Forum:Standard units and measures

Forums: Helping Hand > Standard units and measures

---

Use the following template for a nicely presented post:

{{Forum post|Write your message here!|~~~~}}

---

I just had another idea which occurred to me. As a general rule, our policy is to follow the U.S. standard units and measures, since that is what both Wizards of the Coast and TSR have used in official works, primarily because of their nature as American companies (although the fact that U.S./Imperial units are also seen as more old-fashioned is probably a factor). However, most countries besides the United States use metric measurements, which leaves British, Canadian, and Australian fans (among others) a bit confused about the height (and length) and weight of certain creatures and objects.

Rather than proposing a major change to our policy, I had another thought, which is to make a single page listing the units and measures used in the Realms (including, but not necessarily limited to U.S. standard) that explains how to convert them into metric and vice versa. Individual links like "foot" and "pound," that might be written into a creature or character description would then redirect to this page. I'd happily write up a draft if people are interested.

Alternately, we could have separate pages for each unit but that probably isn't necessary in my mind.

Niirfa-sa (talk) 03:37, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

We already have a bit of an unwritten policy to use metric units in parentheses after Imperial/US units.

Here in Australia, we're fairly familiar with the Imperial/US units. They used to be standard, our rulers mostly still have feet and inches on them alongside centimetres. Plus, they stay familiar through American sources like D&D. So, personally, I didn't see the need to convert to metric.

What did you have in mind, an out-of-universe help page sort of thing, or an in-universe article on measuring systems in the Realms?

— BadCatMan (talk) 03:54, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

Out-of-universe, because it would explain how to convert from in-universe measurements (feet, pounds, pints, etc.) to out-of-universe measurements (meters, kilograms, liters, etc.). But it would cover both real-world measurements and Realms-specific ones.

Niirfa-sa (talk) 07:28, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

Hmm. Converting real-world measurements is just basic, general information you'd find on Wikipedia or some other site, or just by typing it into Google. That's as easy to the reader as following a link to an article here, and I don't think we need to duplicate general information here. That is, we're not a real wikia. :)

— BadCatMan (talk) 07:37, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

That makes a certain amount of sense, though I think it still might be helpful. It also occurred to me the article could be a little bit of both (IU and OOU), by having a main in-universe section and then an out-of-universe "behind the scenes" section explaining the conversion. But if the general sentiment is that we don't need it I'll refrain from creating it.

Niirfa-sa (talk) 08:11, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

Hmmm aren't there already like in-universe measures, I think i may have seen that somewhere. That would be a good way to bridge the gap in a: "1200 hell'o'meters is 3 feet or 1 meter". Think is somewhere in Ed Greenwood Presents Elminster's Forgotten Realms Hmm... there is a "pour" measurement and a "knife" one. That could be a start? (Pour(s): Take the bottle upside down and then back again. Knife(s): ?) There might be more in there...

Terrorblades 's Far Realm logs dated 08:31, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

I thought we already listed both Imperial and Metric as standard for all measurements?

--Eli the Tanner (talk) 22:19, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

I completely agree with Eli... Black pudding!

- Darkwynters (talk) 23:12, October 14, 2014 (UTC)

“

I thought we already listed both Imperial and Metric as standard for all measurements?

”

— Eli the Tanner

It seems to be rather inconsistent across the wiki. I've seen a couple of pages that do but I generally don't and our official policy states that we use the same units that WotC and TSR do (which means that unless they switch to metric, Imperial's the way to go). Most wikis generally choose between one or the other: Wookieepedia is all in metric, the Pathfinder wiki is all Imperial. I'd generally prefer to stick with one rather than both, but I recognize that a lot of people use metric and it's fairly cumbersome to convert units you're not familiar with so I'd be open to using both if there's a wide consensus. My proposal is sort of an attempt at a halfway approach, providing an explanation of how to convert each unit to metric.

We could also alternately have separate articles for each unit, but I thought a consolidated page might be better.

Niirfa-sa (talk) 00:20, October 15, 2014 (UTC)

I've been adding metric units in parentheses after the imperial units to all my pages as a courtesy. I limit the number of significant digits to just what is necessary to give the proper impression of size, weight or whatever. If something is 30 miles away I usually write 30 mi (48 km), one inch is 1 in (2.5 cm), etc. although now we can even do fractions (2 ¹⁄₂). I feel that a metric-using reader would rather not stop and do a conversion because it interrupts the reading process and their train of thought. I know that's what I would prefer if the situation were reversed. The more friendly we are to folks from all different editions and countries, the more popular our wiki will be.

—Moviesign (talk) 01:14, October 15, 2014 (UTC)

Here is the proposal by High admin FW: Forgotten Realms Wiki:Units of measurement.

- Darkwynters (talk) 19:57, October 15, 2014 (UTC)