William from Texas williamfromtexas@gmail.com
Seeing as fsfeurope.org redirects to fsfe.org, I don't think the brand is being weakened. "FSFE" would seem to be the leading acronym, with "FSF Europe" maybe used at times to show stronger affiliation as "a European branch of the FSF". Not having reviewed any charters, though, I can't be sure how accurate the real situation is or should be.
I wasn't saying it was weakened - just that FSFE alone lacked the reinforcement from FSF, so I feel it's slightly fiddlier to use because it needs explanation to more people.
If you'd like to review it, the constitution is at http://fsfe.org/about/ and I feel it shows how arbitrary all this is in practice. FSFE theoretically means Free Software Foundation Europe, but it's actually a part-democratic federal association (a German e.V.) rather than a foundation (there are no founders with special powers or rights AFAIK).
So given the name is arbitrary anyway, how did they arrive at FSFE instead of FSF Europe?
Compare:
- "FSFE initiated talks with Danish MEPs." -> An org called FSFE is
talking with MEPs in Denmark.
- "FSF Europe initiated talks with Danish MEPs." -> The FSF is talking
with Danish MEPs through it's EU office.
Should there be any significant difference between the two?
Anyway, we should say something like "European Free Software association FSFE talked with Danish Euro-parliamentarians" and avoid EU TLAitis.
A primary acronym should be official, but a balanced "E vs Europe" mix can be useful in raise public awareness depending on context.
Indeed!