortyNort (Holla) 12:11, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

Speaking of acronyms, if we are to keep the title themed the same (and not go with Timeshifter's suggestion), shouldn't we change the TLA to TLI for "Three Letter Initialisms?"

I know this is, as some say, just semantics, but technically an acronym is an initialism that can be (and generally is) pronounced as a word. Examples include NATO, SCUBA, AIDS, SARS, etc. Plain initialisms, on the other hand, can't be pronounced as words and are thus known just as initialisms. Examples include the IRS, TNT, and any other initialism that doesn't really spell out anything that phonetically lends itself well to being pronounced as a word, like OMG, TMD and TLA.

I realize this is the least important thing to be discussing... but, it's true.

Though it doesn't really matter that much, because I actually agree with Timeshifter to some extent. I was able to find the page easily via a link from another help page, but a more accurate page name could be helpful. Although, on the other hand, the nebulousness of the title is kind of part of how it, is at least supposed to, I suppose, lure people in who are confused, so that it can then make the very relevant points it makes.

That said, if we keep it as WTF etc., I do recommend we replace A/Acronyms with I/Initialisms. Though it may be splitting hairs, this is Wikipedia after all. Sorry I don't have something of more substance to contribute at this time. tehmikuji (talk) 16:35, 29 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Except that TLAs are actually called TLAs, and not TLIs. VernoWhitney (talk) 15:53, 31 May 2011 (UTC)


 * For the overly pedantic, TLA can just as easily be rationalized away as Three Letter Abbreviation. Foxyshadis (talk) 02:53, 22 July 2011 (UTC)

speaking of the title
Would anyone object if I renamed and reworded this to use TDM in the title, not TMD? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ummit (talk • contribs) 23:55, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

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