I have a complaint.

[Jace]

Half the time, I don't even register the abbreviations, but when three-quarters of it is weird little half words, is does get annoying. I actually get my daughter to help me sometimes, since, at 12, she is more fluent in that then I am. That, more than creaky joints and 10 o'clock bedtimes make me feel old!

Kurt, if I am correct, IDK means "I don't know".....kind of like CB lizards...

[Ebony]

Thanks Kevin1, I'll have to check out the chat area then so I can get to know the new lingo. Thanks

[John]

This thread now looks weird because it is automatically expanding those acronyms.

[Kurt]

I believe they are Internet facial expressions.
I used to spend a lot of time in aol chatrooms.
If you have a hard time with forum abbreviations, you would that the aol chatters are speaking in alien.

That should stop too. We have plenty of emoticon to use here, if not we can always add more.

[SludgeMunkey]

On that note...I cannot wait for the forums to age to the point I can use the "beating a dead horse" emoticon. I so desperately wish that one was standard on all forums.




I detest that AOLspeake stuff. I fully understand that in the early days of web access, when you paid for access by the minute, it was a necessary evil. Now a days though, there is no reason for that stuff.
Many of us have enough trouble with basic English (like myself), throwing the gobbledygook into the works makes it tough.

[Tom Highum]

i believe the first two to be dead faces the Xs are dead eyes
the second one is just a face with tiny eyes at the ends

[Kurt]

It shouldn't have to be explained. What ever is posted on the forum should easy to read and understand, even by someone who has never ever even seen a computer. So having computer short hand and abbreviations here makes it difficult to read, especially for those whose primary language is not English.

Like I said earlier, who would buy a book if the author used computer short hand, emoticons, and unexplained abbreviations?

[Kevin1]

I agree, I can't stand when people are to lazy to type a word out.
I thought the idea of expanding acronyms and abbreviations was a good idea.

[Jace]

Speaking of ways to make things easier for everyone to read, is there anyway to make it so whenever the latin names are used, the common names come up as well? A lot of times I spend several minutes with my frog books open just trying to figure out which species is being talked about. I'm trying to learn, but it's a slow process!

[Tom Highum]

me to but i don't have a book so i have to try the Internet. i only know that hyla means treefrog, bufo means toad and dendrobates means dart frog

[Kurt]

Well, the problem with that is some taxonomic names have more then one common name. A great example of this is Phrynomantis bifasciatus. The field guides I have call it a red-banded rubber frog. In the pet industry I have seen it called red-banded crevice creeper, Tanzanian fire frog, red-banded walking frog, Tanzanian walking frog, and so on. The list goes on and on. The popular Litoria caerulea is called the green treefrog in its native homeland and in American herpeculture it can either be called the White's treefrog or the dumpy treefrog.
That's why a lot of us use the taxonomic name, its less confusing, except to those that don't know taxonomic names. With the name Litoria caerulea we know exactly what frog we are talking about. With the common name green treefrog, confusion sometimes can happen, especially on an international forum such as ours. Are we talking about L. caerulea or Hyla cinerea or perhaps even H. arborea.
I think in the future, those of us that do use these names, should also include a common name at least once in the post.

[Jace]

I didn't realize that so many names can be used for one species, but it does make sense when I think about it. It would be great if, at least once, a common named was used in the post for those of us not fluent in proper scientific names. I am getting better at recognizing certain ones-like Tom-but every once in a while I get thrown for a loop. Not that I don't mind the challenge, but when there so many interesting posts to read it can get frustrating! Thanks for explaining it, though, Kurt.

[adawinters]

I know some of the latin nomenclature, but I've taken to keeping an extra browser window open to a search engine for anything I don't know. Usually, I just do an image search, since I know what a lot of things look like, even when I can't remember the scientific name. Really doesn't take long at all.

[Crystal6]

What about emoticons spelled out? Like "^_^" for instance.

[Kurt]

MY advice is if you want to use emoticons, go advanced and use the ones there. If they are not enough ask John to ad more. It would be less confusing to the rest of us if we are all using a standard emoticon.

[Ebony]

MY advice is if you want to use emoticons, go advanced and use the ones there. If they are not enough ask John to ad more. It would be less confusing to the rest of us if we are all using a standard emoticon.

Here here

[Tom Highum]

What other smiley faces can you get???

[Crystal6]

Quite a few. I'm a sucker for anime style (^_^) emoticons though. Even if they have strange kitty faces. (Cats and frogs... not usually a good combination)

[Tom Highum]

are there any more amphibian related ones?

[Crystal6]

are there any more amphibian related ones?

Hm.. I see and

If there are anymore I can't find them. (<- Not sure if that counts. It is green and has no defined nose. Might just be a green human though.)