A) The meaning of “Axe grinding” might not be apparent to people of other cultures whose primary language might not be English, and
B) My first and only language is English (although limited by the Southern dialect and attendant cultural oddities), and I’ve never heard of “grieving” in the context of a message board . Even after the explanation I still don’t know what it means.
Edit: It has been pointed out that the term is “griefing,” not “grieving.” Apologies. I still don’t know what it means.
One of the actions referred to in the guidelines is “Reply as linked topic”. This is an excellent way to start a new thread/conversation linking back to an existing post, rather than taking the existing thread off topic.
Trouble is that this action it is quite hidden away. Instead of appearing as an option in the link icon it is an option under the reply icon in the editor as per the screenshot below:
Point A) is a great one. We Americans can forget that aspects of American English might not make sense to, or be understood by other cultures, nationalities, etc. and, an old person like me doesn’t always understand all of the modern jargon. I never heard the term “griefing” before, and had to look it up. Thank God for Urban Dictionary, in one of the other categories, it took me a while to find out RBCD meant Red Book Compact Disc. So, I agree that it might be thoughtful to remember what we write is being read by many groups from all over the world.
One site said it came from the gaming world. I have no idea if correct or not. While computer savvy, I’m not buzzword and acronym savvy. And being someone who was born in, and grew up in the Mid-Atlantic region of the US, if I don’t know the meaning, I’m sure many not born here, or of different cultures, would not know what it means, either
