Correct title of the comic please

[drmike]

Greets:

I've been doing some post holiday shopping via Amazon and while doing so, have been correcting a few listings over there.

I have to ask:

Is the title of the comic series:

The Order of the Stick ~ or ~ Order of the Stick

Amazon has it both ways. The book titles include the "The" while other places list it without. Even Ookoodook has it both ways.

Not trying to step on any toes. Just the MLS within me trying to get it correctly listed.

thanks
-drmike

[Kish]

Looking at the top of each comic page, and at the top of the cast page, it looks like it's:

The Order of the Stick.

[Ghost Nappa]

The calendar and books have "The" in front, while the sidebar on your left has the name as "Order of the Stick."


Conclusion: Both are acceptable.

[Reddish Mage]

Also, see the forum title, and the title of the trade paperbacks.

[Gift Jeraff]

An Order of the Stick

There are many of them.

[Bulldog Psion]

Over in the margin, it says "Order of the Stick," so I assume the "the" is an unnecessary addition. Probably. :smallwink:

To clarify: my opinion is that the comic is called "Order of the Stick," while the characters themselves comprise "THE Order of the Stick." This opinion is based on basically nothing, so don't look for any deep justification or amazing information that you overlooked. :smallbiggrin:

[Porthos]

Over in the margin, it says "Order of the Stick," so I assume the "the" is an unnecessary addition. Probably. :smallwink:

To clarify: my opinion is that the comic is called "Order of the Stick," while the characters themselves comprise "THE Order of the Stick." This opinion is based on basically nothing, so don't look for any deep justification or amazing information that you overlooked. :smallbiggrin:

If you look at the comic itself though, it clearly says "The Order of the Stick" at the top of each comic. So there is a flaw in your logic. :smalltongue:

Personally, I like the fact that the sidebar says "Order of the Stick" without the "the". Makes searching this subforum via Google easier. :smallwink:

[Mammal]

Well, if the correct name is 'The Order of the Stick,' the acronym is TOOTS, and I am immature enough to think fart jokes are funny.

So I vote in favor of The Order of the Stick.

[AKA_Bait]

Chiming in to agree with those saying the definite article ("the") is part of the title of the comic. The "Comics (http://www.giantitp.com/Comics.html)" page here also includes the "the".

[Viros]

I'd say the "the" isn't part of the official name, as it is always abbreviated OOTS in Rich's posts, products, etc. One could argue that it is traditional to leave articles out of abbreviations, but he does include the second "the" in the 'T' part of OOTS. This implies that the second "the" is part of the name and the first "the" is being used as an article of specification in the normal sense.

[ChristianSt]

Imo the proper officially title is "The Order of the Stick", with "Order of the Stick" being a (imo also correct) alternative second spelling.

I think the abbreviation "OotS" is used because "TOotS" might distract from being an abbreviation because toots is a proper word in itself (also the "The" sounds weird in some sentences imo). I don't know if there was in the beginning someone who did use "TOotS", but "OotS" (and different capitalization thereof, mostly OOTS) are officially the correct abbreviation [on the Kickstarter comments there is also the abbreviation "nOotS", which signals that there is a new OotS].

[Porthos]

I'd say the "the" isn't part of the official name, as it is always abbreviated OOTS in Rich's posts, products, etc. One could argue that it is traditional to leave articles out of abbreviations, but he does include the second "the" in the 'T' part of OOTS. This implies that the second "the" is part of the name and the first "the" is being used as an article of specification in the normal sense.

So why is it in the TITLE of the actual comic then? :smallsmile:

I mean, look at it. It's right there in black grey and white. :smalltongue:

As for why Rich abbreivates it as OOTS and not TOOTS or tOotS? I suspect it is just force of habit (he liked how OOTS looked versus TOOTS) and he doesn't care about it being the 'correct' way to abbreviate things. :smallwink:

[Keltest]

Im going to go out on a limb and say that barring an official statement from the Giant, both are correct, and which one you use depends on the conversation

"I want an Order of the Stick book for Christmas"
vs
"You should check out The Order of the Stick sometime, its amazing!"

[Tiiba]

An Order of the Stick

There are many of them.

That sounds like something you can get at a restaurant.

[Siosilvar]

"Order of the Stick[, The]"

[NerdyKris]

Given that literally every piece of merchandise (on the merchandise itself) and the comic pages themselves say "The Order of the Stick", I think we can safely say with 100% certainty that it's "The Order of the Stick".

[Porthos]

Im going to go out on a limb and say that barring an official statement from the Giant, both are correct, and which one you use depends on the conversation

"I want an Order of the Stick book for Christmas"
vs
"You should check out The Order of the Stick sometime, its amazing!"

Casual versus formal, in other words. Or context dependent, as you say.

...

Man, this proves, if people were still in dobut, that we really will argue over anything related to the comic. :smalltongue:

[Bulldog Psion]

If you look at the comic itself though, it clearly says "The Order of the Stick" at the top of each comic. So there is a flaw in your logic. :smalltongue:

Personally, I like the fact that the sidebar says "Order of the Stick" without the "the". Makes searching this subforum via Google easier. :smallwink:

Would you believe I never noticed the text up there? Not once? :smalleek:

I've read through the archive multiple times and that escaped me every time. This is alarming.

[137beth]

The comic is called The Order of a Stick.
The group is called An Order of the Stick.
The abbreviation, OOTS, stands for Order of the Scribble, or alternatively, Order of Twig Sticks.

[warrl]

It is very common for an initial "the" in a title to be dropped or ignored in various contexts. Alphabetizing, use in a sentence where a "the" *before* the title would be appropriate (to avoid consecutive "the"'s)...

So it becomes almost-universally acceptable to drop such a "the" in any context where it doesn't create ambiguity.

(If you're comparing two movies titled, say, "Vampire" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1624996/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_2) and "The Vampire" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051150/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_2)... you better be consistent about using the complete title of each one.)

[Porthos]

Would you believe I never noticed the text up there? Not once? :smalleek:

I've read through the archive multiple times and that escaped me every time. This is alarming.

Just proves the truism about 'learning something new every day'. :smallwink:

[Crimsonmantle]

on the other hand, over on the left it says

"Comics
Order of the Stick" and then the link to the current strip, while toppish on this page it says "The Order of the Stick A forum for discussion of Rich Burlew's stick figure fantasy webcomic."

So ignoring all other evidence to the contrary, I conclude the comic is called Order of etc, while The Order of etc is this forum.:smallamused:

[martianmister]

Order of the Stick

[Sir_Leorik]

I have to ask:

Is the title of the comic series:

The Order of the Stick ~ or ~ Order of the Stick


Yes. :smallwink:

[jere7my]

Generally, the most authoritative source for a title is what's actually printed on the published work, unless errata has been released. Since both the electronic version and the physical book include the "The," I'd call that the official title, though it's not wrong to drop the article (and sometimes it's correct to do so—"The Beatles" is the name of the band, but "I got some Beatles memorabilia for Christmas" is better than "I got some The Beatles memorabilia for Christmas").

[Ghost Nappa]

Yes. :smallwink:

You're my hero. :smallamused:

[Sir_Leorik]

You're my hero. :smallamused:

I do my best to battle the forces of pedantry. :smalltongue:

[WalkingTarget]

Title page and title page verso of print collections include "the" in the title (which is generally where catalogers go for the "official" titles of books).

Library of Congress catalog record includes "the" in the Main Title field for the 2 books they have (OtOoPC and NCftPB).

WorldCat.org includes "the" in the titles it has records for.

Librarian consensus seems to be that "the" is part of the official title of the work.

[Sir_Leorik]

Title page and title page verso of print collections include "the" in the title (which is generally where catalogers go for the "official" titles of books).

Library of Congress catalog record includes "the" in the Main Title field for the 2 books they have (OtOoPC and NCftPB).
WorldCat.org includes "the" in the titles it has records for.

Librarian consensus seems to be that "the" is part of the official title of the work.

What! The Library of Congress only has two OotS titles in their esteemed collection! I'm going to write to Hon. Charles Schumer and find out how we can right this travesty!

[Nimrod's Son]

Wikipedia says "The" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_of_the_Stick). Wikipedia is never wrong.

[Sir_Leorik]

Wikipedia says "The" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_of_the_Stick). Wikipedia is never wrong.

Citation needed.

[Keltest]

Citation needed.

Don't muddle the issue with facts.

[Cavenskull]

Citation needed.

You are hereby fined $1500 for posting in this topic and must appear in another thread (to be determined later) in order to defend your post.

There, now you have been cited.

[davidbofinger]

Reminds me of the Tripartite Technical Cooperation Panel, a US-UK-Canada defence technology exchange agreement. When they brought in Australia and New Zealand they wanted to keep the abbreviation TTCP so they renamed it "The Technical Cooperation Panel".

[137beth]

Wikipedia says "The" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Order_of_the_Stick). Wikipedia The Wikipedia is never wrong.

Fixed that for ya!

[Gift Jeraff]

Elan didn't include "The" in the most recent strip. :eek:

[Porthos]

Elan didn't include "The" in the most recent strip. :eek:

He's Chaotic. :smallwink:

[DeliaP]

Reminds me of the Tripartite Technical Cooperation Panel, a US-UK-Canada defence technology exchange agreement. When they brought in Australia and New Zealand they wanted to keep the abbreviation TTCP so they renamed it "The Technical Cooperation Panel".

They should have called it "The TTCP Cooperation Panel".

(I like recursive abbreviations. There should be more of them).

[DeliaP]

Given that literally every piece of merchandise (on the merchandise itself) and the comic pages themselves say "The Order of the Stick", I think we can safely say with 100% certainty that it's "The Order of the Stick".

Hi, welcome to the Order of the Stick discussion forums. Here you will find there is absolutely nothing that can be safely stated with 100% certainty.



Man, this proves, if people were still in dobut, that we really will argue over anything related to the comic. :smalltongue:

I disagree! :smalltongue:::smallwink: