Those &*%$# combo names

Poirot

Poirot

Administrator
Staff member
Joined
Nov 23, 2006
Messages
38,824
Reaction score
182,931
I have never understood the fascination some folks have for using combo names, especially when many times it only saves 1 or 2 keystrokes, which is a nanosecond. And the reason for this post is.....I was on another site, attempting to read a thread which became gibberish, when evidently people were just putting together or making up names for 2 characters not even together, or anticipated to be together. Just helter-skelter. And honestly, I could not make sense of any of it...so when I say gibberish, I mean GIBBERISH.

Now, I know full well there are posters here who also post elsewhere, maybe just read, maybe are members. (I only read elsewhere) So please enlighten me. Is it really so hard to use two extra keys to spell out EJ & Sami. (EJ/Sami). Or EJ/Abby? Does it really take that much extra time? Does it not matter that others may not know who the blazes a poster is talking about when they make up some combination that no one ever heard of? Do not some attempts to combine names make the resulting combination sound ridiculous?

skate, safe, ape are 3 that come to mind quickly.

In real life, it is very irritating to see your name spelled wrong, pronounced wrong, at times getting your records lost somewhere. So why is it o.k. in reel life to do it?

So thank you to all of you who come here, understand and respect we don't use those here. We all, admiinistration and fellow posters, appreciate it. Thank you really, so very much.
 
Oh, Poirot, I'm with you ! By the way, I don't get the "ape" one... I figured "skate" is for Stefano and Kate, "safe" for Sami and Rafe, but "ape" ? No. :confused: Frankly, I find the combo names not only very hard to understand, but also a little babyish. No offense, though, just my opinion.

Anyway, I think I'm even less understanding than you are, Poirot, or more strict if you prefer. Not only do I don't understand combo names, I also have trouble with words wrongfully used (again, in my opinion). For instance, the word "ridiculous", which appears to be used now to describe something that's amazing or beautiful. I just don't get that. If it's amazing, or beautiful, it is not ridiculous !

Lastly, and I don't know if this happens in English, but here, some French Canadians kids I know have started using abbreviations while speaking. The one that comes to mind is LOL (we use the same abbreviation even in French, it's still LOL). I know it means "laughing out loud". So instead of just plain laughing when some kids find something funny, they say : "LOL". Now this, is ridiculous !
 
I completely agree, Poirot. I post on another board and I am the only one who doesn't use combo names. Trying to figure out who people are talking about sometimes takes up too much time for me to bother. I also was finding myself very confused during the past month because some people are either too used to Twitter character limits or just plain lazy and were typing Nic instead of Nicole, and I kept thinking they were talking about the late Nick Fallon.

I am SO glad we don't use combo names on this board. I can actually follow the conversation.

[Edited to add: @TheWriter, I've heard people putting abbreviations in their speech here too. I had an ex girlfriend who would say, "BRB" if she had to leave the room. At the time I thought it was cute. Now not so much.]
 
You just proved a point....did not know what the heck ape meant. I am not sure myself, honestly, I saw it.... (tho I did come up with something, I just don't want to help anyone use such a stupid name elsewhere. )

Now what the heck is wrong with laughter? Seems kids are spending too much time texting...just as some adults do. I really resent the characters on Days walking around, eyes and fingers glued to their phones, bumping into people benches, trees, etc. Maybe Days could do a public service message within the show and NOT show people doing that.

And yes, I spell out words when I tweet (via computer) and I will spend time figuring how to reduce what I want to say if too many letters. Have not failed yet! It CAN be done.
 
The ones that got me was Philip/Stephanie and Philip/Melanie because
the last of the female names were the same.

EJ/Sami reminds me of EJ in PJs for some reason.

Hope/Aiden is odd. I thought they were spelling Aiden with an "H"
in front until I realized what they were doing.
 
The same can be said for abbreviations such as "thru, tho, cuz, info..." It's either laziness or stupidity. Grammar has gone to heck in this country, too. Every time I hear someone say, "Myself and her went to...." it's like fingernails on a chalkboard. Many people also think "alot" is a word. ::SHUDDER::
 
:OT:Kathy when I was getting my MFA, I taught freshman English. I will never forget the student who emailed me to say, "I'm sry I wasnt in class. I hope u understand." I was shocked anyone would write that way to any teacher, let alone an English teacher. And that was many years ago, so I imagine it has only gotten worse.:back:
 
@HeroicMuse - oh it has, it has, it has....

I avoid combo names like the plague EXCEPT when I tweet, because you can't use a hashtag (#) with a slash (/). However I too feel that the combo names are too un-creative and often just lazy. I usually try to be more clever (I never would have used "Ape" and I have a disparaging name for that couple). But it drives me bananas on other boards (one of the main reasons I use Spectator mainly now). With twitter you can usually figure out the meaning by searching for the hashtag or looking at the time of tweets. Not so with other boards.

I was also a person who hated abbreviations, underspellings, etc., until I found them necessary with twitter's 140-character limit. BUT I always spell things out correctly, I even use my Oxford comma, UNLESS I have to shorten my tweet. :)
 
I have another perspective on this so please nobody shoot me. :) I'm wondering if the origin of these combo names was twitter. There is a 140 character limit for a tweet so in the case of EJ/Sami (EJami) or EJ/Abby (EJabby), the extra character really doesn't matter. However, in the case of Sami/Rafe (Safe) or Brady/Kristen (Bristen), the combo name can be very useful in getting the point of your tweet across. The combos are straightforward and make sense. So, perhaps the combo names just carried over to message boards from twitter.

I'll admit this is the first I'm hearing of "Ape" in reference to Hope and Aiden. On twitter, I've seen them referred to as "Haiden" and if I need to tweet about them, that is what I shall use!

On another note, I do wish that bloggers and soap media would not use combo names. It comes across as extremely biased when they use a combo name for Sami and EJ and then don't use one for Sami and another of her guys.
 
Uh oh Heather ... you asked for it...
bang maggie.gif

Believe me, sometimes one character makes a big difference!!! And I agree, soap JOURNALISTS should NOT use combination names. TACKY. But I think they, in fact, are the origin of these combo names, and not twitter...it just works there because of the hashtag functionality (searching, etc.).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top