Forum:Community consensus - series abbreviations

Ten Forward → Community consensus - series abbreviations (Reply | Watch)

It has been quite a few years since this was discussed (as most series are well established - but we do have some new series coming around and I wanted to make sure we're all on the same page.

I did find an older image where "Vanguard" was abbreviated as "VGD" - but I remember i was shut down soundly as a new user for suggesting that "Voyager" be "VGR" (rather than the previous community consensus "VOY") - and this makes sense, as VGD and VGR are similar and could be confusing.

One of the most compelling arguments for sticking to a sensible abbreviation was to use the anagrams (DS9, TNG, TOS, etc) or the first three letters - but exceptions exist since we seemed to want to avoid abbreviating TITAN as "TIT" :/

Some series have been rebranded - "IKS Gorkon" became "Klingon Empire" (Do "GKN" and "KE" seem logical as is?) and "SCE" became "CoE" -- and "New Earth" became "Challenger", but was never serialized *shrugs*

Our new series are Prometheus and Discovery. "PRO" and "DIS"? -- captainmike 18:26, March 14, 2017 (UTC)

Any particular reason (other than "It's always been done this way.") why it should be three letters, all caps? After all, "KE" and "CoE" already break that "tradition". Personally, in the cases of "Prometheus" and "Discovery", I'd go with four letters: "PROM" and "DISC". - Bell'Orso (talk) 11:09, March 15, 2017 (UTC)

I've went with PROM on relevant articles. "Pro" is a meaningful word in English, like "tit", and I'd rather avoid creating associations with professionals and birds. I'd go with DSC, because it's explicitly established as preferred version by the shows creators, it falls conveniently into the three-letter pattern, and avoids rap song associations (DIS, dissing). Kind regards, -- Markonian 23:06, March 15, 2017 (UTC)

"PROM" is also a common word (perhaps even more meaningful than "PRO", which is lesser used word fragment) -- but it does get the point across better in my opinion. I have no desire to block your decision to make this as self-explanatory as possible, so "PROM" can have my vote as well (it gives more of a clue than "PRO"). I don't feel the need to honor past consensus by contributors who have left for other wikis, you're right - 'it always being done this way' is not my argument at all.

"DISC" i hadn't considered - but it also could create a meaningful false association with discs/disks -- so perhaps "DSC" is the best choice - we wouldnt want to "DIS" the new series ^_^ just as we didnt want to make TITAN out to be such a TIT o.0

Also, the defunct series all seem logical to stay as they are - KE/GKN, EV, SA, CHA and SCE/CoE are logical - although the NE/CHA situation is certainly a wierd one, i think they are nice artifacts of a great era of Trek prose even though they ended up being standalone/mini-esque -- while VGR/VGD are to be avoided as similar so VOY/VAN stay.

I've written some intricacy to the "SA" situation, as it is a series but the game/book, comic serie, toy line, Kelvin Trek books and Kelvin Trek comics represent numerous reboots making it the most fractured 'series' but still desirable to keep under the shared name.

The only other such 'unrelated but equal' series have been Captain Sulu Adventures/Excelsior (unfortunately not under the same title, and also seemingly standalone and miniseries and not a full fledged series) and Assignment Earth (which is a miniseries and a failed spinoff). I think these remain as 'subseries' and not series proper. -- captainmike 13:26, March 16, 2017 (UTC)

I've enacted "DSC" for Discovery.

I'd like to suggest a compromise for Prometheus since both "PROM" and "PRO" are words - how about "PRM"?

One i hadnt considered is that Vanguard has been re-branded "Seekers" -- "SEE" or "SKR"? Not sure about this one. -- captainmike 14:19, March 23, 2017 (UTC)

IMHO "SKR" sounds better than "SEE". I also like "PRM" and "DSC".--TardisCaptain (talk) 17:46, March 23, 2017 (UTC)

So, just to leave my (for now) final thoughts on this issue here: TOS, TAS, TNG and DS9 do make the most sense for those shows, each letter representing one word of the full name. Similarly, VOY, ENT and DSC make the most sense as meaningful abreviations for single words that don't cause confusion by looking like proper words themselves or by looking too similar to other abbreviations. Same for CHA, GKN, SCE, VAN, SKR, TTN, PRM. I'd be more than happy to implement those of these that have not yet been implemented (SKR, PRM, and there is even at least one major "Voyager" page remaining: "Voyager relaunch"). I guess I will simply have to accept those abreviations which don't fit this pattern. - Bell'Orso (talk) 16:13, September 26, 2017 (UTC)