do the mods prefer for the states of US bands to be abbreviated or not?

i've seen both and i was wondering if there was a prefered one....

I prefer to abbreviate them. I always do that with my own submissions.

I write entirely. For american users maybe its easy but for non americans it might be difficult

Anyway it is not a big deal...

Abbreviated looks better for me.

Actually this a good opportunity to suggest something that has been on my mind for a while: a check box for the city/state field on the advanced search to be case sensitive. This way one could search for bands from MO (Missouri), without the results showing cities such as Baltimore, MD or Richmond, VA.

If this was implemented, it would be an extra reason to use state abbreviations.

I somewhat prefer spelling the state name out. I did that with bands from Connecticut, because if you search for "CT" you'd get a ton of bands from all over the world, and while the majority were from Connecticut (since CT works as when the state name is abbreviated, and the two letters also occur consecutively in the state's name). Some people might not know all of the state abbreviations, so I think writing the names out would make it easier for them to find bands from a certain state. Also, I think it looks better.

in this case if would be sensible to limit the search to bands from the USA, wouldn't it?

abbreviations my look neat and tidy but you have to remember that there are people visiting this site from all over the world and might not know as much about America as you do.

Hell, I'm originally from Canada and when I look at state abbreviations sometimes I still have a hard time figuring out which state it is. Actually, I have fun trying to guess what one it is.

Exactly, that's why I write the names entirely

Sometimes it's a bit confusing for me

Saint Louis, MO

MO = Missouri but when I see MO I tend to think 1st about MONTANA

There are also abbrevations for German states. NS stands for Niedersachsen; Lower Saxony in English. I have seen it one or two times.

Then I think those should be fixed too... if you know the full correct name of the state/province/etc.

For Australia too.

i would have to agree with you christkiller...i think i would spell them out...

I tend to write them out, myself. I think it's beneficial for the non-US users who probably don't know the state abbreviations as well as Americans.

so should it be as a general, but not strictly enforced, rule to write out the states, whether it be from the US or any other country....

Maybe a reminder. But not strictly inforced. If someone submits the band then the mod who checks it can just fix the state if it is known.

I usually don't write them out, but you're right it makes searching easier.

I usually abbreviate, but you guys are correct. I'll stop doing it.

It would be cool to have a drop-down list of states in v2, just like there is one for countries.

Yeah, but that still turns back a ton of results of bands from other states.

one little question:
When changing the data on the sites from an abbreviation to the normal spelling, writing it then in the language of the band's origin or writing it in English?

If there is one, in english. I've also seen people writing the original and then the english name in brackets. That should be fine.

I take it the French régions would work as states, yes?
What for countries without distinctive states - Sweden for example? As of now, I can't think of any Swedish band in the archive with an entry in the state box.

Yeah, French regions are states. I've tried to get rid of them from the country list, but was not sucessful.

As for Sweden, if it's not common to talk about administrative regions when refering to a city, then it should not be added here.