Acronym Reference for Web Site Developers

One of the purposes of Acronyms.net is to promote the proper use of acronyms on the web. In contrast to some other acronym dictionaries that provide a list of every acronym definition, whether correct or incorrect, we want to help developers determine which is the correct one. For example, Google's cache for RFC 2821 for SMTP shows that some sites are linking to that page using the term Transport instead of Transfer. Acronyms.net is designed to allow terms to be looked up easily, so that there should no longer be any excuse for using the wrong terminology.

To start, search for the acronyms you want to use on your web site in one of the acronym references provided here. The Acronym Dictionary provides lists of acronyms and their possible definitions. The Acronym Finder allows you to find an acronym based on what the acronym means.

Once you have found the acronym term you want to use on your web site, you can get the HTML code for the acronym just by clicking on the "get HTML code" link. The complete HTML code for each acronym is provided. The code provided allows the user to view the acronym definition via a browser tool-tip to make the intended meaning of the acronym perfectly clear.

The Guide to Using Acronyms explains how the code provided works and provides examples of how to properly code acronyms in HTML .

Other sites(1) mention that many developers improperly use the HTML <acronym> tag because the <abbr> tag does not work in IE . However, the code provided here does work. Try it - simply hover your mouse over the "HTML" acronym in the previous paragraph above.

1) For example, see "ToolTips for text on the Web" at http://sob.Apotheon.org/?p=352 or search for abbr vs. acronym tag in IE in Google.

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Polite Usage of Certain Not-So-Polite Acronyms

There are a number of acronyms containing "dirty" words. The acronym dictionary pages here usually provide more polite versions of the acronym meanings than the original, usually more vulgar acronym definitions. Some of these potentially offensive acronyms include:

• BFD (get HTML code)
• CYA (get HTML code)
• FNG (get HTML code)
• FTW (get HTML code)
• FUBAR (get HTML code)
• NFG (get HTML code)
• NFW (get HTML code)
• OMG (get HTML code)
• PITA (get HTML code)
• RTFM (get HTML code)
• SNAFU (get HTML code)
• SOL (2) (get HTML code)
• SOS (get HTML code) and SOS (get HTML code)
• SSDD (get HTML code)
• STFU (get HTML code)
• WTF (get HTML code)

When you put the HTML code for acronyms like these on your web site, you can use either the polite form or the original version of the acronym with the "swear words" in the title tag, or else you can use the initial letter followed by asterisks, as in "F***" and "S***" or replace the dirty word with special character such as "@#*". The wording in the href tag should not be altered, however.

2) Based on search engine results, "Short Of Luck" seems to be more common than "Short On Luck" by a factor of 100-to-1 and than "Same Old Luck" by a factor of 1000-to-1.

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