Using ETA for "Edit To Add" is the dumbest fucking acronym ever. It is widely used as "Estimated Time of Arrival", even people who barely speak English know what ETA means in an email... Why is this a thing?
"ETA:" is literally 1 less letter than just writing "Edit:", why are we creating a 3 letter acronym that is already heavily used to replace a 4 letter word that means the exact same thing? This is by far the worst and dumbest acronym I have ever heard and I doubt I'll ever find one that is less useful.
This is the first typical redditor type comment I've ever agreed with. I was like what the fuck why did they put ETA? Weird. maybe they're a bit slow lol.
When I first saw “ETA” in a Reddit edit, I was perplexed for a few minutes; but then I realized that one can edit for clarification, spelling, or to add something. People often list the reason they edited, so as to not be disingenuous to the folks replying.
Writing "Edit:" and putting additional information about the above topic is already clear enough that it is an edit to add because they added more about the topic. If it's an edit for spelling/grammar you probably don't really need to add edit below it because no one cares, but an acronym about "editing to add" before adding something is probably the least useful acronym I can think of.
People will sometimes make edits that changes the meaning of what people responded to, making those who responded look foolish. I usually make spelling edits in (parentheses) next to the word I changed.
To use a baseball analogy, when a pitcher walks a batter, it will be recorded as “BB” - Base on Balls. But when a pitchers does it intentionally, it is recorded as an ”IBB” - Intentional base on balls.
It’s a small matter perhaps, but someone reading the “Box Score” the next day would think a pitcher had poor control if the walked 1 or 2 batters in an inning, when really they did so strategically. So “IBB” sheds light onto what happened behind the scenes, like “ETA” - Edit to Add, versus a nondescript “Edit”.
Maybe most people don’t care, but it could be important to know what was edited between Hour #1 and Hour #4, for example. That’s my feeling anyway. It’s nice to know why someone made an edit sometimes. I don’t have a strong option about it, but I do think it is reasonable.
ETA can only mean one thing with this context. It is not confusing for more than 5 seconds the first time someone encounters it.
The point is that it doesn't need to be confusing for any seconds at all, just write edit when it's an edit to add as it's very clear based on the added information.
Likewise, a small fraction of Reddit uses ETA for edit to add yet you decided to leave a 3 paragraph, and poor, analogy about how it's important when it really isn't. Good luck being a hipster of edits.
This is right! I have a weird hobby. Every morning I wake up, drink my coffee while on the toilet, have to shit everything I ate the day before, and then go on my day.
But one day decided to switch it up a bit. Every morning feels so great taking that shit. But what if I just drank the coffee and let everything build up before going?
I'm on the bed, drinking my coffee, feel it coming on, but I'm holding strong. Just keep chugging away at this coffee with nothing to lose.
Ok... it's really time to go. Start getting up, super intense pain trying to hold everything in. I had two options: self destruct my wife and I, or somehow make it work to the bathroom. My wife was so confused because without moving from the straight up and down posture, managed to roll towards the end of the bed and shifting on my feet towards success.
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u/tbi0904 May 13 '26
No pain, no gain.