I read through SFN (ok, l know this oneš) topics almost every day in order to keep up with the conversation which I find most enjoyable however I have one frustration of posters when abbreviations are used. I understand that it can save time and certain shortcuts are easy to understand as they are used so often however many are not.
In my many previous roles as Parish Council (PC)Chair, village Hall Chair, Further Education (FE) Chair of Governors and President of Yorkshire and Trent Federation of Master Builders (FMB) I insisted that if anyone hose to use abbreviation jargon that they should make it clear to what they were referring.
I am not going to single out various posters or posts who have a habit of doing this but please think twice and post once as I donāt think l am alone in my head scratching in trying to decode the many abbreviations used. TTFNš
Hi Johnā¦ after using a Galaxy and Nexus both of which involve tapping with one finger or a stylusā¦ I am very much in favour of abbreviations. However, I do agree that some are obscure (to me at least).
Here are my favourite ones that I do use regularly.
IMO - in my opinion
OH - other half
CPAM- Caisse Primaire Assurance Maladie
CT - ContrƓle technique
CdS - Carte de sƩjour
V5 - Vehicle Logbook
CG - Carte Grise
FiL - father in law (likewise: BiL, SiL, MiL)
Even when my fingers are flying over the keyboard, I still prefer to use the above. However, I will try to ensure that the meaning is clear. Point taken on board. 
Hereās a list of the most popular acronyms. I find them really handy and If not shown in the list below, it only takes seconds to google them.
As with any form of communication it depends how often you are using/seeing them before they become second nature. IMO they are practical and well worth taking on board! 
Thanks Stella 
It is probably me and my sheltered life but what does PoL stand for?
Ha haā¦ perhaps it means you need new glassesā¦
PoL = no idea ā¦ did I use that one ? Point of Law maybeā¦
John,
Apologiesā¦ Yes, I did use PoL. This was in a thread which was talking about Life Certificates and these are often known as Proof of Life (PoL). Virtually anyone who is pensioned has to complete one of these, so it just tripped off the tongue and onto the pageā¦
Obviously, PoL taken totally out of context could mean a number of things, including Point of Lawā¦ 
Iām delighted to answer questions on my posts but, please do give me a clue as to the context/content/subject ā¦ 
Sorry, I should have been more specific.
I presumed it was refering to that but could not work it out which led me to start the topic.
I understand them as CoE Certificate of entitlement.
No problem John. The sun is shining, the figs are ripe and all is well with the world - well my little bit of it, anyway.
Thanks for the list Tracey and I do not disagree that many are very useful but sometimes even to Google an obscure one does not bring up the answer and to break off reading a post to try and find the answer is not ideal.
I thought it would be useful to provide a ZIP code for SFN.
just in case you are wondering ZIP in short for Zone Improvement Plan
The only problem there is John, that ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) codes aka postcodes, are for physical, bricks and mortar addresses and SFN is virtual. A community forum/discussion group out there in the ether!
I hope the list will be of use to you for your future online endeavours. x
Although I do use shortcuts, acronyms, abbreviations whatever, Iām so glad I didnāt offend @JohnBoy with posting the full description of what I was referring to this time round - if only because, in haste, I couldnāt remember what the acronym for a life certificate was 
Yes there are various ways of describing it.
A Certificate of Life (also called a Certificate of Existence, Letter of Existence, Life Certificate , Proof of Life - PoL )ā¦
is a certificate produced by a trusted entity to confirm that an individual was alive at the time of its creation.
Thereās always room for improvement, John - thatās one of the great things about being aliveā¦
I use āFFSāā¦āSTFUāā¦& āPDFOā
These are my favourites
The first one (FFS) I like to say out loud! But never in company, usually to the telly! 
SNAFU 
BOHICA and FUBAR 
OMG you guys, so much ruder than on the list of Acroās I posted! 
But loving your SOH 
French acronyms are a topic in themselves, I agree.
Whatās the answer, though?
I donāt think that ādecodingā the acronym, ie spelling out what it stands for, is the answer. For one thing, the person using it may not even know. Acronyms kind of gets added to peopleās vocabulary as a new word; they donāt consciously use it as a short cut, they use it as word in itself. Like āasboā orders in the UK - I know immediately what one is, but I have to stop and work out what a-s-b-o- stands for; similarly if someone talked about an anti social behaviour order, I might not immediately think āasboā (well itās not a very good example because in fact I think I would - but sometimes the connection between the acronym and the words themselves is less immediately made).
For another thing, knowing the actual words that the acronym stands for will not necessarily help you to understand what it actually means to people. Iām aware that Iāve just made a post where I mention URSSAF and DIRECCTE and probably a few more. So, John, would you prefer me to have put āURSSAF, the union de recouvrement sĆ©curitĆ© sociale allocations familialesā and āDIRECCTE, the direction rĆ©gionale des entreprises, de la concurrence , de la consommation , du travail et de lāemploiā. Or would you prefer āURSSAF, the network of administrative bodies that collect employer and employer social security contributions, also CSMs , Cotisations Subsidiaires Maladie, and also CSG/CRDS contributions, ie Cotisations sociales gĆ©nĆ©ralisĆ©s and contribution au remboursement du dette sociale (goodness this is getting complicated!)ā and āDIRECCTE, the body that deals with complaints from consumers against businesses and complaints by one business about another relating to unfair competition, sends out inspectors to ensure that the French Labour Code is being complied with, and a number of other functions besidesā. Actually I donāt think itās possible to sum in a brief gloss, even a small part of everything that is conveyed to a French person by the two syllables 'DI-RECCTE".
Quite honestly I donāt think either is very helpful, it just wastes the posterās time and doesnāt greatly enlighten the reader. At the end of the day, if the topic is of interest to you, you can look the acronym up on Wikipedia, get a clear understanding of what it encompasses, and use it yourself in the future. If the topic is of no interest to you then you might as well shrug it off, lifeās too short to waste time learning things that will never be any use to you.