I notice RAN is creating a lot of articles with, like, "aft1987" or "bef1987" in the title. I really hate abbreviations. While I'm largely a kibitzer in this area (since I don't deal with people), for future articles can we just use "before" and "after"? (And "about" instead of "c1765"?) Respectfully, Zephyrinus 21:05, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
In a word, people can and do, do anything they like. However, we do have a convention in place that calls for "aft" and "bef". That particular convention was put in place in order to achieve some consistency in how articles were named. It was something of a compromise: using > and < does not work well in titles. using "a" and "b" is a little too abbreviated. Using "after" and "before" is a little too long, leading to cumbersome titles. (Early on I tended to create fairly complex titles---had I to do overagain, I'd shorten them up. Long titles create display problems, and you decrease the odds of hitting it with a raw guess.)
In truth, It doesn't much matter what the convention is, as long it is used consistently. I don't believe we'd be advised to change that convention at this date, as there are many articles aleady in place following it. Bill 23:09, 9 June 2007 (UTC)
I agree with Bill - aft, bef, c. So does Family Tree Maker. Zeph may ponder on the fact that "don't" is an abbreviation. (:-) Robin Patterson 01:01, 11 June 2007 (UTC)