12

So far I've seen "RPi", "RP", "Rasp Pi", and "The Pi".

I know it might not truly matter, but should we stick to a consistent format to avoid confusion? I've been edited a few times on StackOverflow for using abbreviations, saying that they make questions and answers confusing in the first place. So should we pick an abbreviation to try to make the most use of? Or scrap abbreviations overall? Or does it not really matter?

4

6 Answers 6

Reset to default
11

Yes, we should be consistent. No, we shouldn't abbreviate.

I would prefer to replace all those instances with the proper trademark.

5
  • That's where I was leaning, but let's see how the votes go
    – Kyle Macey
    Jun 12, 2012 at 23:47
  • We're not tied to a commercial enterprise (at least, not the Raspberry Pi one!), so I don't see why we should restrict ourselves to using a trademark.
    – Highly Irregular
    Jun 12, 2012 at 23:57
  • 4
    @HighlyIrregular: Maybe it was a poor choice of words. But my intention was to use the term that people, who might be searching for answers on the web, are most familiar with. I assumed the term "Raspberry Pi" to be the proper trademark. :)
    – Oliver Salzburg
    Jun 13, 2012 at 0:02
  • 2
    Advice from someone who's sorting out this sort of thing on a much more mature site, sort this out right now while there aren't many questions to edit.
    – Tom Medley
    Jun 18, 2012 at 11:13
  • @OliverSalzburg: It won't affect search, google will still match all pages with Raspberry Pi. IMO, any abbreviation is OK--it won't affect much. (Maybe not in titles though).
    – Manishearth
    Jun 26, 2012 at 12:22
7

I don't think it matters all that much. It's pretty clear what is being spoken about so there's no confusion. The only thing is that it looks untidy to me.

Rasp Pi is neither one nor the other though. Put a stop to that!

4

I would rather not take such a hard line on people using abbreviated versions of the name. It is pretty clear what someone means within this site when they use the abbreviated terms. Given the site has the full name "Raspberry Pi" on every single page of the site, adding it to the title and text of every question mentioning the device seems overkill and not beneficial in SEO terms. People will soon get annoyed if moderators swoop in and edit every post just to change every occurrence of "RPi" into "Raspberry Pi".

Lets not let our own OCD cloud things :)

3

I don't think it is worth worrying much about.

The site (if successful) will have a constant influx of new users.

Even if we (beta testers) establish a standard, we cannot expect the new users to follow it.

And it's probably not worth editing posts to correct someone who says "RPi" instead of "RasPi", and that will often fall short of the minimum edit size (so only moderators would be able to do it anyway, and it would not be a good use of their time.)

1

We should be consistent. We should allow either "Raspberry Pi" or "RPi".

1
  • 1
    That's fair - typing out "Raspberry Pi" all the time will be irritating.
    – Jon Egerton
    Jun 29, 2012 at 8:21
1

1: From an SEO point of view, if people are going to use lots of different abbreviations when searching Google for stuff, would it not be better if this site had lots of each variation, so that all bases are covered?

2: Sounds like it'll become an annoying thing to have to edit/moderate for.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .