Let Me Translate That For You!
Due to the 140 character limitation users have adopted a lot of acronyms to convey meaning without wasting character real estate. But they also make reading tweets seem like decoding a cypher if you aren't familiar with them. Here's a translation guide!
Due to the 140 character limitation to tweets users have adopted a lot of acronyms to convey meaning without wasting precious character real estate. Some of these originated on Twitter, while others have been in use for far longer. Below I've gathered together some of the most common acronyms and their meaning and use.
RT: Retweet. Retweeting is sharing a tweet in its entirety with your followers. You can retweet the tweet "as is" using Twitter's Retweet button or you can manually retweet a tweet by copy-pasting a tweet and placing RT before the @handle. Note though that the latter is usually only done if you mean to add a comment on the tweet. Here are two examples of both sorts of retweets from the Leiden University Twitter account.
Thanks RT @Dianne_RSM: Had fun as a guest lecture Leiden BA International studies. @UniLeiden pic.twitter.com/kxJVnCzIk1
— Universiteit Leiden (@UniLeiden) April 29, 2014
MT: Modified Tweet. A modified tweet is a retweet of someone else's tweet, but one that has been changed to allow for a comment.
MT @OKFN: The Value of Research Data and data metrics, Leiden University report http://t.co/ywK3Ueuw4d @okfnecon #opendata #openresearch
— ePSIplatform (@epsiplatform) May 30, 2013
h/t: Hat tip, used to give acknowledgement to the person who pointed you in the direction of the article, video or other information you're sharing. Sometimes this is done with the prase via @handle at the end of a tweet.
For academics everywhere: @IanMulvany explains how to measure impact pic.twitter.com/gUDOhhVwjZ h/t @jasonpriem #altmetrics
— Siouxsie Wiles (@SiouxsieW) April 9, 2014
Which research caught the most attention online in 2013? http://t.co/ciIpPQCMZi via @altmetric
— Open Access VU (@OpenAccessVU) December 12, 2013
ICYMI: In Case You Missed It. Mostly used when re-sharing a previously tweeted link.
ICYMI, RT @MEARC_Leiden: The trio Breuker/Cwiertka/Pieke take over as new directors Modern East Asia Research Centre: http://t.co/HIPSdlXCJL
— Florian Schneider (@schneiderfa77) May 6, 2013
DM: Direct Message. Direct messaging allows you to contact someone directly and in private.
@Pallekenl Check your DM!!
— Liz de Jager (@LizUK) October 31, 2013
OH: Overheard. For those times you want to share something interesting overheard offline:
OH in the library..."I didn't like that book. It had too many words!" - 1st grader
— Stacy Dillon (@mytweendom) December 9, 2013
^: The caret or hat sign is used to denote that a tweet was made by a particular member of a team responsible for tweeting from an account. In the tweet below, for example, the ^M shows that I was the one who sent this tweet from the @UBLeiden account.
Nu permanent in dit theater: Asian Film Online. Bijna 500 Aziatische films en docu's over diverse onderwerpen: http://t.co/abhiiJklcs ^M
— UBLeiden (@ubleiden) April 24, 2014
If you'd like a more extensive list of common Twitter and or internet acronyms you can find some at the following links:
