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It looks like there's a lot of shorthand y'all use to talk about things and these are starting to appear in your tags:

Are these the best way to phrase things for a useful tag? For example, does it make more sense to have (or even ) instead or ?

Remember that not everyone will be using these terms perfectly so at the bare minimum, descriptions will help but I'd be happy to set up some synonyms if you all can decide what you want to be the master tag that appears on questions.

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  • $\begingroup$ There is now a separate thread in which anyone can suggest tag synonyms: drones.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/79/… $\endgroup$ Apr 18, 2020 at 14:58
  • $\begingroup$ Another thing I think is worth mentioning: when there's a plural and singular version of a tag, e.g. propellers and propeller, I'd suggest that the singular should be the main one. $\endgroup$ Apr 19, 2020 at 14:06
  • $\begingroup$ @FlashCactus the unofficial network standards for that (in my experience)is to go with plural. $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Apr 19, 2020 at 14:25
  • $\begingroup$ Interesting. If that's true, then we can go with plural to conform. Why, though? It seems illogical to me. $\endgroup$ Apr 19, 2020 at 14:27
  • $\begingroup$ @FlashCactus I think about it this way.... I have a question about how to bake a cake... there's not one kind of cake... so the subject is "cakes". $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Apr 20, 2020 at 22:16

4 Answers 4

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Honestly, you're correct. I type those in because I'm used to the shorthand, and that's how many of my friends in the hobby speak. However, not everyone will or does.

I was under the impression that the tag wiki could help smooth over the language barrier, but I would also be in favor of some help creating tag synonyms, seeing as how none of us have the permissions yet. (I know it hasn't even been 24-hours since the site opened :))

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  • $\begingroup$ @Catija I've added some tag wiki entry proposals for abbreviated tags. Have a look when you get the chance. $\endgroup$
    – ifconfig Mod
    Apr 15, 2020 at 5:41
  • $\begingroup$ Don't forget to include usage guidance! I've approved these for now... An excerpt can include a definition but the main thing is to explain when to use the tag. For example, should frsky be used for questions about the company or their products or both? :) $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Apr 15, 2020 at 6:45
  • $\begingroup$ This looks like it's got support but I'm still not clear on which tags should be the master. :) If someone can propose that, either in another answer here or a new question ... or if anyone can suggest synonyms, I can review them from time to time. My instinct would be to spell out things in most cases. "DC" probably doesn't need to become "direct current" but less conventional abbreviations can probably benefit from it? $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Apr 15, 2020 at 16:51
  • $\begingroup$ @Catija I agree with your instinct, for most of the tags the longer version should be the canonical one. Should I start a separate thread for concrete propositions regarding what should point where anyway, though? $\endgroup$ Apr 18, 2020 at 14:30
  • $\begingroup$ Sure! That’d be helpful, @FlashCactus ! There’s sometimes more than one choice so knowing which you need, how you want to spell it out and what the synonyms should be would be really helpful for me. $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Apr 18, 2020 at 14:45
  • $\begingroup$ @Catija done: drones.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/79/… $\endgroup$ Apr 18, 2020 at 14:58
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I believe that the long form is more auspicious for all concerned in the long run. Future prospects to the site, who are truly newbies in this field may not be overly familiar with such abbreviations.

Let us try to make this site compatible to levels of expertise, from experts to new learners.

Let it be spelled out, at least for the sake of hobbiests!

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    $\begingroup$ This is generally what I'd suggest. We'd do something like what I set up for video-transmitter - make it synonymous with vfx. This way, people who know and use "VFX" can, and people who don't know it can find the thing they need easily by typing in "video". Sure, you can make the argument that it works both ways if the synonym exists... This would still be my preference. But, it's your site, so it may be good to see what happens. There's no rush on this. $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Apr 17, 2020 at 3:42
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Why not have both? SE has this handy feature called tag synonyms, which, as far as I understand, will automatically remap a shorter tag that's easier to type to its longer, "canonical" version. So we should simply decide for each group of clearly synonymous tags which should be the "main" one and mark all the others as synonyms of the first.

The only problem with that at the moment is that one has to have no less than 1250 rep on the site (and 5 tag reputation) to merely be able to suggest a tag synonym, and we have very few such users at the moment.

A possible workaround for the time being could be to create a thread, either in DSE.Meta or in chat, where anyone can propose merges verbally and then those with the privilege could do the actual synonymizing.

As for which should be the master tag, I'd vote for the longer version. That would make the tags easily understandable by anyone reading the question, while keeping the option to type the short version.

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  • $\begingroup$ I’m creating the synonyms for y’all. I just need to know which way to go. See my comment on the top answer. $\endgroup$
    – Catija
    Apr 18, 2020 at 14:22
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I think the abbreviations should be the tag masters, for the sole reason that I think they will likely see more use than the spelled-out versions.

Like I said, many people in our community are familiar with the abbreviated terms, and even sometimes might not know what they stand for.

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