Talk:Saadanius

Mya
What is the protocol for time symbols? Shouldn't we use the more official "Ma ago"? Frankjohnson123 (talk) 05:50, 17 July 2010 (UTC)
 * "Ma ago" is a form I've never seen; it would usually just be "Ma". But I think both mya and Ma are acceptable forms; they're unambiguous and reasonably well-understood. Ucucha 06:03, 17 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I hate to be a party pooper but I don't recall hearing of "Ma" in all my readings about paleontology (very little of it in technical articles. I got used to "mya" eventually.  I'd say that if you want to reach non-specialist readers, define your terms, and don't put in variants, but avoid too many specialized terms.  Every one that isn't essential is a small but cumulative barrier to the non-experts.


 * Besides, the "official" scientific abbreviations, IMHO, get sillier every time they change them. For instance, "sec" to "s".  If you want to reduce information content, eliminating too much redundancy is one way.  (Rant.) Zaslav (talk) 14:27, 30 July 2010 (UTC)