<p>To be more specific, I regularly encounter acronyms which are either ambiguous (e.g. is LDA 'Linear Discriminant Analysis' or 'Latent Dirichlet Analysis'?) or rather obscure (either because of a specialized area or just an idiosyncratic use of terminology - and googling is often little help in either case).</p>

<p>Either ambiguity or obscurity can lead to answering a different question than intended, or significant delays in clarifying an answer.</p>

<p>I try to encourage people to spell things out on first use in a question (subsequent use of abbreviations is okay), but it often feels like I'm trying to close the stable door to the sound of hoofbeats fading over the hill.</p>

<p>On the other hand I don't want to stop people using really standard abbreviations, but I find it very hard to draw a line, which makes me lean toward almost always spelling it out.</p>

<p>What do people think? Is it sensible to have that in the help? Is this perhaps too minor an issue?</p>
