Inline expansion of abbreviations

[whole diary]

[grahame]

VickiS has been working on a copy of the Acronyms file and I have just moved that into place ... lots more resolution now.  Please let me know of any that are plain wrong / irritating. We know that many are still out of date and missing - please do NOT flag those up just yet.

I will write up further during today (Tuesday) and test further.   It's when I see how long the list is that I realise I'm bi-lingual, speaking both English and Railway!

[grahame]

VickiS has been working on a copy of the Acronyms file and I have just moved that into place ... lots more resolution now.  Please let me know of any that are plain wrong / irritating. We know that many are still out of date and missing - please do NOT flag those up just yet.

Also ... and burst-through which give the wrong definition - we have tried to avoid breaking through abbreviations which have two meanings (not practical without huge work and perhaps £ investment to sort out the context)

Best way to report is personal message - to VickiS and / or myself (grahame) - the notification button is good to flag up urgent issues such as members attacking each other personally in the forum, publishing copyright material, broken threads, etc as it reaches all the moderator and will result in the whole team taking a look.  Overkill for abbreviation stuff (though I have never really explained it in the past, so member had no way of knowing just how much notify comes across as a SHOUT  )

[grahame]

VickiS has been working on a copy of the Acronyms file and I have just moved that into place ... lots more resolution now.  Please let me know of any that are plain wrong / irritating. We know that many are still out of date and missing - please do NOT flag those up just yet.

I will write up further during today (Tuesday) and test further.   It's when I see how long the list is that I realise I'm bi-lingual, speaking both English and Railway!

I spend several hours during the night re-syncing the Acronyms page. Vicki has been adding / updating descriptions, and I went through making up those to "burst through" and I have elected to do so on around two thirds of the 750 or so definitions we have.

Philosophy ...  expand abbreviations UNLESS there is a conflict and they mean something different in different circumstances (e.g. TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) will expand as Ticket Vending Machine, but TV will not as it can be both "Television" and "Thames Valley").

Links to other pages ... so far only very VERY few of these (only MRUG^» (Melksham Rail User Group - site) and RTT^» (Real Time Trains - website)) - but many,many more should be added - perhaps around 10% of the defintions, seleting those that people will want to rapidly visit in context.  So - user groups, industry data feeds, etc.  Not things that people will pass in reading for thre most part, such as train types and net-speak such as FWIW^▸ (for what it's worth) and IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion).

Early days - but looking very good and effective.  Lots more updates to do though ...

[broadgage]

I have already used the "report" button for one post in which an abbreviation was automaticaly mis-applied. But will avoid so doing in future.

In my view, no explanation is needed for very common abbreviations that are in very general use. Examples include,

HST^▸ (High Speed Train)
GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)
IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly)
IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)
IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)

And so on.

[grahame]

I have already used the "report" button for one post in which an abbreviation was automaticaly mis-applied. But will avoid so doing in future.

Thanks - the "report" button looks innocent but is rather like setting the fire alarm off!  Personal Messages, follow ups here, emails all preferred outside panic situations.

In my view, no explanation is needed for very common abbreviations that are in very general use. Examples include,
HST^▸ (High Speed Train)
GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)
IIRC^▸ (if I recall/remember/read correctly)
IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion)
IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)
And so on.

For your reading, for many members reading, agreed. For guests, I'm not so sure, and guests represent the majority of visitors to the site (by a long way) though not the majority of pages served (also by a long way). There are issues in that what is "very common" to one party might cause another party to scratch his head and scope for keeping the forum arguing over them for years to come.  We are all very different (and some of use are even more different than that!)

I am giving the matter some thought - looking for what easily-maintained practically-implemented feature we need to give us the benefit of filling in less common abbreviations only for our fuller-informed members, whilst giving a higher degree of resolution for our newcomers, guests and search engines.  Further response but not for a few days

GWR has already "gone" and I am inclined to remove HST and IET as an interim measure tonight - along with UK^▸ (United Kingdom) which as overdoing it (though look at UK v GB^▸ (Great Britain) and you would be surprised how many people don't know the difference).  I can rarely recall what "IIRC" stands for and IMHO it should stand at least until we get more views - these things are in the daily language of many members yet other will find them ONLY on the forum as they do not frequent social media.

[eightonedee]

As someone who sometimes has struggled with some of the acronyms, I am happy if we err on the side of caution. I sympathise with Grahame's concerns about IMHO^▸ (in my humble opinion) etc., and I think a substantial proportion of users and (more significantly) guests might too.

For this reason I suggest that IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) remain as an expandable acronym. It is not a widely known term, and I guess that only a minority of regular commuters will know that this refers to the new Hitachi trains. Use of the term may discourage guests becoming members, as many will feel that the forum is something not for them because it assumes a level of insider knowledge they do not have (or perhaps need). We could be losing some thoughtful interested passengers that we are seeking to attract as a result.

And of course in a few years' time there will be a growing generation of passengers for whom "HST^▸ (High Speed Train)" may not immediately mean anything. The IETs certainly do not seem to have the impact that their predecessors had on the public consciousness.

[Bmblbzzz]

I would also suggest keeping IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) as an expandable, in view of the fact that most users of the site are guests.

[PhilWakely]

I would also suggest keeping IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) as an expandable, in view of the fact that most users of the site are guests.

Note that 'IET' is 'only' the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) brand name for the Hitachi Class 800 and 802. Known as 'Azuma^▸ (Brand name for Class 80x trains on LNER)' on LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about)
 

[eXPassenger]

I would also suggest keeping IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) as an expandable, in view of the fact that most users of the site are guests.

Note that 'IET' is 'only' the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) brand name for the Hitachi Class 800 and 802. Known as 'Azuma^▸ (Brand name for Class 80x trains on LNER)' on LNER^» (London North Eastern Railway - about)
 

I thought that originally IET was the name DfT^» (Department for Transport - about) gave to the specification for the new trains as part of the IEP^▸ (Intercity Express Program / Project.).  Hitachi offered the At300 as class 80x and GWR kept the IET name while LNER rebranded them as Azura.

[IndustryInsider]

They were SET^▸ (Super Express Train (now IET)) (Super Express Train) not IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train) originally.

[Electric train]

HST^▸ (High Speed Train)'s were actually HSDT^▸ (Original name for High Speed Train) - High Speed Diesel Train

[grahame]

I am about to do some testing ... you may see some funny (peculiar) expansions for the next couple of hours

[grahame]

I am about to do some testing ... you may see some funny (peculiar) expansions for the next couple of hours

For testing purposes:
BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page)
GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)
WECA^» (West of England Combined Authority - about)
MR^▸ (Midland Railway)
FoSBR^» (Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways - site)
FoSBRs
ETC
IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train)
GB^▸ (Great Britain) and UK^▸ (United Kingdom)
MRUG^» (Melksham Rail User Group - site)

[grahame]

OK folks - the following 11 items will expand for guests but never for logged in members - idea is to help newcomers and not smother regulars: BA^» (British Airways - about), BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page), EU^» (European Union - about), GB^▸ (Great Britain), GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), HS2^▸ (The next High Speed line(s)), HST^▸ (High Speed Train), MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), NR^» (Network Rail - home page), Oyster^▸ (Smartcard system used by passengers on Transport for London services) and UK^▸ (United Kingdom). (So if you're reading as a guest each of those will expand if you mouse over it.    There are a further 195 items on our acronyms page which are defined but will never expand (mostly because the are ambiguous - DVT^‡(resolve) and TV for example) and 557 which will expand for everyone unless you have turned off the expansion of abbreviations at the top of the page.   Most of the expansions will be in yellow (try DSFRS^▸ (Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service), IKB^▸ (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) and CAZ^▸ (Clean Air Zone) for example), but around 15% are in green and they provide you with a link on to an explanation or to the organisation's web page (examples - MRUG^» (Melksham Rail User Group - site), NEC^» (National Exhibition Centre - about), TWSW^» (TravelWatch SouthWest - website)). That should come up in a new frame or window.

There is work in progress here - much more to be added over coming weeks, and some corrections too. But it's coming along. Spade work by VickiS ... coding to make it work by myself.

[IndustryInsider]

Very useful Graham and VickiS - thanks...