The Tourism Federation of Wisconsin (TFW), formerly known as the Wisconsin Tourism Federation (WTF) has changed its name for obvious reasons:
The folks at the Wisconsin Tourism Federation, a 30-year-old tourism lobbying coalition based in Sun Prairie, couldn’t possibly have predicted how the Internet would change the lingo.
While its abbreviation, WTF, was fairly innocuous a few decades ago, it means something entirely different these days.
- Before and after
Chris Matyszczyk over at Cnet adds:
They created their name 30 years ago, when the Web was not even a thought in the mind’s eye of an engineering spider. I mean it’s not as if the acronym said SLUT, is it? You’re not familiar with SLUT? Ah, that would be the South Lake Union Trolley in Seattle.
Now, to the creators of the SLUT, I mean, WTF?
h/t: Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel and Cnet.
Did they also change from a tourism to a trade federation?
I love the fact that the coffee shop that now sells those SLUT shirts has a big banner advertising their “S.L.U. Trolley” t-shirts:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/csb13/39619…
“Trade” also implies something different than it did decades ago. You mean “Tourism.”
HA! it’s not actually the South Lake Union Trolley. WTF!
@3 You’re right! I have corrected.
@4 not anymore…
Also, I believe it is now the “Tourism Federation of Wisconsin,” not the “Wisconsin Federation of Tourism (WFT).” C’mon, read the dang source.
Splitters!
Why the Face?
They could have just embraced the lingo and gone for a positive spin with Federation for Tourism of Wisconsin.
They should have renamed it the Federation for Tourism in Wisconsin (FTW).
*facepalm*
@9’s “FTW” FTW.
I think we’ve now covered all the possible permutations, but your lead sentence is still wrong, Grant.
and I’m hoping that the First Hill Streetcar goes by: First Hill Urban Connector (F.H.U.C.) since that will go perfect with the S.L.U.T.
I rather think SLUT was an intentional choice, meant to draw attention.
I was in need of lunch.
Pacific Northwesterners are well known to be bad at naming things. Think about it when you go by SE 168th Pl. in Everett just prior to crossing NW 248th Dr. in Shoreline. Very unoriginal.
Also: “Washington” State. WTF? What is so George Washington about it actually?
Not to mention “Pacific” Northwest. Like, there’s an “Atlantic North East” part of the USA? A “Pacific Southwest”? Is this to distinguish it from the “Atlantic North West”?
then we have the overuse of salmon this and orca that. One Regional Card for All….oh really, like it doesn’t mean a whale? it’s a triple entendre? Up in Anacortes they have come up with Oly the Orca as their symbol, muddling it up with the state capitol, which they seem unaware of. Or does that Orca drink beer?
LOL
This is too fucked for words.
there’s actually a blog that collects all these called Acronyms Sometimes Suck. http://www.unfortunateacronyms.com. the best is port townsend school district. doh!
@8
And the fucking Judean People’s Front!
making this even funnier is the prospect of luring tourists to the (beautiful, if boring) state of Wisconsin.
Sun Prairie Wisconsin is a mere stone’s throw from Kenosha, home of the Bong Recreation Area.
BFD @23, the Bong bridge is in WI, too. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimfrazier/…
I have to admit for a short while, I thought the internet acronym FTW meant fuck the world. It made the internet a confusing space for a week or so.
@25 Before the inter-tubes, that’s exactly what FTW meant. Threw me for a while. too. I couldn’t figure out why such a pleasantly deluded fellow like Will in Seattle was telling people to fuck the world.
i learned a new one last night – i had a real beavis and butt-head experience up at my kids’ school! it turns out there’s an org called PNAIS … pacific northwest association of independent schools. rad.
@27
There’s a respected scientific journal named Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. I always made sure to cite them as much as possible in my research.