Method to the Scientific Name Abbreviation Madness Revealed

Aphonopelma2002

Arachnopeon
Joined
Sep 7, 2003
Messages
14
Hello All,

I've had a lot of email regarding my method of posting tarantula species for sale so I thought maybe I should give a review of how it works.

Most of the tarantulas for sale on these boards and elsewhere have scientific names established for them. Probably 9 out of 10 of you know that a Chilean Rose tarantula has the scientific name of Grammostola rosea. However if you ask 10 people the common name for a "Chilean Rose" tarantula you will likely get "Chilean Rose", or "Red Rosie", or "Chilean Flame", or "Rosie", or "Chilean Pink", etc. The bottom line is that you will hear different common names for likely the same tarantula.

Personally I like to know what I'm buying when I'm buying a tarantula or anything else for that matter. Common names may or may not get you what you wanted. Here's a good analogy for the common name vs. scientific name usage. Most of you have some decent computer skills (otherwise you probably wouldn't be reading this). If you needed to upgrade your computers operating system you'd go to your local computer place and likely ask for windows. "Windows" is the common name for all of Microsofts windows operating systems. Now likely you would want a specific windows version to upgrade too. If you only ask for "windows" how likely are you to get XP which is what you need? I'm not advocating that common names should be abbandoned just that they aren't foolproof in buying/discussing tarantulas. Scientific names are foolproof in that once they are set for a species it only represents that one species. The downside is that they are hard to spell and pronounce.

Now as for my system, heres how it works. All the abbreviations are based on the scientific name list which I compiled from mutiple sources over the past few years. It's frequently changing to match what the arachnologists are posting for new species or changes to existing classification. You take the first 2 letters of the genus and the first 3 letters of the species to get the abbreviation. Here are a few examples:

Acanthoscurria geniculata ACGEN
Aphonopelma anax APANA
Avicularia versicolor AVVER
Brachypelma smithi BRSMI
Grammostola rosea GRROS
Hysterocrates gigas HYGIG
Lasiodora parahybana LAPAR
Poecilotheria regalis POREG

Pretty straightforward right?

For those of you who do lots of email or IM's using this system saves a huge amount of time typing. Granted you and the person you're contacting must know the system however its pretty intuitive. Heres the current list:

http://www.scottstarantulas.com/scilist.htm

Ok lets review:

Common names - Big gray area
Scientific names - Apple to Apple comparision, hard to spell and pronounce.
Scott's abbreviation system - Apple to Apple comparison, easy to learn, no carpel tunnel damage from repeated typing of long common or scientific names.

Yes I could copyright this system but I'd rather just see it help all of us communicate more clearly.

Comments and critisisim welcome however I won't be giving up my system, it works too damn well.

Thanks for you time, now go buy a new pet tarantula.

Scott (the guy who now suffers carpel tunnel from typing this) ;)
 
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kellygirl

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 1, 2002
Messages
1,055
I guess your idea has a good basis but, in practice, I doubt it will prove to be good for your business or for your average hobbyist.

I have seen your pricelists before and found them to be confusing, even though I was familiar with every species on your list. I couldn't just browse the pricelist--I had to refer to website to decipher your little code. Maybe that's a business tactic of yours or something (as this thread probably is) but it basically just discouraged me from the get-go. Not everyone is familiar with scientific names as it is. In order to figure out your "code," a person must have that foundational knowledge.

Why not just stick with a good thing? Instead of making things more complicated, you could include a pronunciation key on your site. Of course, that would just be more work for you and we wouldn't want to worsen that carpel tunnel, eh? ;) ;P

Just my two cents! :D

-Kelly
 

bigTimeLoser89

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 4, 2003
Messages
54
pretty easy to understand, easy for you so you dont have to type out those long scientific names.
 

rapunzel

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 17, 2003
Messages
750
my reply that I posted somewhere else on accident:

i couldnt understand it.
In all honesty, I was there, and I checked out those but I got very frustrated trying to decipher their names, and if you dont want to type out the entire scientific name, you could just type the first letter of the first name and then the last part of the scientific name..ie: a genic. Then again, there are many dealers who put the scientific name AND a common name, thereby accomodating both the extremely adept and informed tarantuOlogist and the beginner.

Or then again, you could number them 1-100, etc. and have a number code posted on the page so that if I wanted to know what number 23 was, I could look up and see #23= b. smithi, for example.

I am just learning the scientific names for the tarantulas. And, deciphering codes was never a strong trait for me.
 

Mendi

Arachnowolf
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 19, 2002
Messages
1,385
Personally, as a buyer, I look for the Latin name, preferably with the common name as well, not someone's private code. If you personally don't like typing it, there are enough places out on the web you can just copy and paste it. I'm sorry, but if I were a newbie, I would be completely confused by your system. Even though I'm not a newbie I find it confusing and all the CAPS in your code not pleasant. Why not do the shortening of the names the recognized way that is used by most scientists like Aphonopelma seemanni becomes A. seemanni. Your codes are useful to you, but to others they aren't very helpful at all
 

Mojo Jojo

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 3, 2002
Messages
2,122
I don't like the all caps system either. If you were really intent on using this abbreviation system, I would at least prefer

AcGen to ACGEN

But honestly, I would still prefer to see A. geniculata or Acanthoscurria geniculata.

I do think that it is still a good idea to use the most common name too. It just help people who are just getting into the hobby.

Jon
 

Lopez

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 18, 2003
Messages
2,040
I appreciate your efforts, but I find it a lot easier to type and read full lscientific names.
 

Buspirone

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 10, 2003
Messages
1,064
IMO:

Why would I want to do business with someone who wants the customer to cater to them? It doesn't sound like a very good business strategy to be condescending and narcissistic toward potential customers because they don't know or aren't willing to learn your internal cataloging system because you don't want to make an effort to communicate clearly and spell out the actual words. Its easier to deal with someone else than to have to use a FartMan decoder ring to read your price list. Your abbreviation system is easy and simple for you but it goes against what every enthusiast(read potential customer) is used to seeing.

These are all common ways to list this species and people understand them:

Acanthoscurria geniculata
A. geniculata
A. genic.

Your way:

ACGEN

Sure I can figure it out but since I'm the customer why should I have to bother since I got the pocket full O' greenbacks. You want the greenbacks and I want a spider. Now in addition to supplying the money in the transaction you want me to do more work. Nope.....I' going to click on another link and hit swift, hoke or one of the other many dealer sites who go the extra few letters for my greenbacks and don't require me to think any harder than necessary to part ways with my hard earned money. But thats just me and I'm silly like that :D
 

Crotalus

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 14, 2002
Messages
2,433
Originally posted by Aphonopelma2002

For those of you who do lots of email or IM's using this system saves a huge amount of time typing. Granted you and the person you're contacting must know the system however its pretty intuitive. Heres the current list:
Lazy

/Lelle
 

oxbaker

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Messages
88
Re: Re: Method to the Scientific Name Abbreviation Madness Revealed

Originally posted by ArachnoJoost
So, why isn't your user name AP2002?
haha!

touche
 

Bearskin10

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 13, 2003
Messages
1,405
Re: Re: Method to the Scientific Name Abbreviation Madness Revealed

Originally posted by ArachnoJoost
So, why isn't your user name AP2002?
Don't you mean AP200 ;P ;P Hehehe
 

kellygirl

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Sep 1, 2002
Messages
1,055
Re: Re: Method to the Scientific Name Abbreviation Madness Revealed

Originally posted by ArachnoJoost
So, why isn't your user name AP2002?

LOL, I thought about that too! *giggle*


Sorry Scott, I think you may have to break down and try to cater to your potential customers' needs. Look at Kelly Swift for instance. He has a strong business and rockin website but, for the longest time, he didn't put the species in alphabetical order so it was near impossible to maneuver the site if you were looking for a particular species. He recently switched to alphabetizing and that is probably due to responses from customers. The good businessman will adapt for his customers... hence why Kelly Swift will be around as long as he wants to be while someone who openly professes to be lazy won't.

-Kelly
 

Jeff_C

ArachnoAddicted
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 10, 2003
Messages
449
Re: Re: Re: Method to the Scientific Name Abbreviation Madness Revealed

...while someone who openly professes to be lazy won't.
LOL....now that's funny.


Jeff
 

abstract

Arachnodemon
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 25, 2003
Messages
748
for those with non-german keyboards, that's a <ctrl>+<f> keypress in most browsers - pulls up the "find" box.
 

blackacidevil

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
315
Dude....that is a sweet function.


<ctrl> <F> =D Derek
 
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pitohui

Arachnopeon
Joined
Dec 3, 2003
Messages
15
okay

here where i live in denmark Not many of all invertebrates have danish names so we always calls them by their latin names its much more easy
 
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