Spoil sport - 'rule #1' is define acronyms at first use - or a great deal of time is wasted on 'ass-u-me'.

Sorry, I guess I'm too impatient (in some ways). (And sympathetic to people who's first language doesn't appear to be English, or just don't know how to ask questions.)

Thinking out loud, it might be nice for CR4 to have a very visible link titled something like: "Advice if you're a first time poster here."

(Maybe they have one, either I forgot, or it is not visible enough. ;-)

I'm usually quite sympathetic to ESL posters. Don't even mind the text crowd. But it wears a little thin when acronyms are used for key terms and/or a specific field, or application is unclear.

As it is it can take 30 posts to find out what they really need solved - this needlessly prolongs that 'time drain'.

Also it seems to me, many times they may not know what the acronym actually means, as if they did type it out in full - into google - they'd find the information in less time that writing the post.

True, and Admin could add a "first time poster advice" link, in this window, to a paragraph on the "rules" page. There's space. Could be two birds with one link.

All very appropriate, but OP shows 46 posts to his avatar, so certainly not a first timer. But I like your "baa", very sheepish ("bad acronym alert")....

"... have a very visible link titled something like: "Advice if you're a first time poster here."

Just below the name of the user is (Number of) "Posts:". If it says 1, this is almost certainly the first post from the user.

There are a number of CR4 members, 2-3 years, with several hundred posts who are ESL users, and they still have a tough time asking a cogent question (this due to the language barrier). These users, as well as the new members, get harassed because of incorrect or poor sentence structure. Sad, this.

Re: There are a number of CR4 members, 2-3 years, with several hundred posts who are ESL users, and they still have a tough time asking a cogent question (this due to the language barrier).

I guess that note could go on to say something like: "Feel free to review these notes (for first time users) often, especially if you are not a native English speaker.

Re: These users, as well as the new members, get harassed because of incorrect or poor sentence structure. Sad, this.

Yes.

Well, I guess we could...

Like 34.5, I do not worry too much about an ESL poster and their sentence construction. English is a difficult language. Were this a Spanish or German language forum, I might post once in a while. Any language other than these three, and I would not have a chance.

As long as I can get the gist of the question, I just go with it.