Show HN: An NSFW Tumblr Search

by haxterstockman • 13 years ago

45 15 13 years ago

geuis3• 13 years ago

Sorry, just a minor nitpick. Should be "A NSFW Tumblr Search".

YokoZar• 13 years ago

Depends how you pronounce it. An comes before vowel sounds, like the E in "en", while A comes before consonant sounds, like the N in "no".

I'm curious, then, how you pronounce NSFW -- "nnnsfwa?"

geuis3• 13 years ago

I read it as "Not safe for work". For other acronyms, I read them like they spell eg C-I-A or F-B-I. I always lose this fight because people can point to "official English usage" documentation. Its just that to my ears (and internal voice) saying "an N..." vs "a N..." sounds wrong. You're adding an extra "n" sound, so that when its spoken you say something like "aaaahhhnnnnnnnnn" with no break there's a loss of distinction in what's being said. Saying "A NSFW tag" where the letters are pronounced individually forces the distinction audibly.

mpyne• 13 years ago

It may be mental baggage from my previous career in submarines (where "symbol speaking" was highly frowned about), but I simply say it out: Not Safe For Work, instead of En-Ess-Eff-Doubleyou. In that context it would be (for me) A NSFW ..., but it seems the right answer is in the eye of the beholder. :)

dbaupp• 13 years ago

It depends if one says An en-ess-eff-double-U ..., or A not-safe-for-work ..., or A nsfw ....

mwc• 13 years ago

I say "not-safe-for-work".

siddboots2• 13 years ago

... if one says An en-ess-eff-double-U

Once you get up to the double-u, you start to feel like you are wasting your time.

KingdomSprite• 13 years ago

The use of "a" and "an" depend on the sound the word after it begins with. Since the "N" in NSFW is pronounced "en", it should be "an".

Source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/540/01/

jeremysmyth• 13 years ago

Nice link, but it's incomplete.

You also need to cater for acronyms that are usually pronounced as words (a RADIUS setup, not an RADIUS setup), and acronyms that have an accepted pronunciation that isn't simply reading out the letters (a SQL statement, not an SQL statement; although that last depends on style guides and local convention, both Oracle and Microsoft prefer the "sequel" pronunciation to "ess-que-ell").

it_learnses• 13 years ago

No, it's An NSFW.

gsands• 13 years ago

drop the A/An.. it's cleaner.

oftenwrong• 13 years ago

Semi-related, a simple porn site that pulls gifs from tumblr:

http://theworstdrug.com/

gee_totes• 13 years ago

How does it work? Does it just pull from the tumblr API using a list of blogs? Can it spider out and find new adult tumblrs now that they are de-listed?

Show HN: An NSFW Tumblr Search

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