Board Thread:Event Community Discussion/@comment-28069733-20170514083426

As some of you may be aware, there were some debate over what abbreviation to use for the new Kaiboukans that were introduced this event. I have started a thread here which you could make a quick catch up on what points were being debated previously.

There were issues with the previous approach and admins/moderators of other KC communities identified the same, thus we had a group discussion on what is the correct way to approach this topic and move forward. We concluded that the entire community should take part in this because this is something we will use, and we need the majority of the folks to agree on the standardized abbreviation to hold a degree of legitimacy within our community.

As some might have noticed, there are currently inconsistencies across each platforms at the time this was written:
 * Wikia uses PF
 * Enkcwiki has half of the pages as PF and the other half as DE
 * KC3 uses PF
 * Poiviewer uses DDE
 * EO uses PF
 * KCV uses DE

We hope to seek a common ground, first starting with a summary of the points of argument below:

Arguments for DE (Destroyer Escort):

 * DE is the classification that most of you are probably familiar with.
 * They have the same roles as the Kaiboukan in general, during WW2.

Arguments against DE

 * The new ships can not effectively replace DDs in most of the expedition and map branching rules.
 * The WW2 Kaiboukans were built with the the intention of settling fishing disputes with the USSR instead of being a full fledged warship.
 * As such, these Kaiboukans lacked the armament to be as effective in combat as standard Destroyers. They also lacked torpedo capabilities, in which the IJN does not consider ships without torpedo capabilities as Destroyers.
 * The USN DE are subjected to the London Naval Treaty specifications; having a displacement over 2000 tons, any gun above 155cm in caliber, more than 4 guns above 76mm in caliber, the ability to launch torpedoes and a speed of 20 knots. The IJN WW2 Kaiboukans are generally under 2000 tons in displacement and they lack torpedo capabilities, which means they do not fit into the above DE specifications.
 * The in-game shipcards says "Escort", not any other class/designation. "Escort" is not the same as "Destroyer Escort".
 * A fellow community member went ahead to check with the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) and they have advised that the new ships introduced this events are Escorts. They have also provide this as a [reading source](http://www.combinedfleet.com/Kaibokan.htm)
 * In the above points, we have specifically used the term "WW2 Kaiboukans" because between 1898 to 1931, the Japanese definition of Kaiboukans are simply as follows: Class 1, over 7000 tons; Class 2, 3500-7500 tons; Class 3; under 3500 tons. Only from 1942 onward, the Japanese changed their definition of Kaiboukans to become "small ships with anti-submarine capabilities" (although the old definition was scrapped entirely in 1931). This is a point of concern as we are seeing the devs starting to introduce WW1 ships like Warspite and Gangut, and this trend is likely to continue. If the devs ever introduce the old Kaiboukans, it would no way fit into the description of a Destroyer, let alone a Destroyer Escort.

This thread will be open for discussion for a few days for people to engage each other in constructive debates which we hope will allow you to make an informed decision in a poll coming after. This poll will be shared among the various KC communities such as /r/kancolle ,our discord channel, the Wikia and the enkcwiki to reach a consensus to either accept it as DE, or something else.

In the event that the majority votes for something else, a second poll will be raised for the follow options: Patrol Frigate (PF), the most popular alternative argument against DE; Escort (EE), a fictitious designation to encompass both DE and PF in general; or Kaiboukan (KB), to just simply follow the original in Japanese, which will also allow it to cover the old Kaiboukans if they ever get implemented. 