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A similar question was asked here: Should the tag be air-traffic-control or atc (and other abbreviations)?

I agree that the tags should not use acronyms because there are WAY too many of them, and it makes it much harder for new people to understand the tags/questions.

That being said, , , and others are too long for the current tag system (limited to 25 characters).

I would very much like to see some consistency when it comes to these abbreviations, and not just say "don't use it because it won't fit, but use it everywhere else".

Any suggestions?

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  • $\begingroup$ All tags for regulatory bodies can be acronyms, as that is how they get referred to in popular media -> FAA, DGCA, NTSB, etc. The more technical stuff which would be understandable to only experts on the site should use complete names where possible, so as to allow some degree of accessibility/understandability for novices, newbies. $\endgroup$
    – asheeshr
    Dec 26, 2013 at 4:34
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    $\begingroup$ We may, at some point, want to be a bit more specific with some of the regulatory-agency names (there may be more than one "DGCA" or "FAA" in the world and one day we might find that out). I wouldn't worry about that now though -- if and when that need arises we can always create the more specific tags and bribe Stack Exchange employees to rename/retag existing stuff if there's too many for us to handle manually. (I hear they like unicorn meat.) $\endgroup$
    – voretaq7
    Dec 26, 2013 at 5:15
  • $\begingroup$ @voretaq7: I agree, although expanding the acronyms would help with that. $\endgroup$
    – Lnafziger
    Dec 26, 2013 at 5:17
  • $\begingroup$ @lnafziger Not if both FAAs expand to "Federal-Aviation-Administration" (hypothetical case - I can't think of any real-world overlaps, but the second I rule it out as a possibility someone will come along with one just to break my model, that's just how my luck works!) $\endgroup$
    – voretaq7
    Dec 26, 2013 at 5:18
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    $\begingroup$ @voretaq7: Well, I did say "help" and not "eliminate". :-) $\endgroup$
    – Lnafziger
    Dec 26, 2013 at 5:20
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    $\begingroup$ If multiple countries have the same regulatory agency acronyms, we could use something along the lines of faa-usa and faa-mexico (agency-country). Retagging existing questions having a tag to another tag is a simple operation for site mods. So, as long as tag usage is consistent, mass retagging from tag A to B will not be a problem. $\endgroup$
    – asheeshr
    Dec 26, 2013 at 5:35
  • $\begingroup$ @AsheeshR Agreed - in fact that's almost certainly what will happen when we start having overlaps that differ only by country. Tag renaming can get a little gnarly, but it is a solved problem. $\endgroup$
    – voretaq7
    Dec 26, 2013 at 7:04
  • $\begingroup$ See related question: meta.aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/130/… $\endgroup$
    – Lnafziger
    Dec 30, 2013 at 14:46
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    $\begingroup$ I'd say that the US FAA is sufficiently more prominent than any other organization sharing those initials that "FAA" means that by default and the Ruritanian FAA would be "faa-ruritania". (In much the same way that, in English, "the Royal Air Force" implies the British one and we say "the Royal Netherlands Air Force" even though the Dutch name translates to just "Royal Air Force".) $\endgroup$
    – David Richerby
    May 16, 2015 at 17:35

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As AsheehsR said, I think we can certainly use abbreviations for the regulatory agencies (CAA, FAA, JAA, DGCA, EASA, NTSB, etc. are terms I think most people in the Aviation community (pilots, controllers, mechanics) are familiar with, and it seems pretty natural to use them as tags). We can create at least the Tag Wiki summary sections for these tags to help those who might NOT be familiar figure out what the tag is for.

When it comes to things like and for "Federal Air Regulations" stuff I think the same logic holds - as long as we explain what the tag is people should figure out how/when to use it.

(This question has reminded me that it's about time to go on another tag-wiki-writing mini spree. As a public service announcement, please remember that you can get some cheap-and-easy rep by proposing good tag wikis. I should not be the only one milking this particular reputation-cow :)

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