Abbreviations and Acronyms

My 2 cents on Abbreviations and Acronyms…

In this growing beer environment it will be impossible to keep up with and they will not be useful with the exception of some of the already established beers which have well known Abbreviation or Acronyms (“code” in the rest of this post).

With 3000 Breweries in the USA, that would mean 3000 “codes” for each special release, 3000 “codes” for their flagship beer + do not forget Canada, UK, Europe, Japan etc, that would add in another 10’s of thousands of other “codes” to know.

Look at the top New 250 beer list, that is another 250 “codes’’ to know.

Another problem with “codes” is who is in charge of making it the “official code”?

How do you deal with the duplicates ‘”codes” for different beers, which might not be a problem now, but will be huge very soon, as the well established beers “codes” today might lost some of their luster 10 years down the road (see how the Top 250 beer list has changed in 10 years).

Here is an example of 5 “codes” for beer I have not seen "codes” for yet. I am sure just about everyone here can make 5 new "codes" which have not been used before too, which just adds to my opinion that “codes” should not be used!
WB or GC
RCR
RG
CPBS
DSMT or MT

Cheers
Mike

 

Ban them, require them, mildly discourage them......I have literally zero opinion or preference.

I must be in the minority, but I honestly can't believe this is a critical issue for so many people.

 

I think everyone that is arguing for acronyms are lazy. You're not having to handwrite it. If you're having to peck with 2 fingers at your keyboard to make a post and want to save 5 seconds by making Russian River into RR, that's just being lazy. I am guilty of this, as I was unaware of this rule. Honestly, it shouldn't be that hard to follow.

Now, I think we need to blame some of these breweries for making ridiculously long and hard to remember names for some beers.

 

In another thread a poster used ABA, American and Ale are easy. What is the B black,brown or blonde?

 

I think it matters(as to being able to interpret the acronym easily) if it is used in context to a discussion or immediately near a related posting that helps me know what it is. Vs it just being tossed in there randomly.

SN Pale Ale or even SNPA is OK when we are talking about Sierra Nevada and or Pale Ales within a thread.
As would using SA when the topic nearby is Sam Adams stuff

Very much like you would see a writer spell out the full name Sierra Nevada, and then immediately put its acronym (SN). And only then continue to use it throughout the article.

 

To be fair, you could say that people complaining about not understanding what the acronyms stand for are lazy. Being unwilling to put forth the effort to research something, that I learned through exactly the same process, sounds a lot like apathy to me.

If you don't get it, maybe you're not invested enough. That goes for any hobby.

 

Not invested enough? Really? It's about clarity. It's about getting more people involved who are otherwise intimidated and yes it's about educating these people in the awesome world of trading where the majority of people are pretty damn cool.

I assure you I take as much time negotiating, communicating, packing, shipping and throwing in relevant/thoughtful extras as other traders on the boards as do many others who feel things have simply gotten out of control with the overuse of acronyms. Every beer does not need to have one!! I could argue that I am more invested by wanting to let more people clearly know what I have to offer or what I'm looking for by taking a few extra seconds to spell something/anything out!

Ok, do I believe that acronyms should be completely banned? Absolutely not! But there shouldn't be any problem with someone posting at least part of beer's name either in the post title or in the body of the post. That's all I would want to see. You don't even need to reference the brewery. Something like Rare would be enough, but when the only indication of what beers are being offered/desired is "ISO: SHBRL FT: MvB, MW" it has gotten way out of hand.

 

Many BA's don't think of beer as a hobby. It's just something they enjoy drinking.

 

Anyone going out of their way to join an online forum about it drinks beers as a hobby. Abbreviations are part of the hobby that aren't going away.

 

Seems funny to call someone lazy for trying to decipher acronyms that a lazy person rattled off on their keyboard because they couldn't be bothered to type out the name of the beer they wanted to discuss. It sounds like a pot/kettle situation to me. I'm lazy for typing out the names of beers AND researching acronyms?

 

Come on man, you're just not putting in enough effort. You need to be more invested!

 

If I was invested enough, I'd take the time to make a master list of acronyms used on the internet just to show how ridiculous it's getting. There would obviously be many of the same acronyms repeated multiple times because of all the "hobbies" out there...

 

Jesus Christ, I wasn't actually calling anyone lazy, so you can put an ice pack on all of that butthurt you're experiencing. I was merely pointing out to those who were calling people lazy for using acronyms that the same argument could be made in the opposite direction. This is the most trivial post ever.

 

You can't really turn the argument around, because at some point, people were typing out the names of beers until one day a lazy person got fed up and turned a beer name into an acronym, and we've since descended into acronym overload. Eventually, another lazy person will take inspiration from dolphins and we'll save even more time by just emitting high-pitched squeaks at each other...

 

BBOB, BBTC, ABCOS, ABCBA, SRTS, NCYD, WGB, CBKK, NFSO, BBIPA, SBM, FOB, BROB, BBBBGS#4(W), and SB7 are just of few of my local acronyms. Er, I mean beers.

 

Lazyception?

 

Didn't realize that this thread would be so controversial. It's the first and only thread that I can remember seeing in the past year that has really exposed acronym use as a problem for some people. Occasionally I see people question an acronym (OtWoA is a popular one) and are usually met with a quick clarification. I guess people have just been suffering in silence.

I just figured the acronyms were a part of getting used to any new field of knowledge, which this certainly is (was?) for me. My customers at work are constantly changing and creating new acronyms for which I constantly seek clarification. I looked at the trade forum to see what people were talking about, and while there were some acronyms in there that I didn't recognize, there were plenty of beers that were fully spelled out that I had never even heard of. So it just seems to me that if trading is important to people, they will know what they are looking for and make sure they understand the language involved.

 

But how many other hobbies are regularly being represented on a site called 'BeerAdvocate'?

 

Well, for one, apparently the hobby of acronyms.