When does acronym need expansion and when it is considered tautology?

Question

This closely relates to these posts

1. Acronym expantion
2. Inbound BGP load-balancing from same ISP router

It would seem tedious to always expand BGP or LAN, I think we can reasonably assume people on this site know what they are, but maybe I'm biased, maybe even BGP is not clear, but if BGP isn't clear, then probably that person cannot answer to the question anyhow?

Can we figure out best practice when acronym should be expanded and when it can be left out?

It would be quite nice if all-capital would expand to matching tag automatically with hover-text.

If tag exists, can we assume that it is well-known meaning for that acronym in this community and can be omitted (user can always look it up in tag wiki)?

Answer 1

I agree. Worst case scenario, if you don't know what BGP or LAN stand for, just Google them. At this point the people in our community should know these basics, and if not, know how to look them up.

Answer 2

This is just one of those things has to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

Tags should be named for clarity. Use whatever will be easily understood by those looking for your posts. If the acronym has become largely ubiquitous in your community, use the acronym. But if the acronym remains somewhat esoteric, expand it out… as long as you're not expand acronyms to the point of absurdity.

In either case, Tag wiki excerpts can be helpful to users trying to figure out when to use the tag.