[WEB4LIB] spelling conventions

[P. Michael McCulley]

Date sent:      	Wed, 30 Sep 1998 09:36:50 -0700 (PDT)
Send reply to:  	bishopk at rpi.edu
From:           	"Kevin W. Bishop" <bishopk at rpi.edu>
To:             	Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Subject:        	[WEB4LIB] spelling conventions

> 
> This is something of a silly question, but what is the convention?
> 
> Internet / internet
> Web / web
> Webpage / webpage // Web page / web page 
> Website / website // Web site / web site
> 
> I'm consistently inconsistent with the capitalization and spacing of these
> words and would like to know if there is a standard style for the sake of
> developing "how-to" [w]eb()pages about [w]eb()page development.  
> 
> -kb
> 
> (I think it should be "Internet" and "Web", but as for the others ... ??)

Kevin,

Lots of these stylistic are up for variations, but a few have settled 
down by convention and usage in the past few years. Take a look at the
PC Webopaedia, at http://www.webopedia.com/
which can be useful in these areas -though not necessarily definitive. 
I believe almost all of the terms you noted are listed there.

The Wired text cited earlier here is good, but I've often found reasons 
to disagree with some of their choices. Nonetheless, it's a valuable 
resource if you need style assistance. Some of the newspaper style 
guides have started including these types of words in their newer 
versions as well now. I'm not sure about the Chicago Manual of Style in 
the more recent editions.

I recommend for usage and standards within a Web site (note that's my 
usage for the term) that it's important to be consistent in the site 
itself -and perhaps also post your style guide and glossary of terms 
for your users to consult. These things flux over time, and new ones 
come along to keep the game afoot.

On your particulars, and the one on metadata, below are my 
recommendations:

> Internet / internet

Internet capitals for the networked global system derived from the 
original ARPANET.
Lower-case internet can refer to any network organization such as LANs, 
WANs, in certain conditions. Internetworking refers to hosts or 
computers exchanging data, bits and bytes, packets, etc.

> Web / web

Web with capitals is generally referring to the World Wide Web per se. 
Lower-case web would be the spider's web, but that's another story ;)

> Webpage / webpage // Web page / web page

Here, it's a matter of choice to some extent on compound nouns, but I 
prefer Web page.
 
> Website / website // Web site / web site

As above, I prefer Web site for a location on the World Wide Web.

Metadata I think is fairly well standardized as a compound noun, and 
usually seen lower-case I believe. With a possessive, eg. the XYZ 
Project Metadata, it would likely be capitalized.

Stuff for lexiographers to sift through, I'm sure...

Best regards,
Michael McCulley
mcculley at best.com