Pedantic nit:

Those are initialisms. An initialism is when the individual letters are individually pronounced, like "emm-bee-ess."

An acronym is when the initial letters are pronounced as a word, e.g. SOAR ("Situation Options Act Review-and-Reassess")

The broader sense of acronym—the meaning of which includes terms pronounced as letters—is sometimes criticized, but it is the term's original meaning[1] and is in common use.Dictionary and style-guide editors are not in universal agreement on the naming for such abbreviations, and it is a matter of some dispute whether the term acronym can be legitimately applied to abbreviations which are not pronounced "as words", nor do these language authorities agree on the correct use of spacing, casing, and punctuation.

[1] https://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/1844;jsessioni...).

If there's one thing I really dislike about HN culture, it's the consistent derailing of a thread to "um, actually" someone on a semantics distinction that literally nobody has ever been confused by, or to shoehorn in new terminology that doesn't improve communication in any way.

Agreed

I enjoyed reading the diversion. I don't think it derailed anything, except perhaps for your reply.

> literally nobody has ever been confused by

um, actually...

Some of the most interesting things I've read have been digressions from the main point. Your observation is a case in point: We're now talking about HN culture instead of wild times in the crypto economy. Is this a derailment? Or a digression?

It all depends upon whether people perceive it to be something that "gratifies one's intellectual curiosity," a line right from the guidelines. In your case, the difference between initialisms and acronyms (if any, see another reply) does not, and I accept that. Sorry!

Also AOC, MLK, FDR, and JFK!

With the exception that people like MBS, MBZ, AOC, etc. are objectively much more well known.