Is brevity better than completeness? Abbreviations.

Question

I just ran across the following location:

• Center mm, Clinton Co. OH

I have no idea what Center mm means.  I know what  Clinton Co. means but would rather see it as Clinton County, [including the comma]. And because I have lived in the United States for over 74 years, I know that  OH  really means  Ohio, USA.

Oh, I know, I used USA for United States of America.  I also lived in the United States of Venezuela for two years and prefer using USA.

Please avoid using abbreviations if they might lead to confusion.

So. should we abbreviate everything to make profiles shorter?

Comments

Language changes.  We don't know who will be trying to use WikiTree now or in the future.  Everything should be spelled out to prevent any confusion.

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I don't use many abbreviations but I do use USA.  Do people even say United States?  If I told someone I was born in the United States I'm sure they would ask, "USA?"

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I would say "United States" I don't say "USA."  To me, USA is an abbreviation also, like GER or ITA.  Technically, I suppose we should be typing out United States of America.  But I wouldn't say that either.

I used to think of the US as America, but then my husband, who is from Colombia pointed out that they think they are Americans also.  It's a two continent thing.

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Absolutely, spell everything out.  Not only do people not know about USA locations when abbreviated, but I often come across abbreviations for other countries or simply the town somewhere in the world, and have no idea what they mean or where they are located.  

I also prefer adding County to county names because there are often towns by the same name, as well as townships, districts, etc., in the same state.

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People tend to say "the Americas" when they mean the whole two continents.  When they say "God bless America" they mean the U.S.

And plain US now seems more fashionable than USA.

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What we say and what we should write on a profile are two different things.  We often have an unstated context in conversation.  In a written document like a profile we should try to be clear in any context.

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Thinking of the United States of Soviet Russia, always makes smile when I see US intended to be read for USA. Might say "the US" between friends, no, not true, in that context am more used to saying "Americans." Would never abbreviate USA on a profile, knowing their bit is limited to the southern portion of the northern Americas.

Answer 1

No, we don't have space concerns like Family Tree genealogy programs. It's better to be clear. Also, don't assume that your cousin overseas (or any websurfing visitor) understands all of the abbreviations just because you like using them in your daily life.

Also "Center mm" would be a specific Quaker monthly meeting.

Answer 2

It means Monthly Meeting and I think it would be better to spell it out.

Someone told me in recent years that all states in the USA have a two letter abbreviation, so I've gone with that for the most part. Sometimes it's difficult to know the abbreviation of a given state, so I just spell it out.

In general, I would lean toward spelling words out in most cases.

Comments

And the two letter abbreviation has some abbreviated relationship to the state name.  In Sweden they use a random letter which was used on a car license plate last century, e.g U stands for Kung Karl län.

Answer 3

I have trouble with some of the abbreviations used for the various states/provinces.  I research on Google to find the full name.  I am an arborist who enjoys doing merges and I make a point of spelling out the full names of counties, states and provinces.  I wish others would not use abbreviations.

Comments

Hear hear, I am from England and the United States abbreviations mean nothing to me. Add to that memory issues from age and chronic illness and it's a nightmare. Wikitree policy is to spell everything out, from what I've read. That's what we should be doing.

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I would clarify to say that the US (heh) state abbreviations may well mean nothing to international users. I believe there is consensus that pretty much everyone knows that USA = United States of America. The UK abbreviation is also well known, and is probably (?) also sufficient.

I tend to spell out everything except USA: North Olmsted, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA.