I don’t want to comment too much, as this may introduce bias into the poll, but do you prefer terms that are written out or half-abbreviated?
This would apply to all such term usage.
I don’t call it the Standing Part, I call it the Standing End. Does that mean I should abbreviate my terminology to SEnd? What about someone new to knot tying who sees a reference to SPart, and has to go look it up to understand how to tie a knot? In what dictionary would this person open to understand the terminolgy?
I am a traditionalist in many ways. Not because the traditional methods are correct, but they are often tried and true methods that are best understood by the greatest number of people.
I understand the Internet has many abbreviations, :~}, but for clarity and consistency, please use the entire word. IMHO, many abbreviations on the internet are useless POS, fine for IM, but confusing when trying to do serious work.
Pat
How Do All 
I use Stend = Standing end (also known as St’end or Stand), and Wend = Working end, for my own notes, but for explaining something to someone that may not know what these abbreviations mean, I use the full version. Whatever works for you?
For anyone interested in the jibberish Knot folk spout, you may find the book “The Knot Scene” by Geoffrey Budworth a good read. This is an A-Z for newcomers to the language of knot tyers, a bit like a mini dictionary, this is available through from the Guild Supplies Secretary.
Take care,
Barry 
Pat,
I agree with your points. I like to enter one more, please remember that many people on the web do not have English as their first language, for them it is even harder.
I do claim my English is pretty good, but when people use abbriviations I do get lost as often as not.
The shortened texts they use on the mobile phones I do not even understand in my own language.
But if in a longer describtion you use the term once in full and the abbriviation next to it, you can use the short term from than on.
Some very technical text are imposible if all words have to be written in full all the time.
Willeke
pretty much full agreement with Willeke.
my only contributing comment is that i tried to vote, but got an error: “An error occured with this poll and the vote could not be counted. Sorry for the inconvinience.”
also, inconvenience is spelled incorrectly. 8)
hello knot tyers…
…how about starting a list here …an “A-Z for newcomers to the language of knot tyers”…
…(complete with photos/diagrams!!)…?? …an IGKT Dictionary!!..
Derek’s Wiki would be a good place to put it!..
http://igkt.pbwiki.com/
…Dan-Alaska
Sometimes in writing Dan Lehman i might use SP or SPart because that is what he does, and it is thereby understood between us. As he has helped steer me some thru many things for my site and general understanding.
But, i was just commenting to him; that i usually call it: Standing Tension Part (STP?). Reason is; that i think that Standing Part kinda makes it sound like it is lazy, not doing anything in use/ slack like it is when we tie a knot lacing.
But, in my imagery, and what i try to convey; is that rather, this section of line is the empowering force; where the line tension comes from that casues the knot to tighten, the work of pulling to be done etc.
i have found lots of confusion over our standard knot part names in talking to people. Many call the knot end the Working End, but both ends are working etc. So, i go with Bitter End, or really “Bitters”, for Bitter End of dwindling force (from the empowering source of Standing Tension Part) that is be snubbed down by friction to secure the whole works.
This is what i try to show in the Baby Holding a Bus analagy/animation.
i’m flexible to whatever is generally understood here; but also note that we are talking about trying to reel more folks in to reading here; and think care should be taken on confusing anyone else anymore than they are already!
“A rose by any other name…”
Enough Shakespeare!
“A bight by any other name, will still give you a way to sail out on a single tack.” …
Or were we talking about another “bight”??
SquareRigger, if you’re reading this, I’d count it as another vote for the IGKT stepping up to “carve in stone” the “correct” answer to this question. What I use for my personal knotes is irrelevant. What we supplicants devise for our interpersonal use(s) is mere folklore. What the future should proclaim is that the problem suddenly ended right after the turn of the millenium. (IMO, as if that needed to be said.)
In other words, just to be different, I’ll say ditto, ditto, ditto-ditto, etc., etc.
Jimbo ;D
I don't call it the Standing Part, I call it the Standing End. Does that mean I should abbreviate my terminology to SEnd? What about someone new to knot tying who sees a reference to SPart, and has to go look it up to understand how to tie a knot? In what dictionary would this person open to understand the terminolgy?Hmmm, in what dictionary would one find "standing end"? --neither [i][u]ABOK[/u][/i] nor [i][u]EKFR[/i][/u] has it. Frankly, most of the time I'm dealing with knots, only one "end" is relevant.
Not because the traditional methods are correct, but they are often tried and true methods that are best understood by the greatest number of people.To this I simply echo KC's "lots of confusion over our standard knot part names".
This is an interesting thread to come along with Length, leaning one way for the
msg., another for a term/phrase. Frankly, I think that both /
are a bit beside the point for what I really want to connote, in that they refer
to something defined for the tying process, and I mean by them something
that endures beyond then, in the finished knot. KC’s involvement of “tension”
might help. (In some other cases, I see every part that leaves the knot, or what
Dick* Chisholm calls the “nub”, as an “end”.)
[*nb: “thingy” is short for “Richard” and rhymes with “ick”! ]
In the meantime, ‘SPart’ saves keystrokes, and the number of those who might
have to ask what it means is likely little greater than that for those asking what
“standing {part | end}” means, to which the better answer explains in full, not
merely giving the expansion.
–dl*
i guess my imagery of a knot lacing is understanding the target use; under tension. Rather than just the imagery of tying the knot lacing alone with Standing part relaxed.
To me, it is knot mechanics; who’s ways and means can’t really be understood without the vision of empowermeant. In ropes this empowermeant is line tension.