Help! Can't speak Metafilter.

September 6, 2014 8:11 AM

I am a not particularly IT literate native Brit and I struggle with the American acronyms on Metafilter (IAMYL, IANYD etc). Would somebody be so good as to supply me with a short dictionary?
posted by Gabriel ricci to Writing & Language (12 answers total)

Best answer: MeFi Acronyms!
posted by DarlingBri at 8:13 AM on September 6, 2014 [5 favorites]

Here and elsewhere, when I encounter an acronym I don't know, I google it.
posted by tomboko at 8:13 AM on September 6, 2014 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks tomboko. You answered my question eight hours and five minutes before I posted it!
posted by Gabriel ricci at 8:20 AM on September 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

Acronym Finder usually has the answer, too.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 8:36 AM on September 6, 2014

Here and elsewhere, when I encounter an acronym I don't know, I google it.

Unfortunately if you google IANYD you get pages and pages of answers about The United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development.
posted by poffin boffin at 8:37 AM on September 6, 2014 [3 favorites]

For a long time I thought it was some kind of emotion fueled typo but it happens enough that I think it is on purpose and has subliminal intent.

"hope me" started as an emotion-fueled typo and became an in-joke.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 8:37 AM on September 6, 2014 [1 favorite]

Also check out In Jokes for more about some of the phrases used, like "hope me" and their back stories.
posted by catatethebird at 8:40 AM on September 6, 2014

Unfortunately if you google IANYD you get pages and pages of answers about The United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development.

But not if you google "Metafilter IANYD."
posted by tomboko at 8:58 AM on September 6, 2014 [2 favorites]

And there is also this thing in Ask where some people use the word "hope" instead of "help"

I always thought this was due to the easy transposition in

Help me Obi Wan Kanobi you're my only hope

posted by Rash at 9:04 AM on September 6, 2014

You answered my question eight hours and five minutes before I posted it!

If you find that confusing, skip over to this page and change your time offset (if you're in the UK, you're currently 8 hours ahead of the server).

(metafilter is too old school to set that automatically).
posted by effbot at 12:17 PM on September 6, 2014

Know Your Meme is helpful for random references people make too!
posted by AaronRaphael at 11:10 PM on September 6, 2014

For this type of thing I usually go to urbandictionary.com.
posted by wolfr at 5:53 AM on September 7, 2014