Some usernames are truncated

[Weserphoto]

A certain number of usernames are truncated if there is an 'umlaut' (äöü) or another special character in their username.

For example:

- Andreas Sp
- Andreas St
- Andreas Schr
- Frank Schl
- Joachim Sj
- Matthias P
- Ren

... and so on.


Regards,
Weserphoto

[itsfoto]

Shipspotting does not like a character set larger than 7 bit. This disrespect of other spellings than English is intentional. The reason is, I understand, the limitations of standard use of standard keyboards.

[Aleksi Lindström]

Shipspotting does not like a character set larger than 7 bit. This disrespect of other spellings than English is intentional. The reason is, I understand, the limitations of standard use of standard keyboards.

Actually itsfoto, the truncated user names is a bug which occurred after the latest maintenance and it will be fixed as soon as possible.

The only way we INTENTIONALLY limit other spellings is in the Ship Name field, where only characters found in the English alphabet are allowed. That is to retain the simplicity / consistency when searching for ship names. Otherwise we'd end up having for example these spellings for the same name: ÅLBORG, ALBORG, AALBORG etc.

Best regards,
Aleksi

[itsfoto]

Well, simplicity one might call it.

[Aleksi Lindström]

Do you have some improvement ideas...?

[itsfoto]

I'd like to think that allowing a 8-bit character set would be a considerable improvement.
Knowing of the problems that a normal keyboard layout causes, especially with notebooks and smartphones, a workaround for some of the most relevant characters could probably be offered as an addition to the format-and-emoji-button section, wherever applicable (such as for comments, (advanced) search, forum and, of course, upload). This addition could be a list, such as this below, so characters in question can be copied and pasted. Surely members can help to identify the most relevant list. It's a bit clunky, admitted, but I didn't design the keyboards.

                            æ Æ ø Ø å Å ä Ä ö Ö ü Ü ß ç Ç

Uwe

[Aleksi Lindström]

As far as I know, all those letters can be used in comments, on the forum, in photos' Description field etc.

So we have one limit regarding that, and that is the Ship Name field where they are not allowed, like I already wrote.

[itsfoto]

The question remains, how and why is that better?

[Aleksi Lindström]

The answer remains, so you will find one ship with one search, not having to guess the correct spelling and make several search attempts.

[davidships]

Also, limiting the shipname field to standard English alphabet, without additional letters or diacriticals, aligns searching with the most-used international databases, eg Equasis, Lloyd's, SeaWeb, MarineTraffic etc

Precise language practices can also vary, eg diacriticals often not used on capital letters (Liberté = LIBERTE, rather than LIBERTÉ.

Users (members and visitors) will usually search with what they already know - from a directory/database or from what they see on the ship.  It's not better for them if they only find half of what they are looking for, or none at all.

[Tuomas Romu]

IMHO the ship's name should always be spelled exactly like in international databases and written in ALL CAPS in "searchable data fields".