Have to say AUA would be a good looking abbreviation…
My experience and usage has been it means Classic Mac Pro.
I’ve used Apple computers since the company was called Apple Computer, my first being a II+ and my latest a MacMini & MacBook Pro, with many, many other models of virtually every iteration in between.
I had never come across that cMP semi-capitalism in what amounts to about 50 years. - Astonishing, eh? What’s more, so many are arguing about it, which tends to support the contention for avoidance or at least clarification in full before subsequent use.
The difference of opinion about what that cMP means is surely evidence of the problem with such usage, isn’t it?
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Someone once joked that the final part of a communications engineering degree was to invent 3 new acronyms. I remember at one stage there was CDMA code division multiple access which is used for mobile phones. There was already a CDMA collision detection multiple access, which is what Ethernet uses, so it became CSMA/CD Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection.
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That is a new one on me as well…and I’ve been using Apple products since 76 and Macs since about 80.
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Glad to know I’m not alone, Neil.
I tend to think that many of these short forms are not in general use but simply an invention of an individual which is then copied by others in a small group or people following and contributing to discussions on the same topic. It’s reasonably understandable, I think, (despite that I don’t particularly like it), in an age of text, short attention spans, and the general tendency to shorten almost everything.
So, I doubt it will stop and perhaps, we’ll all even end up speaking ‘text’ type language as is common on the mobile phone.
I find it ironic, in a way, because in my youth, telegrams were the only relatively affordable - though still expensive - way for most of us, even many professionals, to send information quickly to overseas destinations. As I’m sure you are aware, they were charged by the word (or letter? I forget) so one had to go to some trouble to keep the wordage brief. - Many memories!
The usage of cMP for Classic Mac Pro dates back to around 2013 (after the release of the 2013 MacPro) on many sites including MacRumors, Reddit, Apple Discussions, and more.
As an owner of a MacPro5,1 I have visited these sites often and am familiar with the abbreviation. However, I can understand others not recognizing its meaning.
So, yes, I support minimizing the use of abbreviations.