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Comment by 18pfsmt | Hacker News Reader

Sorry for the off-topic/ pedantic, but since when has VM stood for Veronica Mars, and cons stood for conferences?

To me VM == virtual machine, and cons==convicts. I realize context changes that, but I like browsing from the https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments section of HN, and I find it rude that many HNers feel the need to use common Reddit acronyms not found anywhere else. For people that find Vim shortcuts so simple, one cannot easily fathom the time savings is worth the confusion (however temporary).

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To you cons = convicts, to the rest of the cons is a command line tool, which arguably is closer to the "HN" standard (whatever the fuck that means) than yours.

I find it rude that you would choose to use such an irrelevant definition of "cons" on HN given the general subject matter of this forum.

Just kidding - who gives a shit? The extra 0.5 seconds it took to parse the contextual meaning of an acronym I am not going to sweat, and I am certainly not going to call someone rude for daring to use a subculture-specific word in a way I would not normally.

I think we can all agree that cons is a function for building lists.

Interesting. And what would you estimate is the time loss of that 0.5 seconds multiplied by 5x per day translates to in a year?

I suppose this is a bit of the curmudgeonly attitude I fear I am acquiring (i.e. get off my lawn), but I do take offense to people mangling the language and the lingo (like talking about a blog rather than a blog post, which seems to be on the rise).

As a rather poor typist, among people I perceive to be great typists, this bothers me. Perhaps I was just looking for other curmudgeons or pedants to show me how they deal with this issue. I also try to proofread my comments, and I appreciate the same.

P.S. I also do not understand, "to the rest of the cons is a command line tool."

[Edit to clarify: I estimate I spend 1 hour and half on this type of thing per year on HN; normally, I just downvote, and move on. I just found out ITMS == if that makes sense. I thought it was Itunes Music Store.

Instead of mentioning Vim, I should have said most people on HN appear to be able to treat the keyboard as an extension of their body. I cannot, maybe I'm abit jealous there, but if typing is so simple why save a few keystrokes at the risk of confusing those with whom you wish to communicate?

I did preface my comment with an admission that it was both pedantic and off-topic (on an original post from variety.com concerning a topic with which I'm completely unfamiliar).]

> "but I do take offense to people mangling the language and the lingo"

What language and what lingo? Do we need to establish a canonical "this acronym means exactly and only that" definition?

It's one thing to get mad at bad grammar or poor spelling, it's quite another to get riled up over a legitimate use of a word simply because that's now how you normally use the same word.

The English language is messy, your borg-like desire for millisecond-level perfection is hard to understand, but not so objectionable until you started calling others rude for not living up to your standards.

OP wasn't spelling poorly, nor did he/she use poor grammar - you're literally complaining about someone using an acronym in a way you do not normally use it.

I agree. You make a good point (even though I will never accept that cons==conferences). Next time I will just silently downvote, and move on. I apologize to all for expressing this pedantic feeling.

It's not pedantic. Pedantic would imply that your complaint has an iota of validity to it, which it does not. You literally cannot exist as a functioning member of society if you are opposed to using context in interpreting communication, or to the evolution of language.

Look, I am completely out of my element on this one, and apparently, the people attracted to this entry feel very strongly about it. I've only ever been to industry and academic conferences, and I would actually characterize these other things as festivals.

Browsing HN via /newcomments inherently places every comment out of context, and I realize it is my choice to browse that way. I also strongly disagree that my complaint is without "an iota of validity." As to your last point, I am pretty much a loner, so that's not off base.

Reading your comments, and not wishing to cause offense, I would guess that you're not neurotypical. Communication is messy, and being outside the neurotypical territory may explain why it's frustrating to come across these things.

I apologize for being insensitive to this possibility.

You are complaining about not being able to understand an acronym out of context because your preferred feed is a low-context feed. This is your problem, not other people's.

> And what would you estimate is the time loss of that 0.5 seconds multiplied by 5x per day translates to in a year?

I don't even have to estimate. It's less than 16 minutes in a year. I spend more time washing dishes every day.

The word "con" being used for convention is so widely used (PyCon, ComicCon, GenCon) that it's almost approaching "con is short for convict"-level popularity.

>To you cons = convicts, to the rest of the cons is a command line tool, which arguably is closer to the "HN" standard (whatever the fuck that means) than yours.

While I agree with the spirit of your answer, a command line tool? Really?

If anything would be more aligned to the "HN standard", it would be the Lisp "cons" (functions / cells).

"cons" is not just not a "reddit acronym", but is also a common term for "conventions" and "conferences" that has been in use for at least three decades. I haven't lived longer than two and a half but I wager it's older than I am.

You're not entitled to your own ignorance, and not everyone uses language the same way you do. Please lighten up, open your mind a little bit to that, and grow a thicker skin.

The famous Comic Con has first been held at Chicago in 1976. The term was probably used before that.

That's the first, and only, example I could think of. I do not know of any other.

Science fiction, comic book, and anime conventions often use "con" in their names or as puns. WindyCon, Conclave, MegaCon, Worldcon, CollossalCon, ... Referring to media conventions as "cons" is pretty common in fandom.

Veronica Mars doesn't fit strictly into those categories, but the fanbase seems to have substantial overlap with genre fandom. It's jargon, but not particularly uncommon in its area of relevance.

No, it honestly has a very widespread and global usage. Probably 90% of SF and gaming conventions have a name ending with "Con", or some obvious pun on that. The roots go back at least to the 1939 NYCon I (possibly a retroactive name) or the 1940 ChiCon I.

See for example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_convent....

This is not pedantic, it's asinine.

Almost every single lexical object is overloaded with multiple meanings, so it is incumbent upon an addressee to put in a modicum of effort to use context in interpreting communication. There's really no other way to get by.

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