Forum:Prefix war: Doctor Who Adventures vs. Doctor Who Annuals

Two years ago, we discussed the need to change our prefixes for material arising from Doctor Who Adventures (currently DWAM) and Doctor Who annuals (currently DWA).

It was agreed that it needed to be changed, as DWA is more logically the abbreviation for the magazine.

Since then, we've also implemented changes to the manual of style which require magazine issues to be abbreviated according to the magazine name. This would make the first issue of Doctor Who Adventures DWA 1, since the word magazine is not part of the title. So now, the problem is even more acute, since we have issues (and related categories, like category:DWA cover galleries abbreviated DWA, but use DWA when citing the stories.

'As I said, though, the question of whether'' we should change the abbreviation has already been decided by prior forum discussion. There was no doubt in that earlier discussion that DWA should mean Doctor Who Adventures.'''

What's still at issue is how to prefix Doctor Who annual. And the problem here is that the current prefix of DWA doesn't even mean Doctor Who annuals. It means all annuals. So stories from K9 Annual 1983 would still be prefixed DWA. And it doesn't mean things strictly labelled "annual", but things which come out on an annual basis. Stories from Doctor Who Storybook 2007 would still get the label DWA.

I personally think ANN is the most intuitive abbreviation for things coming from annuals. However, it was pointed out that this abbreviation would make little sense for stuff coming from Doctor Who Yearbook 1992 or Doctor Who Storybook 2010.

Thus, the compromise AYS was put forward, meanning "Annuals, Yearbooks and Storybooks]]. However, I think that bot scripts now known to me in 2011, which weren't 2 years ago, gives us the flexibility to avoid lumping the Annuals, Storybooks and Yearbooks together.  We could bypass AYS altogether and go for the more specific:
 * DAN - Dalek Anual
 * K9AN - K9 Annual
 * DWAN - Doctor Who Annual(with the proviso that an IDW annual is prefixed IDW)
 * DWS - Doctor Who Storybook
 * DWY - Doctor Who Yearbook

Does this sound like a reasonable plan? 13:24:54 Fri 02 Sep 2011


 * I agree. If I was to come onto this wiki for my first time, and go onto a random page and see it had DWAN as it's source, I would automatically presume it Doctor Who Adventures. Everything you have though and asked about does seem very reasonable. MM/ Want to talk? 13:29, September 2, 2011 (UTC)


 * Yes, very reasonable. That is a brilliant plan. I'm all for it. BroadcastCorp (talk | contribs) 13:28, September 2, 2011 (UTC)

It seems to me (harrumph, harrumph!) that this could be solved by making the tags longer, which is obviously not wanted. It occurs to me that DWA might be replaced by ADV. Boblipton 14:03, September 2, 2011 (UTC)

Closing
This issue has had more than a month to fester. Two admin voted in favor. The motion is deemed to have been carried without serious objection. Boblipton's suggestion, ADV, whilst logical, received no additional support, and therefore thrown onto the same scrap heap where lies ANN. The following changes have therefore been made: 17:53: Sun 09 Oct 2011
 * Prefixes have now been created according to the list given in the original 2 September proposal
 * Tardis:list of prefixes has been appropriately altered.
 * individual stories have been given appropriate prefixes, wherever they have been cited.
 * DWAM has been deleted
 * Category structure has been altered so that DWS, IDW, DWY are no longer under category:Doctor Who annuals. (There is now, for instance, category:Doctor Who Storybooks.)
 * The process of detangling the myriad redirects to Doctor Who annual has begun. Doctor Who Storybook, for instance, now leads to its own page.  Other similar pages will follow, such that, ultimately, Doctor Who annual is only about those books which have "Doctor Who" and "annual" on their covers.