Would someone please forward me the memo on abbreviations, because I seem to have missed it. Specifically, I’m talking about the one where the first word’s abbreviation is two letters rather than one.
Need some examples? Since when did Prayer of Healing and Prayer of Mending become ProH and ProM? I’m seeing this increasingly at PlusHeal, and it drives me nuts. Today, I found ProH on a priest blog! What the heck…?
Just so everyone understands, Prayer of Healing is correctly abbreviated PoH (or POH if you’re lazy and can’t be bothered to use the shift key appropriately). Similarly, Prayer of Mending is PoM (or Frisbee).
I mean, is there some other spell or ability that might be confused with either of these Priest spells, if they’re abbreviated correctly? And please don’t ply me with platitudes about “They’re acronyms, pronounced “prom” and “pro.” Horsefeathers. They aren’t either, and you know it. “Pee-oh-aitch” and “Pee-oh-em” are what normal people say (now you understand why Frisbee is preferred: two syllables instead of three).1
Are you trying to impress me with your supposedly more refined, more knowledgeable priestlyness? MORE horsefeathers. (For those of you who don’t understand “horsefeathers,” think “bullpucky.”) We are Priests, for Heaven’s sake: The single most comprehensively effective healing class in the game. We don’t need to put on airs. We don’t need to act all “holier than thou”—we ARE holier! I mean, I wear wings and a halo for crying out loud!
So why isn’t Circle of Healing, “CioH” in your lexicon? And do we now live in the UnSA? Or for my transatlantic readers, GrB or UnK? Get real, people!
So let’s just cut the crap, and stop wasting pixels and bytes with those extra letters, alright? Your readers will thank you, and you won’t have to keep an eye out for blue birds of prey circling overhead. If you get my drift…
Notes:
- The most wonderful Temerity Jane has also proclaimed, in BA Chat, “SHAZZAAAM” is a suitable substitute for PoH if you wish. ↩
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I prefer “frisbee” for Prayer of Mending, if only because I knew about Presence of Mind long before I ever knew about Prayer of Mending and PoM for the frisbee confuses the living shit out of me sometimes.
As for ProH… it just looks goofy. PoH or go home.
Stop last blogged about Stuff coming in a day or two..
Pretty sure Presence of Mind isn’t a Priest ability, either.
I dunno, Kestral. I think I might adopt PoWoShi now, something I honestly hadn’t thought of before reading this post
Khaeli last blogged about “Hey, can you switch to your off-spec?”: Tell Me When.
I agree with Khaeli. It’s fun to keep expanding this tendency. ProFo, ProSpi, HyoHo, DiHy…
But Khaeli, I don’t think your PoWoShi is quite pretentious enough. How about PoWo:Shi? You can pronounce the colon like a click.
I’ll just nod and agree. I’ve seen Circle of Healing as CoH and was always trying to figure out what that meant.
And your right. I”ve been really working hard to start eliminating the hunter related short hand on my own blog. And have noticed it’s much easier to read and understand.
/applauds
Brigwyn last blogged about 20 Questions with WoW Insider’s Mike Schramm.
I am SO adopting the pretentiousness of the newer naming so, as a Paladin, I can ask someone if they want Greater BLoW.
(Greater BloK and BloM aren’t as funny.)
Kimberly last blogged about Why she’ll never be Akromah the Noble.
I always knew you paladins had the good stuff. (Congrats for making me nearly spit coffee on my keyboard.)
Stop last blogged about Stuff coming in a day or two..
I’m with Stop: I started laughing out loud; trying to decide if I want to ask for Greater BloW tonight when we go up against Deconstructor (or whoever). Funny, funny stuff!!
Actually, with the double-stressors of Ulduar & mana regen changes, my Greater BloW business is better than ever!
Glad to give you a smile!
Kimberly last blogged about Why she’ll never be Akromah the Noble.
Well done Kim, well done.
omg… best idea ever…
/pat
We stick to PoH and and PoM in the guild… when writing. When speaking, we tend to say them full out.
Avonar last blogged about A talk with a friend.
Oh, me too, especially whenI see my fellow priests “doing it wrong”: “PRIESTS! Prayer of Healing NOW!” (A couple of them don’t quite understand how much better it is now.)
PoH is indeed very nice now, though I’ve noticed it seems to help to coordinate which priest is going to spam heal which group. We did this on XT-002 to good effect to help handle the tantrum.
Well, we often have the “luxury” of 1 priest per group…*sigh*.
BTW…your comment is not showing up for me, but it’s in my Dashboard. This is tres strange…
I only have one nit to pick with Kes right now. Its never alright… its always two words – all right. :p
I’ve not noticed an expanding abilities vocabulary, luckily, since I’m still the little hunter over here going, HVH? Okay… where is that again? Nexus.. um? Er… Naxx… its in the air… right?
I didn’t run many instances leveling up from 70 to 80. I only ran one regular prior to hitting 80, and that was something in Borean Tundra… I think?
Blame my guild, and the guild we are allied with… I keep saying “Not gea–” *dragged into heroic/Naxx/Malygos*
But apparently I’m doing well enough, or they wouldn’t keep doing this to me!
Tzia last blogged about Spec ‘Splosion.
Ahem…alright, according to my reference :p
Point taken, however. Personally, I would prefer some contextually-driven use, and I don’t care for “alright” in the context quoted in the cite above.
Nooo don’t let them change it, not now when I’ve finally managed to grasp what the old abbreviations mean /raise fist. But seriously, there’s no sensible reason to use more letters when most people understand what PoM, CoH and PoH mean. The abbreviations are meant to make things simple, not cause confusion. If I see anyone use the “new” ones, I’ll be sure to point out to them the wickedness of their ways.
Kel last blogged about A Noble Gesture.
Between my friends and I (those playing together for several+ years) we’ve always said “pee-oh-aych” and when PoM came out it was “pom”, just like the Mage “pom” but you knew what it meant in context. Oh and ever since someone typoed it years ago, Fort has been “frot”.
Awlbiste last blogged about Price of Admission.
“PoM” is copyrighted to the mage class, as an abbreviation for “Presence of Mind”, according to clause 4, paragraph 6 of “Because We Said So.”
Fine. No more Prayer of Mending for you. Just remember: Don’t AOE.
I know I’ve been abbreviating both of those spells ProH and ProM, for a while, ProM b/c of of Presence of Mind, and ProH just kind of followed suit.
Derevka last blogged about Kologarn Healing Tips.
And how often do you cast Presence of Mind?
*giggle*
This post wins two awards.
One for its usage of “bullpucky” as a synonym of “horsefeathers”. I have never seen someone actually put that in a blog post before, and since it’s a term that is near and dear to my heart, this post therefore wins teh internets for today.
And the second goes to the comment section for…
“Greater BloW”
Congrats on the epic win.
I wish hunters had something good to abbreviate.
Asara last blogged about Noble? Me? Pssh..
Lol people actually say the abbreviations out loud 0.o
When I read PoM I just think “presence of mind” in my head.
SS is read as Sinister Strike, not “sss” :p
The worst abbreviation I found is when players say GTG as “good to go”, when it has ALWAYS been “Got to go” as in “I’ve got to bail”. First time someone said that I got quite pissed until he told me he actually meant he was doing the raid, not bailing on us…
Launch Tree last blogged about Launch Tree Bonus
Actually, “GTG” as “good to go” has been around longer than you have.
And…you’ve been delinked.
I’ve only seen PoM as a reference to prayer of mending, but then again I’ve never played a mage. I would be very interested in reading said memo on abbreviations.
Kel last blogged about I’m changing the address of the blog.