TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin An appeal to forum members

As a favor to people who want to understand what is being written, can I make a request? Please avoid acronyms. I don't understand anyone's abbreviations. There may be an in-group on this forum that use a jargon only understood by the people who are admitted to the cool-kids table, but for the rest of us, these abbreviations are off-putting and meaningless.

Here's a parody of what we're facing: "We landed at PJIA and rented our car from OLZ. Drove to our unit at OMMX, where Cherie handed us our G&Ts and led us to a chair near the pool. We had dinner at MVZ in GC -- It was great!"

While that is not a bad suggestion, do not hesitate to ask if there is something in a post you do not understand or an abbreviation you want clarified.

I read your quote and the only parts I understood were PJIA=airport in st Maarten, G&T= gin and tonic, GC= Grand Case. The rest, as you state, was lost on me.

I think people do this to avoid too much writing. I just ask what they meant when I read someone's post. Or dismiss it because it means nothing to me.

IMHO. OK

They stated the post using the abbreviations was a "parody" so some of it may not make sense. It was an example.

I agree you do have somewhat of a point. Often people use airport abbreviations for their hometown airport that I have no idea what they mean. Something for people to keep in mind before you use a lot of abbreviations. But as JD said, you can always ask what it means also.

OK IDK IMHO It's EZ & PDQ! .02 TC

Okay, I don't know, in my humble opinion it's easy and pretty darn quick! Just my two cents, Take care!

I agree completely. If someone is just making up their own abbreviations as they go, it can be problematic but basically, the vast majority of users are working with very common abbreviations for this forum. And when in doubt, ask away!

For those who need a little help, since I didn’t get the G&T reference, these are just a few of the more commonly used acronyms:

PJA - Princess Julianna Airport
PJIA. - Princess Juliana International Airport
SXM - St Martin/Sint Maarten
AXA - Anguilla
StB - St. Bart’s
P’berg - Philipsburg
StK - St. Kits
GC - Grand Case
OB - Orient Beach
OBC - Orient Beach Club
OBBR - Oyster Bay Beach Resort
BSV - Beachside Villas
SBR - Simpson Bay Resort
RILP -Royal Islander Le Plage
AUC - American University of the Caribbean
TTOL - Travel Talk on Line
ROFLMAO - Rolling on. Floor Laughing My......... Never mind. I’m sure you got it already!

Idk - I don’t know
Jic - Just in case

And the list goes on and on. These may seem pretty inane to most here but I can easily see where and why a new-comer might be at least a little bit confused by them. I’m sure there are lots more but these come immediately to mind. 😊😊

Love your post - the first part, that is.....

How about OBBR? Saw it recently... Have no idea what it means.

I guess I'm thinking this: If you want readers to understand you, it would be helpful to write clearly. Otherwise, only a minority of readers will understand what you are writing.

Nice post, Pat! As I said, I think the only ones that stump me from time to time are the airport designations.

OBBR is Oyster Bay Beach Resort.

OBBR = Oyster Bay Beach Resort

It is on Pat's list.

Appeal denied! LOL! That's the fun of this board we all had to adapt. You will catch on .

This thread goes along with another thread which is on SXM people talk referenced to grammar mistakes and that some people who think that those who correct them are jerks. This is right up that alley in that millennials and "text" talk has caused problems. The abbreviations and/or acronyms are not widely known to all especially newcomers. Unfortunately there will always be new and misunderstood acronyms. Yes it saves time etc as long as we are all on the same level of understanding. I believe I posted that we used a messaging program on our in car computers. We would combine cop speak with 10 codes and signal abbreviations for brevity. For example if I had a ride along person in my car and I was going to ask my zone partner in adjoining zone if he wanted to meet at Gecko's restaurant for a meal the text would look like this: X56 Gecko's XX gotta X12 X97?. To someone who doesn't understand the cop speak it would be nothing but gibberish. To meet with a party in 10 code would be 1056 but X as in Roman numeral for 10 is quicker. So X56 is the same as 1056 or meet at. Gecko's is self explanatory. XX is Roman Numerals for 1010 which is 10 code for meal period. X12 is for 1012 which is 10 code for have a person present. X97 is 1097 or 10 code for on scene. Ans obviously the question mark designates a question. So to write it all out would take up spaces. Do you want to meet at Gecko's for meal time and I have a rider with me? is the same as X56 Gecko's gotta X12 X97. Just my 2 cents worth = just my .02

SXM Scubman,
Pat edited the list after my question was posted to include OBBR. I'd like to express my thanks to the three forum members who have schooled me on Oyster Bay Beach Resort.

Evidently there is a tension between those who retain a hope that most authors strive for clarity and those who think it's the reader's burden to research any ambiguities.

In the future, I will do my own research or ask for help when necessary. But if there are any forum members who want to be kind to well-meaning newbies, remember that spelling things out isn't that hard. It's more inviting and less exclusive.

Yes, I added OBBR along with another acronym after I saw your question and realized there might be some who were unaware of AUC and what it means.

I think most here do strive to be helpful and I, for one, will never get too stressed about spelling and grammar errors, as long as you can reasonably decipher what the poster was attempting to say. There have been a few posts that I’ve seen however where a crystal ball would have been more informative and then I just scratch my head and wonder why the poster bothered.

My reason for resorting to acronyms in so many cases is because I’m not a great typist and sometimes when I proof my posts, I read them as I meant them to be sometimes missing my obvious errors. And then there’s the issue of iPads and iPhones sometimes deciding what you want to say and making their own changes! Yikes!!

Pat,
Thanks for your helpful response. Like you, I'm not concerned with grammar errors. I also assume that most people who post are well-meaning and helpful. I just have trouble with abbreviations -- especially those that are specific to St. Maarten / St. Martin, and especially abbreviations of the names of commercial establishments. Those are hard to look up in abbreviation lists.

My suggestion is based on the assumption that most people who post here want to be understood, and most people who read the posts want to comprehend the intended message.

BTW,
CO for Club Orient or Clothing Optional?

AUCspouse, I understand your confusion with some abbreviations. I also respect your feelings, but in all fairness, the three people that mentioned OBBR = Oyster Bay Beach Resort, they were not trying to school you, just answering your question. When a person reads this board they go down the post, when you see a question, such as you posted, they answer it without reading the other post... because sometimes there can be many. Again, with you being new to the board, you don't know this so I can certainly see how this might offend you - but I don't believe it was their attention "to school you". ChiTownHarry and GaKye are both long time owners at Oyster Bay Beach Resort and valuable contributors to the board. I also own at Oyster Bay Beach Resort, and always refer to it as OBBR - because after 21 years that is just it's name to me..."OBBR". The resort uses it on their own website, in written communication.... it just becomes second nature for the owners. This happens with many abbreviations… SXM just replaces St Maarten, in emails/text and verbal communication. Just like people say “USA" instead of United States of American. Some people's favorite drink is a Gin and Tonic, but they always call it a G&T... or a Seven-Up and Segram's Seven is always ordered as "7&7".

Again, I understand your confusion and frustration - and really respect your feelings.... That's why I wrote this long response, I didn't want you to feel people were dising on you or being rude.... the majority (90%) of the people on this board love St Maarten, have a great deal of knowledge about it and enjoy sharing their knowledge and passion with other.

Please keep giving the board a

I may be mistaken but I do not think GaKaye owns at Oyster Bay Beach resort. Pretty sure she owns in the Simpson Bay area. Hopefully she will see this and correct me if I am wrong. No idea on the other poster you mentioned.

JD, you are correct. Georgia owns at LaVista Beach and I believe that ChiTownHarry owns a condo somewhere, not OBBR. I'm thinking at Les Balcons?? Or in Phillipsburg?

This is a very interesting conversation! All though I agree with AUCspouse, I’ll stay out of the fray, LOL!

Mdldgl,
My understanding of the verb "to school" is that it means "to educate." I was ignorant of the meaning of OBBR, and I needed education. Three people helped me -- Pat, GaKaye, and ChiTownHarry. When I thanked them for educating me, I was being sincere.

"By the way, send me a private message and I will tell you who the 10% are, other than SXMScubaman! grin"
I resent that implication. Totally uncalled for.

I agree. Uncalled for.. No reason for one board member to call out another like that.

I get a kick out of the username “AUC Spouse” making this request. 😺. I’m assuming your spouse is a med school intern? Please take my kidding as lighthearted. That said, as someone who used to run an aviation Internet forum , I get what you mean.

Perhaps a thought would be a “legend” ?? On my old forum, we used to have a “sticky” post that refers to most commonly asked questions and abbreviations and it was always at the top of the forum. And with SXM being such a tightly knit forum, a legend would help b/c like you, I can’t keep up with abbreviations.

All that said, given my experience on travel forums, from airliners.net to flyertalk.com and all points in between, this forum has been one the nicest I’ve seen.

One abbreviation that I use all the time, even when texting, is WX. Weather. How’s the wx?

Thank you.

My apologies, it was meant as a joke - but WAS out of line

Thank you

Nope, I'm not an owner at Oyster Bay; we own at La Vista Beach.

Thank you.

Just a thought regarding this particular abbreviation.....

CO - Club Orient
co - clothing optional

??

I understood your meaning. You're welcome.

I have always taken it to mean Club Orient but as noted, it could go either way.

Pat you may want to add SMYC and BBB or Bucs as we refer to it. I used to refer to Sunset Beach Bar Bar as SSB then with the name change I wasn't sure if it was SSBG so most of the time I typed Sunset bar. Hope is well.

BBB, always trips me up for second. I've struggled with some of these for awhile but i think i've got most of them figured out. Good to go now!

There is one that always confuses me - SBYC - Which could be Simpson Bay Yacht Club condominiums, obviously in Simpson Bay on the lagoon side - OR - could also be Simpson Bay Yacht Club which actually exists and meets, or did, at the Passanggrahan Hotel in P’berg. Go figger...... I get it confused all the time with SMYC, home of one of the best Bloody Marys on the island. Or so they tell me.......

lol...y'all are REALLY overthinking this. you can generally get an inference from the rest of the post/thread....OR ASK!