OOtS abbreviation

[Ron Miel]

The comic is called THE Order Of The Stick, but everyone keeps abbreviating it to OOtS. What happened to the leading T? Why don't we call it TOOTS instead? It would roll off the tongue better.

[Itamarcu]

I think about it every time I see this word(about 100-200 times a day?), and I don't know why too.
Maybe people think it sounds like "Tooths". Yes. I KNOW it's spelled "Teeth"!

On the other way, The Giant calls it OOTS, and I don't want to angry him or something so I write OotS and not TOotS.

[Ancalagon]

Ever checked an alphabetical order of... things?

Order of the stick would show up as

[...]
Order of the Stick, the
[...]

between "Nautics for Beginners" and "Pneumatics for Experts".

[Tass]

Because "the" is a small insignificant word. Capitalizing the first 't' would not make sense when the 'o' and 't' for "of the" is not. tOotS would look silly, beginning with a noncapitalized letter. In addition it is actually called just "Order of the Stick" in the column to the left, although it is admittedly "The Order of the Stick" in the forum.

[Ikialev]

tOotS would look silly, beginning with a noncapitalized letter
What about "iPod"?

[Morquard]

It's "The Order of the Stick" above the comics too, but most seem to write it as OotS, and I'm fine with that.

The word "the" gets often swallowed in abbreviations, so its nothing big.

[Hurkyl]

What about "iPod"?
That looks silly too. :smallamused:

[Carteeg_Struve]

This is the same reason why people who read 'The Wheel of Time' abbreviate it 'WoT' instead of 'tWoT'.

Of course having an acronym that results in calling a series something that sounds like uh.... *cough*... Well that doesn't help either. :smallbiggrin:

[Yiuel]

LotR (The Lord of the Ring), FotR (The Fellowship of the Ring), RotK (The Return of the King) everyone?

It seems quite common to leave out the initial "The" for abreviations. Or most (or, at least, a lot) would begin with a "t".

[Larkspur]

For the same reason "The United States of America" is not abbreviated "TUSA."

[Athaniar]

What about "iPod"?

They're different.

Also, OotS or OOTS? The Giant seems to prefer the latter, although I don't know why.

[The Blackbird]

It was discussed why on this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7333&page=6) page from a loooong time ago.

It's near the bottom of the page.

[Optimystik]

That looks silly too. :smallamused:

This


It was discussed why on this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7333&page=6) page from a loooong time ago.

It's near the bottom of the page.

It's settled :smalltongue: Thread over!
(Just kidding, abbreviate it how you want)

[NerfTW]

It was discussed why on this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7333&page=6) page from a loooong time ago.

It's near the bottom of the page.

Just so you know, people can have different settings for how many messages show per page. Default, it's there, but when I sign in, it's many pages before. You should link directly to the post in question by clicking the white number on the top right of the post.


Also, here's why he doesn't bother with the titles!


Oh, I get it.

I don't really think of those as "titles" for the strips though. I put them there largely because most people aren't going to remember what number is next, and I wanted people to be able to go to the message board and see whether there is a new strip or not.

[Ron Miel]

Which post in that thread does he mean?

[The Blackbird]

Just so you know, people can have different settings for how many messages show per page. Default, it's there, but when I sign in, it's many pages before. You should link directly to the post in question by clicking the white number on the top right of the post.



Oh, my bad.

Well I wasn't going to link to the post because I thought the couple posts before it made it make more sense.

EDIT:
Which post in that thread does he mean?

This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=271976&postcount=176)

[DNDmasterz]

[QUOTE=Also, OotS or OOTS? The Giant seems to prefer the latter, although I don't know why.[/QUOTE]

I am assuming he prefers "OOTS" because its the title of the order, and in most english lituriture the titles have the first letter in every word capitalized.

[Athaniar]

It was discussed why on this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7333&page=6) page from a loooong time ago.

It's near the bottom of the page.

Back then, it seems the Giant was as active as any other forumite. I guess he has more work to do nowadays.

[Ron Miel]

Back then, it seems the Giant was as active as any other forumite. I guess he has more work to do nowadays.

I understand that the reason is that he doesn't want to read people's predictions about future plots, and have to keep changing his plans if people guess right.

[Lissou]

Also, here's why he doesn't bother with the titles!

What do you mean, he doesn't bother with the titles? I find most of them pretty inventive and funny, as much part of the strip as anything else. Some are obviously meant to mislead you, etc.
A big part of reading a new strip for me is to try and guess what it's going to be about based on its title before I click the link.

[NerfTW]

I meant to say "On the comic itself", as opposed to just the sidebar like he does now. It's just there to indicate a new comic without having to keep track of the number.

[Kish]

I understand that the reason is that he doesn't want to read people's predictions about future plots, and have to keep changing his plans if people guess right.
He never changed his plans. He said in the FAQ that he found it frustrating when people guessed his future plots and it made him want to change them. He said on the forum, a while ago, that he'd never actually changed his plots based on posts.

I suspect he doesn't post on the forum now more because, well, it didn't exactly seem to be good for his blood pressure when he did read the forum more.

[Starscream]

I think we should call it "That Webcomic About Dungeons & Dragons' Little Eccentricities".

Only problem is the acronym is TWADDLE.

[veti]

I suspect he doesn't post on the forum now more because, well, it didn't exactly seem to be good for his blood pressure when he did read the forum more.

There are also a heck of a lot more posts in the Forum now. Back in those days it was what, a dozen posts per strip, max?

Seriously, I don't envy anyone who has to read everything that's posted now. I think he still looks in from time to time, but much, much, much more selectively for his own sanity.

[Nimrod's Son]

Back then, it seems the Giant was as active as any other forumite.
Back then, he didn't have thousands of readers and he didn't write the strip for a living.

If he was posting as regularly now as he did back then, he'd have to deal with nutcases on a daily basis. Not to mention keep answering the same questions repeatedly. Lurking in the background is really his only option at this point.

[Liwen]

Wait so the more you are popular, the more you have to fade in the background to avoid going insane?

That explains so much. Like why every little backwater religious movement usually has a easily recognized leader of flesh and bones, while every major one has a god(s) that became so popular he had to completely disappear in the background all the time so we never see them again. Back in the days, we could write entire religious books related to their direct influence because their movements were still nerdy and rejected by most.

It also explains the common behavior of superstars.

Which means Rich is getting closer and closer to arise to godhood :smallbiggrin:.

[Nimrod's Son]

Wait so the more you are popular, the more you have to fade in the background to avoid going insane?
More accurately, to try to avoid going insane. It'll get you before long anyway. :smallamused: Fame's really not all it's cracked up to be.

[Puns de León]

From some of his older posts, I'm also under the impression that he had some real-life acquaintances on here congratulating him on the success of OOTS in its infancy, and since it was a more private thing back then, he was more inclined to take part in discussion about it, perhaps in order to advertise it.
It's like how the first Ray's Pizza had Ray making everything himself, and by the time it grew into a franchise, Ray was able to retire to the background of working corporate. Luckily, Rich still makes every strip himself. :smallsmile:


Note: I have no idea if a Ray's Pizza actually exists, I'm just using it as a distinctly probable example. Though I do think I might have heard it on Seinfeld.

[Liwen]

More accurately, to try to avoid going insane. It'll get you before long anyway. :smallamused: Fame's really not all it's cracked up to be.

What about money? Does having low fame and huge money still let you have a blast in life?

[Nimrod's Son]

I'll have to get back to you on that. :smallwink:

[Itamarcu]

Are we still on the topic? Because I think we are far from it... (Ray's pizza? Fame? Small Winks?!? How does it answers the question?)

[Nimrod's Son]

Are we still on the topic? Because I think we are far from it... (Ray's pizza? Fame? Small Winks?!? How does it answers the question?)
The question was answered pretty definitively in post #12 and has been elaborated on since for good measure. The topic is pretty much done, so a few of us are having an idle chat if you don't mind.

Life would be pretty dull if people never went off on tangents.

[NerfTW]

Wait so the more you are popular, the more you have to fade in the background to avoid going insane?

That explains so much. Like why every little backwater religious movement usually has a easily recognized leader of flesh and bones, while every major one has a god(s) that became so popular he had to completely disappear in the background all the time so we never see them again. Back in the days, we could write entire religious books related to their direct influence because their movements were still nerdy and rejected by most.

It also explains the common behavior of superstars.

Which means Rich is getting closer and closer to arise to godhood :smallbiggrin:.

So close to straying into bad territory, but oh so hilarious. :smallbiggrin:

Watch "The Man From Earth" for a version of this at one point.

[Ron Miel]

The question was answered pretty definitively in post #12 and has been elaborated on since for good measure. The topic is pretty much done, so a few of us are having an idle chat if you don't mind.

But I still think that TOOTS is a better acronym.

[Nimrod's Son]

Maybe Frederick Hibbert owns the rights.