# Sticky thread for abbreviations/acronyms



## Peterdg

I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to create a sticky thread that lists all commonly used abbreviations/acronyms in posts. I'm mostly active in the Spanish forums and there are quite some abbreviations/acronyms that are commonly used. Experienced forum users will know them but for novice users it may be a great help (and it would save us quite some typing work)

As an example of what I mean, I'll list some of the popular acronyms in Spanish forums:

DRAE: Diccionario de la Real Academia Española
RAE: Real Academia Española
NGLE: Nueva gramática de la lengua española (de la RAE)
DPD: Diccionario panhispánico de dudas.
DUE: Diccionario de uso del español; María Moliner.
CD: Complemento directo
CI: Complemento indirecto
CR: Complemento de régimen
Esbozo: Esbozo de una nueva gramática de la lengua española (de la RAE)

Also new ideas for acronyms: e.g.

SVU: El subjuntivo, valores y usos; J.Borrego, J.G. Asencio y E. Prieto (_You don't want to know how many times I have already typed the title of that book and wished there was an acronym I could use_)

NGLEem: NGLE edición manual
NGLEec: NGLE edición completa

What do you think?


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## swift

I think this is a nice suggestion, Peter. And I'm glad to see this thread because I was about to post one here to ask if there is a way to query the forum database to compile a collection of threads about numbers — _'How to read ordinals in Spanish'_, _'Should I use a period or a comma for decimals?'_, etc. are very common questions in the Spanish forums.

I would be very happy to participate in the creation of such a list.

(And sorry for using your thread to make a new suggestion, Peter. I just think our ideas are related.)

Regards,


José


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## swift

Oh~ I see now that our suggestions are related in no way ha-ha.

We have developped a specific slang in the Spanish forums and I agree that it would be very useful to create a sticky thread like the one you described.

(And sorry again.)


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## Peterdg

Hi José,

No need to be sorry.

I'm glad you like the idea. Let's see what others think about it.

On the other hand, I also like your idea. Actually I have also already thought about it: some kind of a reference grammar thread that could point to some very interesting threads about certain grammatical themes.

But perhaps it'd be better to open another thread for this because this will be more complex to maintain than a simple list of acronyms. But I'd be happy to participate in it.

PD. I just thought of two other candidates for the acronym list:

CREA: corpus de referencia del español actual (de la RAE)
CORDE: corpus diacrónico del español (also de la RAE).


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## swift

On the other hand... We're asked to provide a full description of our sources. When quoting the DRAE or the DPD, we give a direct link to their respective pages. As for metalanguage, I'm not sure we need a sticky to compile every single abbreviation — or maybe we shouldn't be too exhaustive. Think of how many reminders we have to post just to say "please, give us some more context" because people won't read the sticky threads explaining the rules. I don't think the average asker (as opposed to the regular forero) will take the time to look up the meaning of any abbreviation used in our posts — all they need is a definition/translation and once they've got what they were looking for, they won't care about DRAE, DPD, CREA, CORDE, or anything...

 What do you think?


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## Vanda

I like it! It might be a case of ''local'' mods create a stick in their forums. Let's discuss this!


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## Peterdg

swift said:


> On the other hand... We're asked to provide a full description of our sources. When quoting the DRAE or the DPD, we give a direct link to their respective pages. But some are not available on the internet, like the NGLE As for metalanguage, I'm not sure we need a sticky to compile every single abbreviation — or maybe we shouldn't be too exhaustive. Think of how many reminders we have to post just to say "please, give us some more context" because people won't read the sticky threads explaining the rules. I don't think the average asker (as opposed to the regular forero) will take the time to look up the meaning of any abbreviation used in our posts — all they need is a definition/translation and once they've got what they were looking for, they won't care about DRAE, DPD, CREA, CORDE, or anything...
> 
> What do you think?


 
 See e.g. here and here; just those two because I happened to remember a search term to find them back

I remember a time when I spent half an hour to find out what CC meant (complemento circunstancial).

Also, for this type of acronyms, we could put a link in the sticky thread that points to a definition of the concept (e.g. in wikipedia).

@Vanda: I like that you like it


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## Pinairun

What a good idea, Peter!

Please, add to the list: NTLLE (_Nuevo tesoro lexicográfico de la lengua española_, de la RAE).


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## Irma2011

Peterdg said:


> I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to create a sticky thread that lists all commonly used abbreviations/acronyms in posts.


Me parece una idea NSQEE (=no sé a qué estábamos esperando).

Brillante, asígname tarea, Peter.


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## fenixpollo

I see two types of acronyms mentioned in this thread: names of Spanish Language resources, and names of grammatical structures.

Spanish language resources -- the only 3 that are used regularly in the Spanish-English forums are DPD, RAE and DRAE. the other resources that you have mentioned are rarely cited, and when they are, I think it's appropriate to spell out the name of the resource.

Grammatical structures: A list of these abbreviations in Spanish and English might be a good resource for forum users. However, I'm not sure that an entire sticky thread is necessary for what would surely be a short list of acronyms.

Real estate on the first page of the forum is already very precious: I don't like the idea of using more of it, because then fewer threads can fit on the first page and therefore have less visibility.


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## jann

fenixpollo said:


> Real estate on the first page of the forum is already very precious: I don't like the idea of using more of it, because then fewer threads can fit on the first page and therefore have less visibility.


I absolutely understand that concern. But perhaps consider the substance of the idea separately from its form?  

If a reference list of acronyms (or whatever) sounds like it could be useful, then you can figure out details such as where to put it later.  It could be an additional post in an existing sticky.  It could be its own thread on your Resources forum. etc. Granted, those places might be less visible than a separate sticky thread, but that would be a conscious choice about the trade-offs at hand. And obviously, it's up to the moderators of each individual forum to decide whether or not compiling such information is something they want to do for their forum, and how high-priority the project is compared to other tasks.


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## swift

Peterdg said:


> See e.g. here and here; just those two because I happened to remember a search term to find them back


 Those posts should have been deleted.

I'm not saying your idea isn't good; on the contrary, and as I said before, listing the usual abbreviations and acronyms is actually a nice suggestion and I'd like to contribute my own list . I was only wondering whether it would be really worth our time.

But that was before I knew jann's opinion, of course (bonjour, jann ! ). And now I think that this list could be posted here in the English-Spanish Grammar forum and here in the Sólo Español forum. *Since we have the clickable accented characters, those stickies could be reviewed and their titles could be changed* to "Spanish accents & symbols, plus some usual abbreviations and acronyms you will frequently find in this forum" (or something more succinct ).


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## donbill

Peterdg said:


> I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to create a sticky thread that lists all commonly used abbreviations/acronyms in posts. I'm mostly active in the Spanish forums and there are quite some abbreviations/acronyms that are commonly used. Experienced forum users will know them but for novice users it may be a great help (and it would save us quite some typing work)
> 
> As an example of what I mean, I'll list some of the popular acronyms in Spanish forums:
> 
> DRAE: Diccionario de la Real Academia Española
> RAE: Real Academia Española
> NGLE: Nueva gramática de la lengua española (de la RAE)
> DPD: Diccionario panhispánico de dudas.
> DUE: Diccionario de uso del español; María Moliner.
> CD: Complemento directo
> CI: Complemento indirecto
> CR: Complemento de régimen
> Esbozo: Esbozo de una nueva gramática de la lengua española (de la RAE)
> 
> Also new ideas for acronyms: e.g.
> 
> SVU: El subjuntivo, valores y usos; J.Borrego, J.G. Asencio y E. Prieto (_You don't want to know how many times I have already typed the title of that book and wished there was an acronym I could use_)
> 
> NGLEem: NGLE edición manual
> NGLEec: NGLE edición completa
> 
> What do you think?



I like the idea, Peter. I always wonder whether I should use the entire title of a work or abbreviate it. A 'standardized' list could be a time-saver for all of us.

Bill


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## Mate

I also like the idea but, at the same time, dislike to devote more "expensive" place in the first page of the forum.

Perhaps we could merge all the existing Sólo Español stickies into LEA ESTO antes de comenzar/READ THIS before you post and then post inside it the Spanish Language resources and names (abbreviations/acronyms) of grammatical structures, or include them as links in a single post of the aforementioned "Read me First" mega-sticky.


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## swift

Lo otro es que nada garantiza que por encontrarse las abreviaciones explicadas en un hilo destacado se reducirán las preguntas del tipo "¿Qué es el CREA?". Siempre habría que insertar la referencia a ese hilo destacado y entonces el problema persistiría porque seguiríamos teniendo posts inútiles con preguntas y respuestas adicionales sobre el sentido de tales abreviaturas...  a menos que, sistemáticamente, quien use esas abreviaturas incluya un enlace hacia el mensaje en que se explica su significado.

No quiero ser pesimista pero la realidad es que muy pocos se toman el tiempo de leer los recordatorios. (Y ya sé que mucho se resolvería si se usara la mensajería privada pero el caso es que también se podría hacer eso actualmente, con _sticky_ o sin él...)

¡Que conste que deseo cooperar!


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## Mate

swift said:


> Lo otro es que nada garantiza que por encontrarse las abreviaciones explicadas en un hilo destacado se reduzcan las preguntas del tipo "¿Qué es el CREA?". Siempre habría que insertar la referencia a ese hilo destacado y entonces el problema persistiría porque seguiríamos teniendo posts inútiles con preguntas y respuestas adicionales sobre el sentido de tales abreviaturas...
> 
> No quiero ser pesimista pero la realidad es que muy pocos se toman el tiempo de leer los recordatorios.


Pero eso ahora está superado. Podemos poner un sticky con tecnología LED, que realmente se vea desde todas partes.


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## swift

Lo que es tener fe. Ni con ventanas emergentes se podría garantizar nada. Si no, mirá cuántas quejas hay en este foro por las publicidades molestas.


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## Peterdg

A mi no me importa que sea un "sticky thread" u otra opción. Lo único que es importante es que esté disponible, si es posible de manera vistosa y si no, de otra manera.


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## swift

Sería ideal programar una función para que con sólo arrastrar o pasar el puntero del _mouse_ por encima de las abreviaturas se desplegara la forma larga.  ¿No tendrías un truquito de esos debajo de la manga, Mate?


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## Mate

swift said:


> Sería ideal programar una función para que con sólo arrastrar o pasar el puntero del _mouse_ por encima de las abreviaturas se desplegara la forma larga.  ¿No tendrías un truquito de esos debajo de la manga, Mate?


El de los trucos es Mike, no yo. El problema es que el sistema sobre el cual está montado todo el andamiaje del foro  —vBulletin— no permite muchas extravagancias; es como es. 
Stickies podemos hacer todos los que sean necesarios, pero como ya venimos diciendo fenixpollo y un servidor, ocupan un lugar precioso en la primera plana, la que acapara mayor atención, empujando las consultas para abajo. 

We'll do our best to work something out, though


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## swift

Era un chiste, hombre. Ya sé que existen limitaciones por el software del foro. ¿Los hilos sobre las tildes y otros símbolos del español, no podrían ser revisados y ampliados para que también incluyan estas abreviaturas?


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## Mate

swift said:


> Era un chiste, hombre. Ya sé que existen limitaciones por el software del foro. ¿Los hilos sobre las tildes y otros símbolos del español, no podrían ser revisados y ampliados para que también incluyan estas abreviaturas?


Estoy en eso.


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## swift

Muchas gracias, Mate.


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## Mate

swift said:


> Muchas gracias, Mate.


Done!


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## swift

Excellent! Thank you. And thanks, Peter.


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## Mate

A big thanks to Peter.

He's being doing a good deal of thinking-.






Cheers!


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## swift

Oh... The sticky is gone.


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## fenixpollo

Temporarily, for editing. It'll be back...


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## swift

Sí, es lo que imaginaba. Gracias.


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## Peterdg

Estuve de vacaciones. ¿Qué ha pasado mientras tanto? ¿Cuál ha sido la decisión? Según el comentario de Swift, supongo que hay un "sticky thread" (O, ¿la información ha sido incluida en otro _sticky_?)


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## swift

Se unieron varios hilos para formar un solo _sticky_. Esperemos que el resultado no te decepcione.


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## Peterdg

swift said:


> Se unieron varios hilos para formar un solo _sticky_. Esperemos que el resultado no te decepcione.


No, en absoluto. Pero ¿dónde está?


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## swift

No lo has visto y dices que no estás decepcionado. Je je je.

Está aquí (aparece arriba de todo en el foro Sólo Español).


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## Mate

Peterdg said:


> No, en absoluto. Pero ¿dónde está?


Aquí: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=2198395


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## Peterdg

Thanks Mate and Swift! I looked at the sticky thread header in the Solo español overview page and saw that the date was 2008 so I figured nothing had changed. I should have known better.


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