This is pretty close to how I did it.
The “one or the other” thing is a fallacy. You have just one, but they’re clearly happy installing stuff like WA - so tell them to install another app. It’s not like they have to switch.
If they subsequently come to realise the value of Signal in time, all the better.
Possibly, on both counts. I know the Guardian and BBC News style guides use that convention.
Yet there’s this regarding the AP Style Guide:
https://grammarmill.com/ap-style-rule-for-acronyms/
It mentions odd rules like “if an acronym is longer than 5 characters” and such.
Either way, my money’s on an internal style guide that Microsoft (in OP’s example) requires its staff to use.
Me too.
People learn from reading that kind of thing. Aside from it being unnecessary and confusing, there’s going to be a percentage of people who’ll think “Ascii” (or whatever) is a name rather than an abbreviation.
They probably have a style guide, as most media outlets do, that says pronounceable acronyms/initialisms are to be written like a name and the rest as everyone expects.
So you get Ascii, Unix and Nasa alongside IBM and PCMCIA.
The core of what you’re saying has been my approach for many years. Never go “all in” on anything.
Convenience is one thing (to me, but it’s everything to so many), but it’s just one factor. And if it means I am (or my data is) the product, it costs too much.
I think you’ve misunderstood few things in my reply. I’ll clarify…
First, I meant the person with multiple IM clients will be the one who “doesn’t see the problem” with WhatsApp (or whatever). The person moving to Signal just has Signal.
Second, I wasn’t saying you used a fallacy. I was pointing out that when someone thinks of using (or are recommended to use) another IM client, they almost always think they have to uninstall what they’re currently using. (It is more accurate to call it a false dichotomy.) It’s a mystery to me why people think this way about IM clients, as many of us have multiple browsers installed, for example.
Third, my reply was about those you communicate with online, not you. Nothing in my reply was directed at you. 😊