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Comment by excitom | Hacker News Reader

I dislike www since it is the world's worst acronym, having three times as many syllables as the words it replaces.

In Denmark we usually say V-V-V when we spell it out. Confusing? Defenitely yes. But we also call a BMW a BMV and a WC is just a VC.

Same here in Turkey. Most people just say vvv.

We don't have a "w" in our alphabet, and a name for it though.. That might be the reason.

Most people I know in Turkey says double-v, including my father who can't even Google properly.

We do say BMV though. And I've heard may people saying "v", but most? I'm now sure. I could be living in a bubble.

it's maybe BMW is a german car company and people didn't hear it from english speakers first?

That's because BMW is a German company and "W" is pronounced "V" in German.

Suddenly, I imagine "venture capital" takes on a humorous glint in Denmark.

That's not really a problem, since in Denmark people speak Danish and "venture capital" is not a Danish word, so people aren't saying it, nor writing abbreviations of it intermixed with other Danish language.

> That's not really a problem, since in Denmark people speak Danish and "venture capital" is not a Danish word, so people aren't saying it, nor writing abbreviations of it intermixed with other Danish language.

Don't be dense. I wasn't suggesting anything of the sort.

The point of my comment was one of humor (apparently that's verboten?), and therefore the intent was that a Danish person who also knows English may have something of a chuckle when they see abbreviations of it in English as a direct result of the OP's comment.

Further, since I assume "VC" comes from the Danish word(s) for "water closet," it's fairly reasonable to believe that a faint glint of humor crosses the mind of Danish people when they read such English abbreviations assuming they know English.

Humor loses its value when it must be explained.

Curious. Were the downvotes for "off topic" comments or is josteink abusing his accumulated karma to downvote comments he doesn't like?

I'm quite an amenable person and would like to know precisely what it is I'm doing wrong here.

I haven't done any voting myself (but thanks for naturally assuming), but if I would venture a guess, it would be that your reply was considered off topic and that it added nothing to the discussion.

Fair enough, and I apologize for making such an outrageous assumption. In fairness, I think I may have misread the tone of your original post and was a little miffed. (Not appropriate, but we all make mistakes--mine are just more regular than they ought to be.)

I do appreciate the subtle tongue-in-cheek reference, though (I chuckled). +1.

That's why, at least in the UK, we use "dub dub dub".

Do we? The most common time-saving pronunciation I have heard simply uses the initial 'w' sounds from the three words, and therefore has three syllables.

I've heard that but primarily with inexperienced users.

I just looked at the Wikipedia page for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_%22www%22 and have never seen so much unsourced drivel in my life. For the record, I have been pronouncing it the way I described in the GP comment for the last twenty plus years, so that's some sort of data point.

Well its Wikipedia. What do you expect. And as for me, it's purely an anecdote. I think it depends on where you are and who you know.

Citation needed.

err, no we don't, sorry!

Around my workplace we say "dub dub dub", or I do, at least. I think originally I picked it up from a Matt Cutts video on the Google Webmaster Central YouTube channel.

I go for "wuh wuh wuh" myself. "dub dub dub" reminds me of scouts, even though I never was one...

From the US, and I also use "dub dub dub" (picked it up from my networking professor…), I've also used "hup-ta" to refer to "http://". ("hup-tis" is https://) It sounds ridiculous, but it flows a lot better than "ache tee tee pee colon slash slash".

(my co-workers understand this, and I think it's growing on a few. One still resists.)

We use "dub dub dub" at work, though typically not when speaking the full name of the url. That may sound weird, so here's an example exchange:

"Go to foobar.com"

"It's not working"

"Try with dub dub dub"

As an aside, it's so painful to listen to radio commercials from advertising agencies that thought it was a good idea to include "www" in the script. "Just go to double-yew double-yew double-yew..."

When saying your domain name aloud, you never have to say www if your naked domain automatically redirects to your www. subdomain. Most of the time when people say it, it's completely unnecessary. I suppose you could use another subdomain to fulfill the same purpose of 'www' but 'www' is such a common convention that you would then probably need to redirect your users from www to whatever other subdomain you use.

I've liked to saw 'wa' (pronounced like わ/ワ) since the '90s but I've never used it in serious conversation.

Less talk, more type.

It's not a U, it's not even a vowel, and if it's anything double, it's a double V. Half of it certainly does not look like a U.

Half of it certainly does not look like a U

That depends on your handwriting and/or typeface.

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