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)

FWIW, how about a SOTL for the calendars? Or a cal template for calendars, equivalent to r - reference and n - novel? Kind regards, -- Markonian 17:20, September 26, 2017 (UTC)

calendar reference improvement is definitely needed! agree! - captainmike 20:46, September 26, 2017 (UTC)

btw, i have never liked the fan terminology 'relaunch' - what does that even mean. its not like its a separate series? -captainmike 21:15, September 26, 2017 (UTC)

I think "relaunch" was even used by official sources to describe the DS9 novels set after the series at some point, but I'm not sure. And did create a quick and dirty "cal" template a few days/weeks ago, based on the "n" (novels) template: ST - Ships of the Line calendar: Ships of the Line 2018. I already used it on a few pages where I added info from the 2018 SotL calendar. - Bell'Orso (talk) 00:36, September 27, 2017 (UTC)

Cool, Bell'Orso! I'll use your cal template from now on. Does it work with the -img suffix that we use on episodes, comics and novels? Re: Relaunch, we could add it as a suffix, e.g. VOY-R, the way Memory Alpha signifies something comes directly from the Remastered series (TNG-R), but it's not vital, Imho. Kind regards, -- Markonian 06:13, September 27, 2017 (UTC)

I actually don't know if my "cal" template will work for image categorisation. I really simply copied the "n" template to create it. And I'm against using "-R" to signify the relaunch novels. That would mean the relaunch novels are their own series. Which is misleading because, even though the word "relaunch" might have been used by official sources at one point, it never was intended to refer to a series separate from the one that spawned it. - Bell'Orso (talk) 06:36, September 27, 2017 (UTC)

1. i havent been able to find any citation of an official source using the term "Relaunch" in any proper sense. we dont name series on our own like that
2. VOY is VOY is VOY. there's absolutely no cause to append a suffix - its all Voyager. we're not trying to corral older sources away from newer ones in citations - basic wiki principles of keeping that code simple and inclusive

also, an image autocategorization in the style of {{n-img}} for calendar stuff would be pretty cool captainmike 11:59, September 28, 2017 (UTC)

Star Trek Picard

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Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow: The following content contains spoilers!

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Spoilers, but there will be a new Picard series. I think other sources are using "PIC". Is that cool? i went ahead and set it up, but if anyone wants to weigh in, this will be a community consensus (within reason) - captainmike 00:51, June 16, 2019 (UTC)

We've gone with PIC, LD, and i think another discussion ratified SNW. -- captainmike 19:05, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

Cool. All three seem appropriate. I wonder if we should have an abbreviation for content from the Kelvin timeline sub-series? Not for the reason to disassociate it from TOS, but to highlight it as its own part of the franchise. Perhaps with "KEL"? Kind regards, 21:16, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

I'd say KT would match some of our existing infrastructure - but as with -R for remasters/relaunches, i have reservations about that one - captainmike 21:38, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

List?

Is there a page somewhere with a list of all the abbreviations? I seem to remember one, but now I can't find it.

Also, has anyone agreed on abbreviations for the upcoming shows Prodigy and Section 31? For the first one, Memory Alpha uses PRO, but that was already vetoed for Prometheus. What about PRD and S31?

Well this page reviews pretty much all of them.

I think S31 is perfect, but also since there's been very little verified press on that one it seems pretty far from being needed.

As to Prodigy, PRD seems ok. I'd also point out that i gave up on Seekers and i've seen and participated in just putting the whole word "Seekers" and have considered that for Prodigy. -- captainmike 12:53, 27 July 2021 (UTC)