[Clipart] Introduction to the Open Clip Art Library

Jonadab the Unsightly One jonadab at bright.net
Thu Jun 30 17:24:03 PDT 2005


Nicu Buculei <nicu at apsro.com> writes:

> Yes, he had a big discussion and the arguments to not use an acronyms
> were very compelling. But when witting an email so the list, is so
> easy to use just 4 letters instead of the full name...
>
> As you said, when using Library the conjecture is important, because
> it is a very common term ans is easy to confuse the reader.

I would say that in general, when dealing with the public, it would be
best to spell the name out in full, for clarity (or else to use the
FQDN, in situations where that will allow people to find us more
easily; OO.o has chosen to make those things one and the same, which
in some ways is clever, although I personally am not crazy about it).

However, in a paper, spelling it out in full repeatedly would become
cumbersome, so what you do is spell it out in full the first time as
you define it, and then refer to it in shorter forms subsequently.
For instance, if instead of the Open Clip Art Library you were writing
a paper about the Federated National Association for Disgruntled
Postal Workers, the first mention would spell the name out in full and
define it or describe (very briefly) what it is, but subsequently as
you are elaborating and making various points you might refer to it as
"the FNADPG" and/or simply as "the association".

And I don't mind seeing "OCAL" on the mailing list, simply because the
people on the mailing list presumably know what it is already, or will
figure it out quickly.  We subscribed to the list, after all.  Chat
and private email are even more informal.

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