Using abbreviations in the G2G

Question

I have a big request for everyone who posts questions in G2G.

Could you do me - and maybe others - a favor and not use abbreviations.
Very often I read the question and don't understand it because abbreviations are used that I either don't know at all or have a completely different meaning for me.

For example, someone recently used the abbreviation "MP". It was clear to me that this meant a prime minister (Ministerpräsident) of a German state, but after thinking about it for a while it couldn't be, so I had the idea that it could mean a military police officer. Only when I called my daughter in England, she told me that it could be an English member of the parlement.

In another example, someone named OFS as the place of residence for a person. After a long search on the Internet I was of the opinion that it must be a member of the Ordo Franciscanus Saecularis (Franciscan Order). After I asked again as a precaution, it was explained to me that the former Orange Free State (former Boer Republic in southern Africa) was meant.

Please do me the favor and don't use abbreviations when asking questions in G2G, it saves you a lot of time and effort, which can be better invested in the factual answer of the question.

Thank you very much.

Exceptions are, of course, when I ask for the meaning of an abbreviation.

Comments

I try to not use abbreviations unless I have already used the full words, even the oh-so-common LNAB (a newbie isn't going to know that that means Last Name At Birth unless they've encountered it somewhere), but I may occasionally slip, for which I apologise.  (MP would be something I might use, meaning Member of Parliament (it's not just the UK that uses that).)

I spell out the full words for places on profiles, as well, for the same reason.  Not everyone looking at a profile will know Qld means Queensland, Australia.  If the place name is written as SA, does it mean South Australia, or South Africa?

WA in a g2g question -- does it mean Washington state, USA, or Western Australia? (It's related to the non-use of the word "county" in US placenames.  Just because  you understand "x" means county, doesn't mean the rest of us do.)

I know this type of thing has been brought up before, but it definitely bears repeating, so thank you for bringing the matter to the community.

(I often avoid g2g threads where all I see on the index is a bunch of abbreviations, because I don't have the energy to decipher what is meant.)

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WA in a g2g question -- does it mean Washington state, USA, or Western Australia? (It's related to the non-use of the word "county" in US placenames.  

And there I went, using abbreviations when talking about NOT using them.

USA and US both should have been expanded to at least "United States".

I apologise, most sincerely.

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umm … how about "genealogist to genealogist" for g2g or are we getting a bit carried away now?

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umm … how about "genealogist to genealogist" for g2g or are we getting a bit carried away now?

commented by Gaile Connolly

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Considering the thing at the top of the page says , and the dropdowns refer to G2Gfeed, and G2G profile, I think it's ok to use that abbreviation - - so long as we remember a real newbie won't know what it means unless we explain it.  (I didn't know it meant genealogist to genealogist for about 3 months after I signed up to WT (Wikitree).)

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Perhaps it is time to bump this as a reminder to not use abbreviations, initialisms, or acronyms in posts - and especially in question titles (that show on the index) - unless we have first spelt out in full what we are abbreviating.

And that includes the "simple" things such as BTW (by the way), or YMMV (your mileage may vary), the latter of which I see fairly often, and never spelt out.

Let's be even more friendly and welcoming than we think we already are!  Take that extra three seconds and TIOIF (type it out in full)!  

Answer 1

It is especially hard for people with  engllish as their second language. I have the same problem as a dutchie. sometimes I do know the abbreviations but most of the time it is a wild guess or it will cost me a lot of time to look for the meaning.

so please!!!!!! do as Dieter asks.

Comments

Oh, it's not just people who have English as their second language. I'm very nearly unilingual, and I still find myself bewildered by the alphabet soup of acronyms that people keep throwing out. It's important to remember that, even if I deal with a particular source or organisation constantly, somebody else may never have even heard of it (or at least, have dealt with it so rarely that they don't feel the need to use an acronym).

It's also a problem, as Dieter points out, that many acronyms can have multiple meanings, and which meaning springs to mind first depends heavily on the reader. (For instance, "USA" clearly stands for "Union of South Africa", but some people insist on using it to refer to some other country, for some strange reason. Similarly, "WA" clearly stands for "Western Australia", but some people insist on using it to describe some other state.)

Basically, it boils down to a tension between convenience on the part of the poster and providing clarity to the reader. Personally, I think it's more in line with the general tenor of the Honor Code to go for clarity over convenience. Actually, I might suggest rewriting point IV to say, "We know misunderstandings are inevitable. We try to minimize them by being clear in our communication, and courteous to everyone, even those who don't act accordingly." (Added words in italics.)

Answer 2

There is a reason why abbreviations are not to be used in Location fields, just because of the ambiguation Melanie explained in her comment. So yes, abbreviations can be confusing and even when you don't mean locations but for example a heritage organization, Europeans and especially people who learned English as second language don't always know the meaning of them.

Comments

NHGS - or is that NGHS?  Uh, who/what/where? 

(It's not just Europeans and those who have English as a second language (ESL), or third/fourth/nth language who have problems with some of those things others throw around like candy at Mardi Gras.)

2021 - the "Year of Accuracy" - I pledge to do much better at not using abbreviations I have not previously explained in the same post.

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Unfortunately, some abbreviations are almost inevitable. In some cases this is  because people do not know the full term (or cannot spell it) -- examples being DNA and GDPR. Other times it is because the full term is too long to fit into the space reasonably allotted for a question and leave room for other words -- I see NEHGS (New England Historic Genealogical Society) as one example of that. Fortunately, most of the time when NEHGS appears in the question, if you do not recognize the abbreviation you probably will not gain anything from reading further.... But that is not true for all of the obscure abbreviations used here!

Edited because I got the full name of NEHGS wrong the first time I spelled it out.

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I left out the E.      I am so ashamed. 

(You'd think I would have seen it often enough to remember the E.  I claim distraction!  Rabbits just connected the person I was researching with a certain actress last name Bonham-Carter, and also to a Governor of Western Australia,  Rabbits are fun. )

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Melanie, you have nothing to be ashamed about - au contraire, be proud that you just created an improvement to the original acronym by streamlining it.

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You had me pretty confuzzled there... I had to hunt for what that acronym meant, and I've seen it before. Usually I had to look it up, but at least Ellen identified it and spelled it out somewhere that I could find it. If we're going to use acronyms, that's the way to do it. In fact, if I recall correctly (IIRC!) my research paper skills reminded me that it's proper etiquette to put the entire thing spelled out first, then in parenthesis show the acronym, and only after that can you use the acronym instead of the whole spelled out thing.

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In fact, if I recall correctly (IIRC!) my research paper skills reminded me that it's proper etiquette to put the entire thing spelled out first, then in parenthesis show the acronym, and only after that can you use the acronym instead of the whole spelled out thing.

commented by Scott Fulkerson

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FWIW (For What It's Worth), that's pretty much how I was taught -- although sometimes I will do as I just did (initialism first, explanation to follow).

I need to get back to doing that. 

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GMTA^*, Scott and Melanie, or is the flip side FSD^** more appropriate for us?

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^* great minds think alike

^** fools seldom differ

Answer 3

Moderators have the ability to edit questions posted by others, so we could spell out obscure abbreviations when we see them. I often retag or recategorize questions, but I only occasionally edit them (for example, to fix font/format problems that make a question unreadable or to correct a seriously garbled word) -- because I believe that it makes people uncomfortable to have their contributions altered.

How would people feel about having your questions edited to explicate abbreviations?

Comments

Sounds fine to me! You could leave the original abbreviation intact, and just add the expansion after it, in round or square brackets say. This would be very useful.

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Ellen, I can't imagine anyone objecting to your adding the full spelled out name of an abbreviation they used here, however ...  

I do think it's more likely that this kind of service is needed on answers/comments than on the original questions.  Typically, the person asking a question is not as familiar with WikiTree, therefore not as accustomed to the abbreviations that abound here, as the people who are providing the answers.

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I have another thought.  How about if someone compiles a list of acronyms and abbreviations commonly used on WikiTree, then add a link to that list PROMINENTLY at the top of every g2g page?  That should go a long way toward solving the problem, without putting an extra burden on moderators to have to constantly be editing questions/answers/comments to make them clear.

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There is actually already a list of acronyms and abbreviations commonly used on WikiTree - see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:WikiTree_Abbreviations_&_Acronyms.

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That's great, Paul!  It means we're ahead of the game.  Now all we need to do is publicize that list - make it easy to use by putting a prominent link to it at the top of every g2g page.  Maybe even make a new tab for it.  Maybe also have the greeters include a link to it in their messages to new members when they first join.

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That is a good start for WikiTree internal abbreviations.

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 - Thank you  Paul Masini for the Link -  however , in the 'downside up' land of West Oz - - we happen to use 'BDM's' , which needless to say , does not help searching - -

 - = https://bdm.justice.wa.gov.au/ = -

The Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages creates and permanently stores birth, death and marriage records for life events occurring in Western Australia and performs civil marriages in the Perth Registry office. = -

- probably because B & D's are a matter of life & death , whereas marriages 'sometimes just happen' - ! - ! - ! -

cheers - - ( oh! - BtWay - they are in alpha descending order - - b d m . . )

 - (ps: just had a quick look - all Aust State registries use bdm)

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Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria also use BDM.  Little more difficult to say for Tasmania and South Australia, as their online database searches go to Library Tasmania, and Genealogy South Australia.

New Zealand also uses BDM.

Perhaps that space page could be updated to reflect such?

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- = https://www.justice.tas.gov.au/bdm/indexes#The%20Tasmanian%20Pioneers%20Index = -

and

 - = https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/family-and-community | https://www.sa.gov.au/topics/family-and-community/births-deaths-and-marriages = -

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Huh .. I've always used https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/names/search/