Forum what is op

Does OP mean the original post or poster? Physics Forums, posted January 3, What does OP mean? Meta Stack Exchange, posted September 10, Noob Question: What does OP mean? World of Warcraft Forums, posted September 15, League of Legends Forum, posted January 3, The Straight Dope, posted December 12, If you examine these various discussions, you'll see that, typically, someone will say that OP stands for original poster , and then someone else will say that it stands for original post , and then someone else will say that it can be used to mean either thing, and then someone else will suggest that it stands for something off the wall like Otto Preminger or Opossum Party.

OP In online forums, short for original poster who started a thread or original post the message that started it. I'm not really sure who is qualified to say that one use or another of this abbreviation is "correct" or "incorrect". But I have certainly used "OP" to stand for "original post" instead of "original poster". The Oxford Dictionaries entry for "OP" gives this as a possible meaning:.

When it's ambiguous, the writer may be thinking of the post or the poster. They may fail to specify which for a variety of reasons, ranging from believing that the definition normally refers to the one that they intend to simply not caring to specify.

However, others mean " OP " abstractly as " the original source of the content ". They're not actually referring to either the post or the poster specifically, so we can't say that their usage of " OP " maps to one over the other. The distinction between this abstraction and ambiguity is the presence-or-absence of referential transparency.

For example, " laugh out loud " may be the etymology of " LOL" , but " LOL " isn't an acronym for it, such that substituting one for the other would change the meaning of a text. Likewise, " OP " may have an ambiguous etymology and often refer to either the post or the poster in some cases, but there's also a separate definition distinct from these. It'd be most precise to say that this separate definition is distinct from either of its etymologies, much like " LOL " is distinct from " laugh out loud ".

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It's easy! Already have an account? Sign in here. By LauraS Started October 12, Need Help Using the Forums? What does 'OP' mean in a forum? October 19, Log In Issues. Share More sharing options Followers 1. Recommended Posts. MrsTravelBug Posted November 3, Posted November 3, I have seen the abbreviation OP used in forums.

Can anyone tell me what it means? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options