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Post by Mezzaphor on Jul 22, 2011 2:48:27 GMT
A pretty impenetrable term. Is it "One True" as opposed to "One False", or "Many True", or "Many False", or "Random This Or That"? It just means that they're the two characters you want to see together more than any other in the story (and, depending on context, more than any other in any story).
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Post by raddishh on Jul 22, 2011 2:51:45 GMT
I think my post was sufficiently understandable that it still works. Tom's rule was to avoid chatspeak so we don't have a board full of ppl chattin lik dis. I've never seen him say anything against acronyms, although I have not looked at every single thing he's ever said.
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Post by jasmijn on Jul 22, 2011 8:58:14 GMT
Will it represent conflict, compromise, or confluence? Or am I overthinking this? Yes, yes, yes. Yes. Long beards and grey hair. Wanna bet? On the girls... Yes.
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Post by descoladavirus on Jul 22, 2011 10:24:36 GMT
What does OTP mean? (This is the kind of thing that helps me understand why Tom doesn't like abbreviations. The time you save by typing out the abbreviation rather than the whole phrase is then lost - or more than lost - by having to explain what it means.) In some cases however the abbreviation comes to mean more than the original phrase did, or carries certain undertones and associations that the full phrase doesn't. For example saying Ten/Rose is your "one true pairing!!1" sounds a bit overdramatic, but calling them your OTP is more shorthand and informal, and also carries associations with fanfiction. It's an easy way to tell people you prefer to read/write material about that couple without making yourself seem like a crazy person going on about destinies and soulmates. I'm a big supporter of acronyms. Not only is it faster to type (when you play as much WoW as I do you tend to appreciate anything that lets you communicate with party members faster) but also allows for the quick expansion of group-specific lexicons which I find fascinating from a linguistics standpoint. What about those of us who don't know or have never heard of the OTP acronym? If its pretty group specific then a person has to take into account that shockingly there are some of us who avoid fanfiction writers and consumers like the plague so we never hear the acronyms, and sit and scratch our heads in puzzlement whenever they're used.
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Post by todd on Jul 22, 2011 10:51:25 GMT
I'm a big supporter of acronyms. Not only is it faster to type Except that if someone in your audience hasn't heard of the acronym before and doesn't know what it means, you have to type the whole thing out anyway, so you don't save time by the abbreviation after all.
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Post by atteSmythe on Jul 22, 2011 16:35:53 GMT
What about those of us who don't know or have never heard of the OTP acronym? If its pretty group specific then a person has to take into account that shockingly there are some of us who avoid fanfiction writers and consumers like the plague so we never hear the acronyms, and sit and scratch our heads in puzzlement whenever they're used. Second hit on Google fits the context. Though I'm no fan of the site, tvtropes.org is also a good place to check for this kind of fandom slang.
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Post by raddishh on Jul 23, 2011 1:01:07 GMT
The only reason that people end up spending more time than necessary talking about using acronyms is when people won't stop hounding other people for bringing them up in the first place instead of just googling it themselves like everyone else.
I am getting kind of annoyed that my comment inspired an argument that's totally off topic.
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Post by legion on Jul 23, 2011 12:03:02 GMT
The only reason that people end up spending more time than necessary talking about using acronyms is when people won't stop hounding other people for bringing them up in the first place instead of just googling it themselves like everyone else. Yeah and if suddenly you start talking in Turkish we can use Google Translate, yet it's more polite if you talk in English when communicating with people who don't know Turkish. Solution: don't make comments that inspire arguments that are totally off topic.
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Post by rainofsteel on Jul 23, 2011 12:32:57 GMT
JackxAnnie is my only OTP out of any fandom. The current Jack/Annie situation isn't there yet, not by a long shot. I'm still not over the Cary Grant/Grace Kelly routine between them after their last encounter was so beyond awkward. Annie may slipping into the medium profession full bore, but how do we explain Jack? We really don't know much about him, which is why at the moment I am in no way convinced that there is any long-term future between them. Surma had some sort of feelings for Eglamore (as the inscription on the knife and Coyote's assumption that Annie was Eglamore's daughter indicate), but she wound up with Carver. Surma was fire, and we know Carver was ice. Hmmm. Who is the ice for Annie's new fire? Jack? I doubt it. Even people who love each other, get married, and have kids can separate or divorce later. What about those of us who don't know or have never heard of the OTP acronym? I hear tell that Google is of some use in these matters. Yeah and if suddenly you start talking in Turkish we can use Google Translate, yet it's more polite if you talk in English when communicating with people who don't know Turkish. There is quite a difference between using an acronym whose definition is easily locatable and writing in Turkish and expecting people to use an online translator. They are not comparable situations.
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Post by legion on Jul 23, 2011 12:36:23 GMT
Yeah and if suddenly you start talking in Turkish we can use Google Translate, yet it's more polite if you talk in English when communicating with people who don't know Turkish. There is quite a difference between using an acronym whose definition is easily locatable and writing in Turkish and expecting people to use an online translator. They are not comparable situations. Why, thank you for that precision Sir I-don't-understand-metaphors.
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Post by TBeholder on Jul 23, 2011 14:26:18 GMT
What about those of us who don't know or have never heard of the OTP acronym? If its pretty group specific One, it's likely that those who don't know or have never heard of the "OTP" acronym would be better off remaining in the blissful ignorance on this specific topic. I am pretty sure about myself, at any rate. Two, this problem can be significant only for the set "those of us who don't know or have never heard of the OTP acronym and want to know and are unable to figure it out by context and don't know about any search engines or are IP banned (and unable to circumvent this) by all search engines they know of and don't know any searchable fan sites and are afraid of or in some other way unable to simply ask people" - which is considerably narrower than the one you proposed, or at least i hope so. Solution: don't make comments that inspire arguments that are totally off topic. Alas, so far an assumption that the readers are mentally helpless to the extreme was uncalled for - at least, on this board.
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Post by TBeholder on Jul 23, 2011 14:35:12 GMT
Likes her, is thankful for helping to get that vermin out of his head, hopes she can explain "crazy stuff" or understands how cool she is? It's not the same. Also, Annie is curiously at ease with Jack here. Did her time in Gilltie Wood also make her more amenable to that, somehow? Or did the revelation about her parents help her get some things sorted out? Well, she does look generally more confident. But he didn't try to perform awkward courtship this time (yet), so why she wouldn't be at ease?
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Post by legion on Jul 23, 2011 15:49:17 GMT
This off topic argument would have been avoided if, upon being asked what the acronym meant, they had simply given a straight answer, instead of going on a rant about how everyone should know it and how the existence of search engines apparently exempts people from being civil and helpful.
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