Help people search by always typing the full names of HPs and other gear

[Currawong]

I've been thinking for a while about the habit of people to type the common abbreviations for headphones and other gear when they type out a post. Thus AKG K701's become just "701's", Beyerdynamic DT880's become just 880's, the EMU 0404 USB just becomes "0404" etc. The the problem this causes is that even now, I (and undoubtedly others) have trouble finding info in the forums on certain headphones and other gear.

What would be a great help, IMHO, is if everyone, as far as possible, typed the full name of any headphone or other gear when they post, at least when, say, they are writing a mini-review or detailed comment in a thread or any other useful info that might help someone other than the people who are already posting in the thread. Then, when new users in the future search for info on gear, they'll have less trouble finding useful posts.

In my case, I'm sure there are a bazillion useful comments on the K701 headphone out there which might have helped me in my choosing whether or not to purchase it which I missed because the first thing I did was search for "AKG K701", missing all the posts where people had just, say, typed "701's".

The other benefit is people reading the forums for the first time, when they see, say, "0404" they have no idea what the person is talking about. If "EMU 0404" has been typed, then it's dead easy to Google it and figure out what they are talking about.

Any thoughts?

 

[nor_spoon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif In my case, I'm sure there are a bazillion useful comments on the K701 headphone out there which might have helped me in my choosing whether or not to purchase it which I missed because the first thing I did was search for "AKG K701", missing all the posts where people had just, say, typed "701's". Any thoughts?

Doesn't the search function find all posts with 701 in them if you do a search using AKG K701?

 

[tk3]

Yeah, if you aren't a contributor you don't get the boolean searches.
I just use google to search with though (add "site:head-fi.org" to your search string).

 

[intoflatlines]

I usually take out the brand so I mention things like K701, DT770/80, SR80, etc.. I think the search function (non boolean) is bad enough so that it doesn't really matter anyway. Some headphones are too ridiculous to name completely, like the SF5 Pro. I call it SF5 Pro, others call it SF5/super.fi5/superfi 5/super.fi 5/super.fi 5 pro etc.

 

[Tiemen]

I agree with the OP for another reason. As a newbie I really get confused with all those abbrevations.
For example, on one of my first questions here, one gave this recommendation for headphones: ESW9s, D5000, R10s.
It took some searching before I knew what brand those cans were.

 

[Currawong]

x2 Tiemen, I'm still working it out! It doesn't help when people then say "Search the forums" after a thread is started. It's a bit self-defeating.

 

[Duggeh]

I think that abbreviated references tend to be confined to threads wherein the OP or close has brought up the full name. If someone posts asking about the Goldring DR150 vs the Sennhieser HD555, then people who reply are going to talk about the DR150 vs the HD555, or the Docs (and model name slang is another factor for searches) vs the Senns.

What you want to happen I don't think is ever going to happen, for the same reason that people don't give full names every single time they talk in real life, do you always use someones surname? Besides, it wouldn't help with the thousands of pre-existing threads.

 

[Bob_McBob]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tk3 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, if you aren't a contributor you don't get the boolean searches.

Which is absolutely ****ing ridiculous. It's not just that boolean search is disabled -- the search feature is INTENTIONALLY crippled by using the OR operator instead of the default AND. We have a vast database of posts that are mostly inaccessible without using Google, unless we're willing to pay up for the privilege of finding our own user-created content. Google is not a satisfactory alternative because there's no way to order by date.

 

[Uncle Erik]

What should be done about misspelled names?

 

[krmathis]

Currawong. Perhaps you could start by spelling the full and correct name yourself?

You wrote -> Correct full name
AGK K701 -> AKG K701 ("AKG" not "AGK")
Beyer DT880 -> beyerdynamic DT 880 (with a lower case "b", and space between "DT" and "880".

I sort of understand that its hard for newcomers to know which 'phone we talk about when we use the really short name. But taken into consideration that some of the brand and model names are quite long, I don't see it feasible that we should spell it all out each time.

 

[F107plus5]

I'm one of those who usually tries to list the full name if there may be a question. If it's thread about a specific set of cans....like "MS-1 Appreciation Thread" for example....I get lazy.

I sometimes even get nervous if I use the term "Grado/Alessandro MS-1", since it's not the actual real name.

I'll work on it.

 

[Punnisher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uncle Erik /img/forum/go_quote.gif What should be done about misspelled names?

Beheadings, I should think.

It's a good idea, to at least not use abbreviations like gs1k for the Grado gs1000 etc.

 

[Edwood]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong /img/forum/go_quote.gif Help people search by always typing the full names of HPs and other gear

Are we talking about Hewlett Packard or HeadPhones in this thread?

-Ed

 

[nor_spoon]

I think it is about HorsePower.

 

[Currawong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krmathis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Currawong. Perhaps you could start by spelling the full and correct name yourself? You wrote -> Correct full name AGK K701 -> AKG K701 ("AKG" not "AGK") Beyer DT880 -> beyerdynamic DT 880 (with a lower case "b", and space between "DT" and "880". I sort of understand that its hard for newcomers to know which 'phone we talk about when we use the really short name. But taken into consideration that some of the brand and model names are quite long, I don't see it feasible that we should spell it all out each time.

Fixed, indeed, I was having a bit of a dyslexic day.

I think there are times when it's worth being a bit less lazy, if not all the time. Eg: If the thread title lists a pair of cans, then it should have the full name. If someone mentions cans not in the title, it'd be a good idea to put the manufacturer name there for the benefit of people searching.

I agree that setting a search engine to use OR by default is grossly stupid. Nobody searches for "A OR B", they search for whole terms consisting of multiple words if not a single word. That being said, I'm sure that Head-fi's hosting and bandwidth bills are from hell.