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   clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:23:59 JST clacke

   People on here and on other networks often use CDN to refer to Canada, which I have found confusing. People use it for e.g. hashtags like #'cdnpol or #'cdnmedia .

   I finally looked it up and according to a random commenter on a page[0] on The Guardian's website and according to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internat… (marked "citation needed") it's for the Canadian DominioN.

   In the Olympics, Canada is CAN.
   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_…

   The ISO alpha-3 code is also CAN.
   en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166…

   So it seems it's really just the car sticker thing that got this peculiar abbreviation. And now social media.

   [0] theguardian.com/notesandquerie…

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:24:23 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Graydon

     @graydon But do you think anyone would come up with the idea of abbreviating "Canadian" CDN, if it wasn't already a letter combination they'd been exposed to their whole life? Sounds to me like the CDN existed first and then people came up with a meaning to match.

     No other country writes an abbreviated adjective/possessive for their country in their hashtags, it's just ukpol, uspol, sepol, hkpol, fipol, etc.

   • Embed this notice
     Graydon (graydon@canada.masto.host)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:24:24 JST Graydon

     in reply to

     @clacke sometimes CDN is "Canadian", the adjective.

     Both your example hashtags expand that way; "Canadian politics", "Canadian media".

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:24:32 JST clacke

     in reply to
     Now that I've done a bit of a search and post, maybe I'll more easily read CDN as Canada next time instead of being initially confused and wondering what kind of topic "content delivery network media" is supposed to be.
   • Embed this notice
     Graydon (graydon@canada.masto.host)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:26:25 JST Graydon

     in reply to

     @clacke > No other country writes an abbreviated adjective/possessive for their country in their hashtags, it's just ukpol, uspol, sepol, hkpol, fipol, etc.

     Nobody else uses the heraldic proportions we use on our flag on their flag, either. Things sometimes come out different.

     clacke likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:26:26 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Graydon
     @graydon Fair enough. 😊
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     LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:34:53 JST LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

     in reply to

     • Bob Jonkman
     @clacke I've usually seen "CDN" in one of two contexts: Money, as in "Tim Horton's pays its employees CDN$4.50 per hour"; or hashtags, as in "#CDNPol" ... But you're right that it makes things confusing.
     
     How does one know which abbreviation to use in which context. Maybe we should just use "FZN" for "Frozen Northland". (I'm joking.)
     
     CC: @bobjonkman
     Bob Jonkman repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864} (lnxw48a1@nu.federati.net)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 16:36:15 JST LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}

     in reply to

     • LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
     By the way, if you're a lawyer for Tim Horton's, I don't have any idea how much they really pay their employees. Don't bother sending threatening letters. It was just a made-up example.
   • Embed this notice
     Bob Jonkman (bobjonkman@gs.jonkman.ca)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 18:36:47 JST Bob Jonkman

     in reply to

     • LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
     Oh, now you're just confusing things even more. I was going to reply to @clacke's original post that I've seen both CDNpoli and slightly fewer CANpoli hashtags (I subscribe to both), as well as CNDpoli -- probably for "Canada Poli".
     
     But now @lnxw48a1 pops in with *currency* abbreviations, and that's properly represented as $4.50CAD (maybe "CAnadian Dollar"?)
     
     So should there also be a CADpoli?
     
     --Bob.
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 23:42:53 JST clacke

     in reply to

     @lnxw48a1 @bobjonkman When I write about different currencies, I never use the strange $nnn format, much less e.g. HK$nnn, it never made sense to me.

     Keep it as a local convention when it's obvious which $, fine, same with "nnn kr" for Swedish crowns, but in international comparisons, I wish everyone could treat currencies as normal units and use the international symbols, like 100 USD = 780 HKD = 100 EUR = 1000 SEK, instead of US$100 = HK$780 = 100 EUR = 1000 kr.

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 23:43:07 JST clacke

     in reply to
     @bobjonkman @lnxw48a1 perhaps cadpol if it's about monetary policy. 😊
   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 23:44:00 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Zeb King 🇨🇦

     @ZebKing I wasn't asking so much as observing. 😊

     I think people using cdn rather than can as a prefix on Fedi are a pretty large majority. Adapting cdn based on that seems rational to me, the point is connecting, not to pick the "best" symbol according to whatever standard.

     But maybe that's because I'm Swedish. 😄

   • Embed this notice
     Zeb King 🇨🇦 (zebking@mastodon.online)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 23:44:01 JST Zeb King 🇨🇦

     in reply to

     @clacke I appreciate your question about CAN vs CDN. I was using the former (CAN), & prefer it, but noticed more people were using the latter(🚫🪜), so I fell in line. That's not a great reason, to be honest, but the name of the game is to reach eyeballs, so 🤷🏽.
     But maybe you've identified a Canadian phenomenon. If one Canadian is doing a thing because everyone else seems to & ya don't need to be rude & all, maybe nobody thought to stop & ask why. Asking might provoke a révolution tranquille.

   • Embed this notice
     clacke (clacke@libranet.de)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 23:44:20 JST clacke

     in reply to

     • Zeb King 🇨🇦
     @ZebKing Are you saying "I was confused that you would be US American and also sensible but now I get it"? 🤣
   • Embed this notice
     Zeb King 🇨🇦 (zebking@mastodon.online)'s status on Friday, 23-Feb-2024 23:44:21 JST Zeb King 🇨🇦

     in reply to

     @clacke Ah! I was thinking you were 🇺🇸 up until you walked back the revolution 🫵. Now that you're talking "efficient" design and "practicality" it makes sense.