[quote=barkeater;206167]The proper way to use any acronym such as "BW" is to use it [U]only[/U] after it was first spelled out: Brandywine. Then it can be subsequently referred to as BW as most all readers will be able to figure out what it means, newbie or not. To begin an initial post full of abbreviations or acronyms in any forum is just rude (ask Miss Manners).;-)[/quote]

Excellent rule of thumb, barkeater.

I would encourage all of our members to ask what an abbreviation means, if you see it in a post and don't know what it represents.

There's no shame in asking for clarification, whatsoever. ;)

YMMV = your mileage may vary

Carolyn et.al.....I have now been around these boards long enough to be
familiar with many abbreviations. I just read another thread encouraging
lurkers to get involved in posting. Perhaps, all the abbreviations are part of
what intimidates them? To me, it is better in a post to spell out, say,
Brandywine and then within the same post, go to "BW". A glossary is fine, but
the time it would take to go look through a glossary for a newbie/lurker is a lot
longer than what it would take the author of a post to spell it out. JMHO and
not LMAO and it ain't Big Sungold, it is just FWIW to the BSA and
RCAF.

Alpine, I was OK up to the British Shorthair Association and the Royal Canadian Air Force...

I agree with those posters who indicate that it is good manners to write out the full name for any UNUSUAL acronym first, then go to the short form. (That is how we were taught to use contractions waaay back in the dark ages.)

[quote=Alpinejs;206657]Carolyn et.al.....I have now been around these boards long enough to be
familiar with many abbreviations. I just read another thread encouraging
lurkers to get involved in posting. Perhaps, all the abbreviations are part of
what intimidates them? To me, it is better in a post to spell out, say,
Brandywine and then within the same post, go to "BW". A glossary is fine, but
the time it would take to go look through a glossary for a newbie/lurker is a lot
longer than what it would take the author of a post to spell it out. JMHO and
not LMAO and it ain't Big Sungold, it is just FWIW to the BSA and
RCAF.[/quote]

Yes, it would take time to go through the abbreviations in this thread, which is why I posted the following above:

(Alpine, everyone starts out as a newbie at some point and thre are abbreviations that one learns as one learns more and more about tomato varieties. If you don't understand some of the abbreviations then just ask the person posting what one stands for if you don't see it in the posts above.)

And I'll amend that to say just ask the person directly rather than going through the abbreviations, but I think it's really good that the thread also covered abbreviations that don't refer to tomato varieties so by new folks reading through at least, hopefully, some of the ones listed here would be familiar when seen in the context of a post.

I can't promise that I'll write out the full names of any tomato varieties I post about, I can try, but no promises; too old, too many message sites I've been at since 1989 and so my fingers sometimes do what they do without any participation from my brain telling them what should be donee done.;) But PL and RL and the like are used so much that I do think the more common abbreviations, many of them in this thread, that folks use shouldn't be a problem.

And I don't think that lurkers are intimidated at all by some folks using abbreviations for tomato varieties. Studies have been done that show that at almost all message sites only 10% of the registered members ever post. They prefer to lurk, and from time to time someone will start a thread trying to convince lurkers to join the comminity here and post. And most of the time that doesn't work b'c most lurkers like to just lurk.;)

With the exception of a few Forums here, which are for members only, anyone can lurk and read what they want to without registering, and that's fine too, except if you look at the thread in the 2 cents Forum in the Mailbox Full thread one needs to make a post or two before one can use the PM feature.

[quote=salix;206663]Alpine, I was OK up to the British Shorthair Association and the Royal Canadian Air Force...

I agree with those posters who indicate that it is good manners to write out the full name for any UNUSUAL acronym first, then go to the short form. (That is how we were taught to use contractions waaay back in the dark ages.)[/quote]

I got the RCAF one but thought that BSA stood for Boy Scouts of America.:lol:

Yes, it is good manners, especially for any UNUSUAL acronyms as you put it, to give a full name first and then an abbreviation, especially if the variety is being referred to again in the same post.

I'm just saying that I can try, I can't speak for others, I have no idea who is even reading this thread, but I know me pretty well right now and I might just plain forget to do so.

After all, who was the person who was supposed to send one pack of red Prue seeds and one pack of a possible yellow version to each of two people this week and was informed that person A got two packs of the red, so I was hoping that person B got two packs of the yellow, and thank heavens that happened and now that's fixable.:lol:

With increasing age, and I'm quite a few years over Medicare entree age, often come moments of forgetfulness, which is why I personally can't promise anyone about anything.:?: :)

Is also good to note that these acronyms vary on dirfferent businsses as BSA to me means Bank Secrecy Act but may mean something else to others.

Craig

To me BSA means Birmingham Small Arms as in BSA motorcycles, bicycles and firearms.

I do know BSA from american pickers with that name too :) it is all relative to the discussion at hand I think :)

Craig

...and that's why we need it spelled out in full the first time!

AAAFNRAA - Anything Anytime Anywhere For No Reason At All
TANSTAAFL - There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

For anther gardening board. SPPPPPPP.

The Society for the prevention of putting parsley on people's plates in public
places.

WTF- Why the face

Sorry just watched a modern family repeat last night.

Forgetfulness
 

Abbreviations are great, but I have to agree with Carolyn about forgetfulness. But rather than call it forgetfulness I usually call it Some Timers' Disease.:love: My grandkids just roll their eyes! Because I fell off of scaffolding 20 years ago and broke my neck I use speech recognition to talk to my computer, and it has a difficult time with abbreviations-so I really have to double check that what I said it is what it is supposed to be. Not too long ago on another form I wanted to put BRF (abbreviations for our stallions name) and did not check the subject line and in nice large letters it proclaimed BARF:?!?:Not a very good advertisement. Have a great day everyone. Joan still in a very cold spring Reno with winds that are supposed to be 70 MPH today:no:

All together now
 

OK, here's my go at the glossary, humbly submitted with a couple of typo corrections and editorial additions by me to clarify, especially to those not from North America, or those new to gardening. Also, I've added a few words that threw me at first when I first saw them used here.
I left in the many common web acronyms, although I think the list would better serve if it were just tomato-focused.
Please feel free to critique or offer improvements.


AGG -- Aunt Gertie's Gold
AKA -- also known as
ARJR -- Andrew Rahart's Jumbo Red
ARGG - Aunt Ruby's German Green
ASAP - as soon as possible
bagged - seed from flowers that were bagged to prevent accidental hybridization
b/c -- because
belly button - an inward depression on the blossom end of a tomato
BB --- Bloody Butcher, BrandyBoy
BBH -- Brad's Black Heart
BCW -- Box Car Willie
BER -- blossom end rot
BFT -- Black from Tula
BLT --- RTS (Ruined Tomato Sandwich) Really, it's a bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwich.
BP --- Black Prince
BT --- Bacillus thuringiensis, a natural pesticide for caterpillars including hornworms
BTD -- Berkeley Tie Dye
BTW -- by the way
BW --- Brandywine
BWPS - Big White Pink Stripes (seems to be marketed by the acronym alone)
Catfaced - distorted fruit, usually resulting from incomplete pollination of a flower
CC --- Cherokee Chocolate
CEC -- cation exchange capacity
ChChoc - Cherokee Chocolate
CG --- Cherokee Green
ChGreen - Cherokee Green
CP --- Cherokee Purple
ChPur - Cherokee Purple
CMV -- cucumber mosaic virus
CRM - concrete reinforcing mesh (same as CRW)
CRW - concrete reinforcing wire (same as CRM)
CSA - community supported agriculture, also known as "subscription farming."
CTV -- Curly Top Virus, also seen as beet leaf curly top virus (BLCTV)
DG -- Dave's Garden® - a garden bulletin board and resource website
Det - determinate
DH --- Dear Husband
DTM -- days to maturity; time (with ideal good conditions) from transplant to mature fruit.
DIY EB = Do-it-yourself Earthbox®. - home-made self-watering plant containers
DW ---Dear Wife
DWS -- Dancing With Smurfs
EB's -- Earthboxes®, a commercial SWC
EF --- Earl's Faux
EPA -- Environmental Protection Agency
EPB -- Eva Purple Ball
F1 -- a hybrid between two separate lines; the first generation of a newly made hybrid
F --- Fusarium wilt; an F after a variety name indicates resistance to this wilt
Florida weave - a trellising method
FWIW - for what it's worth
GA --- Gregori's Altai
GDC -- Golden Dwarf Champion
GE --- genetically engineered
GG --- Green Giant
GH --- greenhouse
GJ --- German Johnson
GMG -- Grub's Mystery Green
GMO -- genetically-modified organism
GRS -- German Red Strawberry
GW --- GardenWeb® - a garden bulletin board website
GWR -- green when ripe
IANAL - I am not a lawyer
IIRC - if I recall correctly
IMHO - in my humble opinion
IMO -- in my opinion
IRL -- in real life
Indet - indeterminate
JBT -- Japanese Black Trifele
JF --- Jaune Flammee
KB --- Kellogg's Breakfast
KBX -- Kellogg's Breakfast, potato leaf
KHP -- Kalman's Hungarian Pink
LC --- Lucky Cross
Lucky X - Lucky Cross
LL --- Little Lucky
LGS -- Lime Green Salad
LOL -- laugh(ing) out loud
LPB -- Large Pink Bulgarian
LYH -- Lillian's Yellow Heirloom
MG --- Miracle-Gro ® fertilizer
ML --- Mortgage Lifter
MP --- Marianna's Peace
NAR -- Neve's Azorean Red
NBD -- New Big Dwarf
NCP -- natural cross-pollination
NPK -- Nitrogen: Phosphorus: Potassium - the ratios of the three major nutrients in a fertilizer
NSP -- natural self-pollination
OP -- open-pollinated; a true-breeding line (not an F1 hybrid)
OTOH - on the other hand
OTV - off the vine; also the name of a tomato publication
PL --- potato leaf (not regular leaf)
PM --- private message
PNW -- Pacific North West of the United States
PPM -- part per million - a measurment often seen in soil tests and hydroponic solutions
PPP -- Pink Ping Pong, or perhaps, rarely, Pale Perfect Purple
RKN -- root knot nematode
RL --- regular leaf
ROFLMAO - rolling on the floor, laughing my a** off
SAP -- Sub-Arctic Plenty
SASE - self-addressed stamped envelope
SASBE - self-addressed stamped bubble envelope (to prevent seed damage)
SESE - Southern Exposure Seed Exchange
SFG -- Square Foot Gardening; a gardening book and method
SFT -- Silvery Fir Tree
SH --- southern hemisphere
SHP -- Sand Hill Preservation seeds
SO --- significant other
SOW -- Stump Of the World
SSE -- Seed Saver's Exchange; a non-profit organization
stitching - a long blossom end scar on the bottom of the fruit
SWC -- self-watering container
TGS(C) - Tomato Grower's Supply Company ®, a seed and supplies website
TMV -- Tobacco Mosaic Virus
ToMV -- Tomato Mosaic Virus
TmRSV - Tomato Ring Spot Virus
TSWV - Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus
TT --- Totally Tomatoes ®, a seed, supplies, and bulletin board website
TT --- Tomato Tone® fertilizer by Espoma
TTC --Texas Tomato Cage
TV --- Tomatoville®, this website
TYLCV - Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus
TYVM - thank you very much
TYW -- Tom's Yellow Wonder
V --- Verticillium wilt; a V after a variety name indicates resistance to this wilt
WOW -- Wall O' Water® - a frost-protection device
YMMV - your mileage may vary ( meaning, your experience may be different)