mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

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Greenwhy
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mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Greenwhy »

I've seen forums which have this feature. Basically, anytime somebody uses an abbreviation such as sorc, sacdag, execs or an initialism such as PoK, COK, BoHG it is highlighted in the post and anybody can mouse over to see what it stands for. That would be a great addition to D.net imo.
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Post by Mr. anderson »

No. For using sacdag, you'll get an electronic slap in the face and will be banned for life.

Generally, I'm not sure it's worth it. You pick up on the abbreviations very quickly if you stick around for a few weeks, and everyone is happy to explain them to you if you ask. It's probably a lot of effort for little gain. But that's just me.
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Post by Malus99 »

sounds like it would be a little tricky to program, and there would have to be loads of different variations etc, for instance, you have as an example COK, where as I use the abbreviation CoK and if I was typing in a hurry I might use cok, aside from which we have some abbreviations which are the same for two different things, such as Look out Sir and Line of Site, Blood Armour and Black Amulet or Shield of Ghrond and Seal of Ghrond (yes, I know this wouldn't be very common but it would be confusing when it does happen). I think if it could be programmed in easily and would happen automatically so that we don't for instance have to code it into our posts as we do for giving url links, then it might be handy.
Last edited by Malus99 on Sun Jan 30, 2011 2:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Tarbo »

Mr. Anderson wrote:everyone is happy to explain them to you if you ask

What's GoP? :P

On the topic, though, the bottom of the FAQ/Rules of the site has a list of common abbreviations. I'm not sure how current it is, but it should help newbies. Or forgetful people like myself.
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Post by Dalamar »

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Post by Layne »

That's what I found when I've seen this sort of thing used, at Warseer. Too many double-ups, and Warseer being what it is, most double-ups gave you the 40k acronym. I also wonder if such a thing would affect our bandwidth any. We already lost the joob [remember that thing?].
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Post by Greenwhy »

fair points.
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Noble korhedron »

For a second there I read double-ups as double-entendres, L.O.L!! :-P
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Daeron »

This seems to have mixed reactions. I have mixed feelings about it as well. Part of me likes the idea to make our 'slang' more accessible for new members. But generally hovers such as these tend to annoy me after a while.

Perhaps if we combine it with a setting in the user profile to turn them off? It's set to "show popups" as default for new members, but can be turned off once a member feels confident enough. Or some way to control it..

I'll have a browse around to see if this requires a lot of manual work or whether this can easily be supported with existing mods.
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Tarbo »

Should you choose to implement/activate it, perhaps some thoughts from someone in the nay camp:

My personal preference goes to use of the abbr/acronym tags for this. I find them both easily recognizable and easily ignored.

As noted (some years) earlier, some abbreviations are context-sensitive or ambiguous. Giving a list of possible meanings could still make this useful: AoE -> Area of Effect / Aglet of Expedience / Aroma of Effigy.

If possible, restrict the feature to forums such as tactics, and/or allow us to override it for individual posts. Most of my own posts are stories or other prose, and I'd like some method to keep them free of false positives.

We already have a swear filter that automagically 'corrects' certain words. If we can add an abbr/acronym tag through this, (perhaps only in the first occurrence in a post?) the hardest work might already be done.
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Daeron »

That sounds interesting, but I must honestly admit I'm not sure I understand what you mean :D

You mean a tag like so?

Code: Select all

[abbrev]CoK[/abbrev]


This is an interesting line of thought, but wouldn't that make it more cumbersome to use abbreviations than to work without them?
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Red... »

LOL. IMHO TLAS R OMG L33T. HAHA NOOBS. J/K.

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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Red... »

On a serious note - I've seen auto correct for abbreviations used on other forums sites and I don't think it works very well. It removes power from the writer of the message (it is irksome to have a machine autocorrect a deliberately intended acronym without even asking my permission) and can lead to mix ups (inserting the wrong acronym for example).

I think the current system works well. The most common acronyms are outlined in the FAQ file and in the DRAICH. Folks are also usually happy to explain when asked if someone doesn't understand something. Finally, forum dwellers can often google acronyms for their meaning if all else fails. The thought behind the idea is a good one, but in all honesty this seems like a case of if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Tarbo »

Daeron, I meant the HTML tags, as in: <abbr title="Cold Old Knights / Cooties of Khaine / Cabbage of Karnage">CoK</abbr>. It'd have to be an automatic system; having to add them manually would indeed defeat the purpose. ;)

Alternatively, we can add a linked pop-up to a small dictionary in the thread views.

Or just leave it as is, as Red also suggests. How often is this jargon an actual problem?
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Daeron »

Ahh, I see what you mean Tarbo. But then, perhaps that would go unnoticed.. unless... Hmm. A simple way might be to tag abbreviations and then add a simple button "explain abbreviations" for it to highlight each abbreviation in a page, each having a mouseover or something.
The information is available only on demand, never forced on someone.

That would require some coding... and thus time.
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Calisson »

The easiest would be to have a button on the top, next to FAQ, named "Acronyms", linking to there.
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Re: mouseover abbreviations/initialisms

Post by Daeron »

But that would make it .. too.. simple!
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Furnace of Arcana, a warhammer blog with delusional grandeur.

"I move unseen. I hide in light and shadow. I move faster than a bird. No plate of armour ever stopped me. I strike recruits and veterans with equal ease. And all shiver at my coldest of whispers."
- The stiff breeze
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