When I first starting visit this forum I often saw IIRC and thought it was referring to some "railroad corporation" and finally got up the nerve to ask. :blush: IIRC (if I recall correctly) my question was answered in a kind and gentle way! Hang in there and you soon will be "acronyming" it with the best!
This is so very well put......you have a way with expressing my thoughts. Being fairly new, I certainly didn't want to step on any toe's or create any waves. I concur!!
I admit that I am guilty of this, and many time I do spell it out the first time. But just using the (no longer available) Slidell (SDL) to LAX (Los Angeles) loophole, which of the following is easier to type (or even read):
Well, the easiest one to read would be option 1.5 ... the city names spelled out without all the extra padding you added. And it would probably be the easiest one for many people to type, too, given the heavy shift-key use that all those acronyms require.
But the point is this: most people who read this forum aren't going to have acronyms like SDL and KIN memorized ... and when they see stuff like that, a good many of them are going to skip right on by without reading. So using the acronyms, what you're implying is that your message is important enough to spend 30 seconds typing for a small audience, but not important enough to spend 31 seconds typing for a larger audience.
While it is true that it takes longer to type, it did not take 31 seconds instead of 30 seconds either. Many of us are not speed typist either.Well, the easiest one to read would be option 1.5 ... the city names spelled out without all the extra padding you added. And it would probably be the easiest one for many people to type, too, given the heavy shift-key use that all those acronyms require.
But the point is this: most people who read this forum aren't going to have acronyms like SDL and KIN memorized ... and when they see stuff like that, a good many of them are going to skip right on by without reading. So using the acronyms, what you're implying is that your message is important enough to spend 30 seconds typing for a small audience, but not important enough to spend 31 seconds typing for a larger audience.
Probably going the other way thou in our TXT-enabled world of hand-held devices.
Yep, and if a novice traveler asks for advice and is told to "get off in BBY and take MBTA to BON," it's just going to frustrate him, and probably make him go looking for someplace that's more helpful. "Get off in Back Bay and take the Orange Line to North Station," isn't hard to type at all, and would be the courteous advice for someone who's not a thoroughly hardcore Amtrak traveler.
It's hard to say, but I agree with you - to a point!
Actually if you're also familiar with airlines, you know that PDX is also the code for the airport in Portland, OR! The same is true for the following:
Aside from not residing near the great bay of Chesapeake, I have to ditto johnny's response. Cracking open a system timetable to find a station acronym, googling railroad speak, it really is all there and it came to me rather quickly. I did find some posts intimidating, but was determined to understand them, as this community has a great deal to offer. Because of which, I'm off on another excursion in 5 days, 22 hours, 32 mins and 49 sec. But who is counting? :lol:
And forget Dave~ he's been to more places than Amtrak has symbols for stations !!! :lol: :lol: :lol:FTL~ page 12 in the Amtrak TT
I doubt Dave knows if Kingston even has an airport except for the station platform when the Acela goes whizzing by. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
