At the request of a few folks who have had trouble understanding some of my shorthand in emails and forum posts, I have uploaded a list of commonly used acronyms and emoticons. This is the "old timers" list that was developed in the dark ages of online communication when each byte cost money to send and receive, so shorthand was valuable and we didn't have cute daemons (images of smiley faces and the like <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> ) to post to accord an emotion to a statement. For those of us who still insist on text email, not HTML, they are still in everyday use. The younger generation has a whole other online language.

http://www.equipped.org/acronym-emoticon2.txt

Hope this helps.

When I first joined this group, I noticed everybody liked throwing around they're own pet acronyms... "FAK", "PSK", "BOB", "SAK" (I'm still not sure what exactly this one means, but I understand its a knife!)... And they're not real good about using the entire term at least once in their message. This left me in a constant state of confusion my first couple of weeks here. I know I'm not alone, it was just a couple of weeks ago that someone started their own thread just to ask what a certain term meant.

It might be nice if your list covered these survival-related acronyms... any good 'netizen knows what "LOL" and "LMAO" means, but you guys seems to speak your own language... seems to me that's the stuff a newbie needs to know the most. Unless, you've already got that somewhere and I just haven't seen it. In that case, I'm sorry in advance to have pestered you over nothing. <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

JMHO!! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Thanks,

Or.... for general use, try
www.acronymfinder.com

Ben,

'SAK' is Swiss Army Knife...

I think you've figured out the others, but:
'FAK' - First Aid Kit
'PSK' - Personal (or Pocket) Survival Kit
'BOB' - Bug Out Bag

HTH, <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
~W

Swiss Army Knife! Not sure how I missed that one, I carry one all the time in my "EDC". Actually, another member beat you to the punch and sent me a private email. I'd like to give him credit, but since he wrote me privately, he may want anonymity for some reason.

I'd managed to figure out the others from the context as I went along. It was fun in the beginning, like my own little translation of the Rossetta stone... after a while it just wasn't fun anymore. I was trying to focus on what the poster's meaning, and not exactly what he was saying with every word.

Of course there are other issues with some of the terminology... e.g. everyone may not understand what "bug out" means. It has a lot of meaning for all the ex-military types (and for those of us that watched every episode of M*A*S*H when we were younger!), but others might say "what does that mean?" every time they see it.

Of course its possible I'm just being AR (Anal Retentive). <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Just thought I might save others a little pain.

Thats really cool man. >; >
I dont believe you. :$