Wikipedia:WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Shortcuts

This page in a nutshell: Avoid cryptic language. Try to keep your use of abbreviations down when talking with human beings.

WTF? OMG! TMD TLA. ARG!

– or –

What The Fuck? Oh My God! Too Many Damned Three-Letter Acronyms. ARRRGGGHHH!!!!

The message

WP:WHEN WP:EDIANS WP:CITE WP:PAGES WP:IN WP:THE WP:PRJ WP:NS, WP:THEY WP:FREQ WP:REF WP:CUTS WP:LIKE "WP:BEANS", "WP:BALLS", WP:AND "WP:BRD". WP:WHILE these MOS:ABBRs are WP:GREAT for WP:RDRing to a WP:SPECIFIC WP:PAGE WP:YOU WP:USE often, it's probably a WP:BADIDEA to make a WP:POINT of using these TLAs in daily WP:TALK, lest your WP:DISCUSSion end up as WP:NONSENSE WP:LIKE the WP:TITLE of this page. BTW, What's This For?

English translation

When Wikipedians refer to pages in the Wikipedia: namespace, they frequently use shortcuts like "WP:BEANS", "WP:BALLS", and "WP:BRD". This jargon is used as a link to a particular, often-used page. While these abbreviations are great for redirecting to a specific page that you use often, it's probably a bad idea to habitually use these in daily discussion, lest your discussions may end up as nonsensical as the title of this page.

Avoid unnecessary use of jargon

Editors use jargon for compact communication, especially when doing hundreds of similar laborious important edits, e.g. vandalism patrol. Jargon directly excludes people, even when used with the best of intentions. It can take a conscious effort to avoid it. Don't Bite The Newbies.

If you use abbreviations all the time, you risk forgetting what the expansion actually is, and might say something you don't actually mean:

e.g., you refer to WP:FORK, meaning the short version of WP:CONTENTFORK – but it links to WP:Mirrors and forks. Another example, you use the shortcut WP:ECU to refer to extended confirmed users, but it links to Wikipedia:WikiProject Ecuador.

A common practice is to write "Recent event, delete per WP:NOTNEWS" (or just WP:NEWS). But this is a shortcut to WP:NOTNEWSPAPER (or just WP:NEWSPAPER). The main point of that rule is to proscribe original reporting (e.g "ref: I'm at the scene right now and seeing it with my own eyes"). It also proscribes newspaper-type features such as daily sports scores, trivial social news and gossip, horoscopes, and the like. It expects some recent events to be covered, and only warns against giving extra weight to (say) a battle last week as opposed to a similar-importance battle in 1805, just because it is more recent. The editor, having not read the policy carefully, may be latching on to the title and believing that we actually are told not to cover recent events. Consequent to WP:NOTNEWS's wide use, many editors believe this.

Avoid projecting elitism

Newer editors will often encounter the first heavy use of these abbreviations in the talk pages of articles, Articles for Deletion discussions, or other administrative areas of Wikipedia. To keep the community open and inviting to newcomers, editors should avoid the use of cryptic language and acronyms, as it projects a sense of elitism that is likely to alienate newer editors.

For example, when indicating the reasons that an article should be deleted, the following may be considered hostile to newer members:

Nominated for deletion, WP:NOR, WP:N, WP:V

Instead of listing an alphabet soup of codes, the following use of Wikipedia's "piped linking" technique improves the clarity of the above sentence:

Nominated for deletion as original research and for lack of notability; in addition, it does not appear to be possible to verify the accuracy of the sources, as the article contains only references that are contained in unpublished manuscripts.

It is longer, but far more understandable, and contains a little context that allows someone to understand particular reasons why a policy might apply. While it may be obvious to you why a given policy applies, it may not be to others – even very experienced editors!

Moral of the story

Always use a proper name for a Wikipedia namespace page when discussing it. If you find that you are getting sore wrists and fingers from all the typing, try to simplify or summarise the pages you are referring to, so that in future you only need to refer to a single link.

or

This is an encyclopedia, not text messaging.

The message

English translation

Avoid unnecessary use of jargon

Avoid projecting elitism

Moral of the story

See also