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[Frans Sanderse]

I noticed that once uploaded Ro/Ro vessel names are changed in a name with full capital letters.

Why are all the names of Ro/Ro vessel changed in the (ugly) capital letters ??

regards
Frans Sanderse

[BobS]

As I am sure you have noticed, Frans, the vast majority of ships have their names displayed on their hulls in what you call "ugly" capitals. It seems logical to me to present the name here on the site exactly as it appears on the ship so that there can be no confusion. If the names are being 'capitalised' by the RoRo admin, perhaps he can confirm or otherwise my guess as to why.

[Cedric Hacke]

Hi Frans and Bob,

the capital thing is something I do to know which pictures I have checked already. This category is fairly popular and sometimes many pictures of the same ships return daily. Having the names in capital letters is an easy way for me to remember which ones I have checked and which ones I haven't.

I thought this would be the easiest and "cleanest" way to do this since, as Bob said, most ships have their names in capital letters on the hull anyway and Equasis also displays ships names in capital letters.

I hope this answers your question.

Kind regards
Cedric Hacke
RO/RO and Vehicle Carriers admin

[polsteam]

I do not know, whether my voice will be listened to at all (as ALL admins of the world tend quite often NOT to listen to reasonable remarks from users anyway), but I am against using ALL CAPITALS in ship names.

It does not matter at all, whether "on the ship's side" they are written in ALL CAPITALS or not...

Ship's documents and record in registers should be decisive here.
And in ship's document's, on ship's seal (stamp) and in registers names are usually (in most cases) NOT given in ALL CAPITALS.

Also "ticking off" what has already been "worked" by Admin, and what was not touched by him should be HIS internal matter and should not affect the appearance of "ship profile" (including lettering) visible to all users. Admin should adopt any other (not publicly visible) method of "marking" these or other groups of ships he already "touched" or not...

Especially as this unwelcomed "marking of selected vessels by ALL CAPITALS" method gives NON-UNIFORM (thus confusing and messy), varied way of showing ships' names to the users...

After all if some ships DO HAVE (for various reasons) varied lettering in registered name (for linguistic or other reason, but FOR A REASON or because of INTENTION of the Owner) then "Admin Almighty" should NOT impose his "private" style (ALL CAPITALS), which OVVERRIDES (and hides) this varied (capitals / non-capitals) lettering within ONE ship's name... for example: AIDAluna, AIDAbella, AIDAsol, etc.  or  Pride of Dover (should be Pride of Dover, and NOT Pride Of Dover, while PRIDE OF DOVER unrightfuly HIDES this difference).

[Cedric Hacke]

Hi,

I certainly see your point. The problem is that on Equasis, every ship's name is written in capital letters. Even on the hulls of most ships, the names are written in capital letters.

An example of this is Cobelfret's YASMINE, a ship Frans uploaded pictures of recently. Both on Equasis and on the hull, the name is written in capital letters "YASMINE".
ShipSpotting.com

© Frans Sanderse

Another example you mention is the PRIDE OF DOVER. Here we have a problem. On the ship's hull, the name is written as "Pride of Dover", like you said. However on Equasis, the name is written as "PRIDE OF DOVER".
ShipSpotting.com

© Ray Goodfellow

Which is correct? The hull of a ship can have a different typography than the official name in the registry for artistic reasons. The fact that Equasis gives the name in capital letters is the reason why I opted for the capital letters in my categories. We can't really determine how the name of the ship is written. Equasis is an official registry and writes it in capital letters. We do not have ships documents to verify how it is written there.

However I don't agree with your point of non-uniformity. I think having the names of all ships in the category in capital letters adds uniformity.

By the way, I do not consider myself to be "admin almighty". If people have a problem with the way I deal with things, I will be more than happy to listen. I have been doing the all capitals thing for a few months now and it is the first time a member has mentioned something about it to me.

Kind regards
Cedric Hacke
RO/RO and Vehicle Carriers admin

[Fergal Clohessy]

just my tuppence worth but does it really matter whether its in capitals, lower case or a mix of both? once the name is correct that's all that matters, isnt it?.
if we are going to be this picky and logical, why dont we just have the name of the ship in the same colour as the ship?

[Tuomas Romu]

I'm against using "all caps" on ship names as well even though they are written like that on the ships themselves as well as in official database entries. They are names, for Pete's sake, not some cryptic acronyms.

[Rexroth]

I am dismayed that anyone should use Equasis as a reliable source. It is riddled with errors. Ship names are sometimes wrong, locations of inspections are sometimes wrong, names of owners/managers are sometimes wrong, vessel flags are sometimes wrong, dates of renamings are misleading. It even reports vessels as scrapped which are still in service. And most culpable of all is the reluctance of Equasis to correct errors when told about them.

[Tuomas Romu]

I think Equasis is a good place to start, but depending on what you're doing, some cross-referencing never hurts. It's a bit like Wikipedia with the exception that correcting errors may take a bit more effort...

[Phil English]

I am dismayed that anyone should use Equasis as a reliable source. It is riddled with errors. Ship names are sometimes wrong, locations of inspections are sometimes wrong, names of owners/managers are sometimes wrong, vessel flags are sometimes wrong, dates of renamings are misleading. It even reports vessels as scrapped which are still in service. And most culpable of all is the reluctance of Equasis to correct errors when told about them.

Roxreth,

I'd be interested to hear what you would consider to be a RELIABLE source.

Meanwhile, I don't get why some people are so hung up over whether ship names are written here in capitals or not. It's of no importance and if Cedric wants to use it as a method of checking that's entirely his business

Just my twopenneth !

Brgds
Phil

[Rexroth]

I am dismayed that anyone should use Equasis as a reliable source. It is riddled with errors. Ship names are sometimes wrong, locations of inspections are sometimes wrong, names of owners/managers are sometimes wrong, vessel flags are sometimes wrong, dates of renamings are misleading. It even reports vessels as scrapped which are still in service. And most culpable of all is the reluctance of Equasis to correct errors when told about them.

Roxreth,

I'd be interested to hear what you would consider to be a RELIABLE source.

Meanwhile, I don't get why some people are so hung up over whether ship names are written here in capitals or not. It's of no importance and if Cedric wants to use it as a method of checking that's entirely his business

Just my twopenneth !

Brgds
Phil

Do you realise, Phil, that there was actually a time before Equasis? How on earth did researchers manage before Equasis? Please note also that I am Rexroth, not Roxreth! Going even further off thread, note also that it should be twopenn'orth, not twopenneth. Twopenn'orth is an abbreviation of "two pennyworth".

[B.Clark]

K.I.S.S, let the administrators do whatever is easy for them

[Kyle Stubbs]

From what I've seen in the past, the recommended proper format for typing a ship's name is for it to be in italics, with the first letters of major words capitalized, thus resulting in Badger, Maersk Arnold and Pride of Dover.

However, it formats where italics are not available, such as mechanical typewriters, some email, and many military communications, the preferred format to distinguish a ship's name is all caps.

Thus, considering the ship's name block on this site, where formatting is not available, we can at least know what writer's guidelines say we should do.

[Cedric Hacke]

Hi,

sorry it has taken me so long to respond. If there are no factual reasons to why capitals are not correct, I shall keep using it. First of all, it makes my admin work easier. Second, not all members are consistent in the way they name ships. The name "Pride of Dover" for instance, can be written in a lot of different ways: "Pride of Dover", "PRIDE OF DOVER", "Pride Of Dover", "pride of dover", … If I change it all in caps, it is all much more uniform. The majority of members put the name in capitals when they upload pictures anyway.

With regards to Equasis, it is still one of the best sources around. It is free to use for all our members and most of the information is correct. As with every large database, there are inevitably some errors, but the things we need for shipspotting.com (name, IMO number and category) are correct.

Kind regards
Cedric Hacke
RO/RO and Vehicle Carriers admin

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