D-this, D-that, D-the other?

[OnThisHill]

Am I the only one who finds
D-this and D-that really confusing?

There are so, so many Ds that threads (certainly on here) are so hard to follow.
What's wrong with husband, daughter, wife, mother etc etc?

I mean? Sometimes, it's not even a 'dear' someone a person is talking about. It's even got to the point where it's 'D-ex Husband' or 'D-Mother I would not cross the road to spit on'.

So, apart from the 'D' not always (or even usually) being true, it makes threads so very hard to follow.

Or, is it just DM?

Okaasan I think you are focussing too much on age and the (apparently) differing competency.
The Qwerty keyboard was first invented in 1868, so unless I've completely misunderstood, is not a new thing.
Predictive text built-in software is relatively new. (To the old folk like me )
Young and old can use both, with varying degrees of efficiency.
The MN short forms, I think, OnThisHill can be confusing, until you work it out.
Quite like them though and like pp quite often have my own sweary interpretation.
But I've never used one myself, faster to type the full thing rather than work them out.

With due respect to our friends on the conception, preggers, and such boards, OMG they have a language all to themselves. DPO, BFN, BFP, POAS and so on.

I eventually figured it out, but it is just something else for the uninitiated, like a secret code!

As for the rest of the abbreviations, who cares.

I hate it too.
It's ridiculous.
Particularly if a poster is suspicious of her 'D' H

keyboard Kate you're not wrong there! Baffling.
They're not talking to me though, so due respect.

I notice MIL is RARELY prefaced by a "D" lol.

It never says DMiL

I hope I’m DMil.
All that babysitting!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/thirty_days_only/3311336-MIL-took-my-corkscrew

No D there! But an amusing thread just the same!

im newish
took me ages to understand what the letters were and all i could think was dont people write words anymore

KeyboardKate Yes, the preggers, TTC boards are amazing in their language! Definitely not for the uninitiated. And fair play and best of luck to them too!

It’s so cringe..the one that gets me is AF 😂😂😂 like seriously sounds 1960s or one I seen ‘The Babydance’ 😂😂😂 OMG cringe

GPs
I sometimes mix up grandparents with general practitioner in people's posts and think why is the doctor getting involved

AF? What is that?

AF = Auntie Flo meaning periods.

Thank you GreatDuck

Yuck, what a dreadful expression! That is worse than dear everyone.

My husband thjnks DH stands for dickhead.

he's not wrong

There's a whole list of abbreviations and what they mean under "Getting Started". If people took the trouble to read it they would understand what all the acronyms mean, and not be whining about "cliques" and " feeling excluded".

Use them, don't use them, whatever, but they are part of the language of the site (or "sociolect" to quote AuntStella's excellent post upthread) and have been for a long time.

Ginandplatonic

They’re still shit.

I hate it too. And I always read DH as Dear Heart, which amuses me.

Well as I was up at 6 am with my dgc today I bloody well hope I am dmil

bean

I don't use the D words but since I started hanging about here I am saying CF (in full) far too much. Or maybe there are just a lot of them about!

The Aussie women’s magazines used these acronyms in the late eighties/early nineties when I was there. They weren’t invented on the Internet forums.

GinandPlatonic

See, that's just plain rude - not very civil - also on the getting started board!

I don't see where anyone has been "whining
about cliques and feeling excluded"!

I agree that they become part of the 'sociolect'. They just can get really confusing, especially in a long story with little punctuation and no paragraphs!

On twitter I use them if I have to because of character limits... still find them baffling sometimes though.

Does anyone remember that really confusing thread where the OP kept using DBF to mean Dear Boyfriend and Dear Best Friend And DS to mean Dear Sister and Dear Son. I think they were doing it on purpose though to be honest