A Reddit user from Singapore said they lost a friend and got “destroyed” in a group chat after using what they thought was a harmless abbreviation that ended up painting them in a very bad light.
In a June 23 post in the subreddit r/tifu — which stands for “Today, I f*cked up” — user NotFromYoutube recalled a friend posting a meal of dumplings and a bowl of soup on her Instagram Stories.
NotFromYouTube pointed out that it is common in Singapore to abbreviate many words. Chinese hot pot chain Haidilao, for instance, is more conveniently referred to as “HDL,” while American fast food giant McDonald’s is typically called “Macs.”
Seeing the food’s “nice quality,” NotFromYouTube said they tried to guess where their friend was eating. But the three letters they used — DTF, for Taiwanese-origin restaurant chain Din Tai Fung — would quickly trigger a “sh*t storm” that saw them defending themself hopelessly against a barrage of accusations.
“It was common to call restaurants by their abbreviations,” the Redditor wrote. “So with that, I sent her ‘DTF?’”
“I meant Din Tai Fung, which is a nice dumpling place. I replied to IG Stories very quickly and sent it without a second thought.”
More commonly, DTF also stands for “Down to f*ck.” Days later, NotFromYouTube said they were added to a group chat that included friends of their friend, who allegedly asked them first and foremost, “Do you know why you are here?”
When the user said they did not know why, the attacks allegedly began to pour in.
“Then came the sh*t storm of four people absolutely destroying me, calling me a douchebag who thinks he can just hit up [an] old friend no biggy, like they are always down to f*ck,” they recalled. “I told them my DTF meant Din Tai Fung but they thought I was trying to lie my way out. I kept trying to convince them, showing them why I sent DTF.”
But their attempt to explain was “going nowhere,” NotFromYouTube said. They also lost their friend as a result of the alleged blunder.
“I couldn’t find any way to back myself up because the only message was DTF and nothing else. Eventually they stopped and kicked me out of the groupchat.”
“They are probably off somewhere still talking sh*t while I just lost a good friend of mine all because of a f*cking abbreviation.”
As with many Reddit posts, some users questioned whether the incident actually happened. But many others expressed support for the poster, who may truly have been ostracized for a simple miscommunication.
“The fact that they organized a cabal over ‘DTF?’ on a food post rather than laughing it off is moronic,” one wrote. “If she was in a sexy outfit at a club or a bikini at a beach or something where either of the business names could be abbreviated ‘DTF,’ then I get why they would be skeptical.
“But f*cking dumplings? Really? Just a picture of dumplings? And soup?”
Another user commented, “I used to work at a Din Tai Fung. You should’ve seen my phone. All my coworkers’ names were saved as ‘____ DTF’ in my contacts. If it weren’t for both male and female names, it would’ve been hard to explain as well.”
“This sh*t is cringy as sh*t and makes me realize I’m probably too old for all social media if this is how miscommunications are handled,” another user wrote.
Featured Image (cropped; representation only) via Lijason1988 (left; CC BY-SA 3.0) and Alpha (right; CC BY-SA 2.0)
