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In lugnet.cad.dev, jsproat@geocities.com (Sproaticus) writes:
> Todd Lehman wrote:
> > Thumbs up? Thumbs down?
>
> Thumbs-up from me, except: There's no need to use "ld" when "ldraw" will
> suffice. Ditto for "sw"<->"software", etc.
But abbreviations are good -- and important things for newsgroup hierarchies
and URLs, especially where future growth is possible.
Abbreviated, you have
lugnet.cad
lugnet.cad.dev
lugnet.cad.ld
lugnet.cad.ld.ideas
lugnet.cad.ld.models
lugnet.cad.ld.models.scenes
lugnet.cad.ld.models.sets
lugnet.cad.ld.parts
lugnet.cad.ld.parts.prim
lugnet.cad.ld.sw
lugnet.cad.ray
Unabbreviated, you have
lugnet.cad
lugnet.cad.development
lugnet.cad.ldraw
lugnet.cad.ldraw.ideas
lugnet.cad.ldraw.models
lugnet.cad.ldraw.models.scenes
lugnet.cad.ldraw.models.sets
lugnet.cad.ldraw.parts
lugnet.cad.ldraw.parts.primitives
lugnet.cad.ldraw.software
lugnet.cad.ray-tracing
In the unabbreviated versions, what do you when LDLITE or L3P reaches
critical mass enough to benefit from a support group? Even if there weren't
a newsgroup for it, the LDraw software category would probably split into
subcategories on the website, and the URLs there should remain short and
correspond to the newsgroup names. So you would be talking about possible
names someday such as
lugnet.cad.ldraw.software.ldao
lugnet.cad.ldraw.software.ldlite
lugnet.cad.ldraw.software.l3p
etc.
versus
lugnet.cad.ldraw.sw.ldao
lugnet.cad.ldraw.sw.ldlite
lugnet.cad.ldraw.sw.l3p
etc.
Excessively long newsgroup names take longer to type, make listboxes wider
(sometimes clipped), make crossposting lists harder to grok, etc.
Note that although the URLs for the web pages mirror the name components of
the newsgroups, the labels on the pages can be nice and expressive. For
example, the lugnet.loc.us.ca.sf.sj newsgroup shows up at
http://www.lugnet.com/loc/us/ca/sf/sj/ in a very reasonable form:
Local / United States / California / San Francisco / San Jose /
How long does it take a geek to memorize the ld = ldraw and that
sw = software?
Which of the following would you rather send e-mails to?
a) lugnet.cad.ldraw.software.ldao@lugnet.com
b) lugnet.cad.ld.sw.ldao@lugnet.com
Which of the following would you rather receive e-mails from?
a) lugnet.cad.ldraw.software.ldao=digest@lugnet.com
b) lugnet.cad.ld.sw.ldao=digest@lugnet.com
CAD is a very well-known and long-established acronym. I submit that LD is
as well (albeit to a lesser degree and localized to LEGO fans), but that it
just hasn't sunk in yet in a major way.
You may be surprised how long the list is already where LD = LDraw:
1) LDAO = LDraw Add-On
2) LDLITE = LDraw Lite
3) LDL = LDraw Launcher
4) LDD = LDraw Draw
5) LD2VR = LDraw to VRML converter
6) SL2LD = SimLego to LDraw converter
etc...
The only other thing in computers that 'sw' ever stands for besides
'software' is 'Star Wars'... :)
Whew. Well, there's my defense of abbreviations. Now how strongly do you
disagree?
--Todd
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: lugnet.cad hierarhcy
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| (...) Well, to be honest, the biggie I had was with the "software" <?> "star wars" anomoly. I personally can't stand to be in a Star Wars discussion, and I would be pretty aggrivated when twice a week some newbie enters the software group just to (...) (25 years ago, 15-Apr-99, to lugnet.cad.dev, lugnet.admin.general)
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