Category talk:Bulletin board systems

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Bulletin board systems or BBS?

Discussion moved from User talk:Radman1

Hi,

Is there a reason you're moving stuff from Category:Bulletin board systems to Category:BBS? Abbreviations are confusing, especially in categories. I think you should leave the categories as they are. Also, articles should never belong to a category as well as its parent. Rhobite 22:09, Oct 29, 2004 (UTC)

Hi Rhobite. I tend to disagree, I don't think it is confusing. Perhaps we need a more specific BBS category called "Dial-Up BBS" which would mitigate this. As it is, the existing "bulletin board system" category is a huge mess, cross-categorizing dial-up bulletin board systems with other un-related articles which still qualify to some degree as a "bulletin board system" but not in the accepted interpretation of the word. Your thoughts? [[User:Radman1|RaD Man (talk)]] 22:27, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Just a thought, are you Japanese? The Japanese are unique in their use of the word BBS to represent any web forum. Perhaps that's the misunderstanding? When I get some time I'm going to change all the categories back to "Bulletin board systems" since that's a much better name. It has nothing to do with whether the category is organized. Rhobite 20:11, Oct 30, 2004 (UTC)

Not Japanese but I am very familiar with some of the more prominent web-based Japanese BBSes (2CH.net, Mixi, et cetera). My point is that there needs to be a categorical dillineation between dial-up BBS and web-based BBS or any other future misinterpretation or broad interpretation of the term. Rather than move them back to the expanded bulletin board system, why not seperate the articles into 2 new categories: Dial-up BBS and Web forum BBS. [[User:Radman1|RaD Man (talk)]] 20:50, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Granted BBS is a common use acronym, but Wikipedia urges that acronym use be kept to a minimum. Perhaps a disambiguation page for the category should be placed instead? Alkivar 21:53, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I'm open to anything that creates a clear distinction between dial-up and web-based bulletin board systems. [[User:Radman1|RaD Man (talk)]] 22:47, 30 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Hi Radman, I've moved everything back to Category:Bulletin board systems. Also note I created a new category Category:Bulletin board system software, which is a subcategory so please don't add articles to both. I nominated Category:BBS and Category:BBS software software for deletion because they're misnamed and redundant. As for your other question, which is unrelated to the use of abbreviations, web forums should go in Category:Internet forums. In my opinion, the only articles which should be listed in Category:Bulletin board systems are ones related to dial-up or telnet BBSes. Rhobite 03:03, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

Unfortunately I think this is a short-sighted solution because, as you've already pointed out, cultures such as the Japanese currently use BBS "to represent any web forum." Including the articles within a bit more self-descriptive category only serves as a proactive measure to prevent further confusion. Perhaps we should move this discussion to the actual talk page of the category. [[User:Radman1|RaD Man (talk)]] 04:08, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

And how does does it solve this problem to change the categories to confusing abbreviations? That doesn't seem to be a valid response to a legitimate problem. I guess I don't understand what you're proposing - do you want dialup board info in category "Bulletin board systems" and web board info in category "BBS"? Why? Rhobite 14:11, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

I'll add that this is the English Wikipedia and we really don't have to cave to Japanese usage. For our purposes, "BBS" in Japanese translates to "Internet forum" in English-- and we already have a category for that. 2ch is correctly listed in "Internet forums" already. We already have this category distinction you're proposing. The text of Category:Bulletin board systems already says it's just for dialup and text-based boards. You can make that even more specific if you want. And if there are any articles that you don't feel belong in the category, please remove them or bring them up here. Rhobite 14:22, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)