Be Excellent To Each Other

None of the capitlised words in that sentence should be capitalised. Mine eyes!

Hang on - easy solution. Anyone got a copy of OED to hand? Look up "internet".

Not even 'the'?

Perhaps he should start charging his pupils for the valuable time spent moderating their work, or better yet, create an exclusive £2 a month club whereby... [dies under the weight of cleeky in-joke].

Spelling is important, but for things like 'there' instead of 'their', and 'bought' instead of 'brought', it isn't a spelling problem. The word has been spelt correctly, however it is the wrong word. So the problem isn't that people don't know how to spell these words, it's actually a basic misunderstanding of what the word means which one to use in a particular context.

These people probably aren't well read, because I find that even if I've never encountered a word before, I can deduce a probable meaning from the context in which it is used. By a similar token even if you don't know which word to use, if you were to just read a lot you would see it used correctly enough times for it to assimilate into your brain.

If I had two interview candidates, both seemingly good for the job, you can bet your arse I'd pick the one that can use words properly. What amazes me is that that Lee guy that WON the apprentice this year had such cripplingly appalling spelling and grammar skills. How can he be put into a position of authority when he can't be trusted to tap out emails that don't make him seem like an utter retard?

Or an email that accidentally proposes a deal saying the opposite of what he meant.

THAS WHAT I'M TALKING BOUT.

Calm down, dear, I'm agreeing with you.

Sorry, that was an Apprentice joke. Fans of the last series will get it.

See how I capitalised Apprentice there?

Edit: Even better
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UiifCeuZNVc

Seriously: don't go there. It's just not worth it.

I would capitalise the Internet. There's only one of it, so it's as much a name as a thing.

Thre's only one little paperclip monster in the world that's exactly like the one I just made. Should it therefore be capitalised?

Uniqueness isn't the sole determining factor for Proper Noun Status.

What about The Gaywood?

I'm actually pretty sure it is.

When you're identifying one specific thing as a unique item, I'm fairly sure it gets a proper noun.

Look at this little paperclip monster.
Look at Little Paperclip Monster.

Another:

"This is my Cup"?

Fuck off.

I think you're confusing the fact that all kittens are cats with all cats being kittens.

You stupid half a pence worth!

No, no no no. 'This is my cup' doesn't differentiate the cup from all the other cups. If you gave it a name, and said 'This is Cup', that would be correct.

There is nothing specific about my cup. What differentiates Hadrian's Wall from any other wall? It's not the fact that it was built by Hadrian, it's the fact that it has been identified as a specific wall and given a name. Same with the Internet. It's a specific decentralised network, given the name 'The Internet'.

Oh lord, they're at it again

OK, so I've fished out the email that I sent in 2004 to various editors at an American publisher regarding my battle to decapitalise 'internet' for one of my books, a battle that I ultimately lost. It shows how varied opinions are regarding this matter.

-----



A friend of mine who subs The [London] Sunday Times responded to the BBC piece saying: "Hmm - I think he's talking rubbish. He's certainly talking rubbish when he says: 'As a journalist I know that if I talk about a Biro then I had better be referring to one of the pens made by the Biro company, and if I mention someone sitting in a Portakabin then it had better be one of Portakabin's products and not just any old temporary office.'

Even if the person is sitting in a Portakabin, he would still get the Portakabin lawyers onto him (and believe me they must have the most overzealous trademark-protection people on the planet) because of course you should never use a trademark as a noun. The correct form, as these lawyers never tire of telling us (and we never tire of ignoring) is "a Portakabin-brand portable building".

Anyway I have to get back to correcting proofs with my Biro-brand ballpoint pen, so I shall send this to you now over the Internet-brand internet (or whatever)."

Doubly so, when you take into account the Beeb's style generally used "internet".

Still, that didn't overly help, so I decided to ask the opinion of a couple of old-hands who've edited a bunch of magazines in this space, to see what they had to say...

#1:

"Welcome to The Great Internet Controversy

When we were working out the last great [magazine] style guide revamp, we spent a long time arguing over this one. Historically, "internet" is just a generic word for a collection of networks connected together. If you have a network around your home, and string a bit of cable between your home network and next doors, you have an internet.

However, THE Internet is something else - it's the world-wide network connecting machines running the TCP/IP protocol. So, in order to distinguish between THE Intenet and AN internet, we decided that we'd capitalise references to THE Internet - it's become a singular entity with a proper name, and as a proper name it gets its own capitalisation."

This point is countered somewhat in #2:

"Hi Craig. Ah, happy memories of agonising over style guides! (or styleguides?) I think it's only possible to resolve these issues sensibly if you adopt certain fundamental principles, not based on objective 'correctness' but on personal preference.

Some people like to make compound words wherever possible (Germans, for example), particularly when a pair of words only makes sense together, as in "stylesheets". They're not sheets that happen to be concerned with style, as opposed to some other kind of sheets; nor are they _sheets_ concerned with style, as distinct from some other thing concerned with style. They're just stylesheets. On the other hand, many people, like you, find compound words ugly and unwieldy. I resisted "website" for years because it always makes me think of the Irish expression "gobshite", but I've gradually got used to it.

Similarly, some people like to capitalise nouns wherever possible (Germans again, and Victorians) because they think it aids legibility by flagging significant words. Others prefer to avoid capitalisation because it breaks the flow of text and is typographically ugly.

***A bad justification for capitalising "Internet" is that the term "internet" can be used to refer to any large and/or open network, whereas by "Internet" we mean a specific global network constituted by certain protocols and so on. That would make sense if anyone actually did use the term "internet" to refer to any old network, but they don't.***

Because of the amorphous nature of the (I/i)nternet, you could also think Platonically: you're not talking about one of a whole bunch of internets, each approximating "internetness" or the Form "Internet"; you're referring
to the Form itself.

A more straightforward justification for capitalising "Internet" is that the Internet is a unique phenomenon and therefore merits its own proper noun. If you were the sort of person who talks about "cyberspace" as a place, you could liken this to capitalising a city or country. That would also get round the objection above: there's no risk of confusing Basingstoke with any old basingstoke, but we still capitalise it.

Even though I'm generally against extra caps, I have a lot of sympathy with this argument. But if you capitalise Internet, why would you not capitalise the world wide web? And "World Wide Web" looks pretty ugly. Then again, if you shorten it to "web", it seems to need a capital to distinguish it from other literal or metaphorical webs. Aaargh!

In the absence of any completely convincing and workable solution, I'm inclined to leave both the internet and the web lower-case, because that's my general preference. So there's my answer. Just don't ask me again tomorrow..."

This is what I'm leaning towards, largely on the basis of gut instinct.



And I think that's the crux of it, and also why I'm asking for advice. [names redacted]? Anything to add? In magazines and newspapers (at least those that are any good) - at least in the UK - almost everyone uses lowercase for these forms now. Likewise for the BBC (at least in general). However, I don't know whether this is the case in the USA, Wired excepted.

Hang on - you're the one hanging all this on it being a "specific" object, or it being "unique". My Cup is a specific, unique cup. It's mine. It has lovingly crafted chips on it, and coffee stains. But I wouldn't ever, ever capitalise it, unless I gave it an actual name, like "Jeff" or "Cuppy", or "Mr Craster's a Big Fat Wronghead".

You also seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that dropping off the definite article means you've suddenly got a proper noun.

All proper nouns refer to specific people, places and things, but not all specific things are given proper noun status.

Kittens, see.

The wqay they spell? No.

The way they clearly can't be bothered to even care about something as important as a job application? Hell yes.



If you call it "Little paperclip monster" then yes, yes it should.

But then that's just another name, like Jeff, or MoonUnit, and is therefore not controversial as a proper noun.

You're out! Go and stand behind the bins.

All the arguing going on seems to indicate that the good professor may have had a point.

But The Internet is a name - given that there's no such thing as an internet.

Have you not read any of CraigG's posts, man? There *is* such a thing as an internet.

And I meant a "name" as in a person's name. I'm anthropomorphising my cup.

That's a wordsmith's view though. I'm a techie, and can quite thoroughly assure you that there is no such thing as 'an' internet. It's possible that there might be in the future - but given that The Internet is a proper noun, we'll probably call them something else

Shame no-one else pointed that out ages ago, or anything. You bugger.

If you're deliberately capitalising "the" there in "The Internet" I'm going to have you put down for your own good.

Lots of proper nouns include 'The' - The Great Wall Of China, for example. You would always capitalise the 'The', wouldn't you?

Er... An internet (short for internetwork) is what you get when you plug two separate networks together.

No. You wouldn't. At all. No no no no no.

Nah, you just get a bigger network.

Hmm - you appear to be correct. Startlingly.

Yeah, how about that, eh?

Actually, that comment came from a bloke who's edited a bunch of magazines in the overtly technical sector. That said, I don't agree with him, and therefore go along the lines of what Wired reckons, along with the other editor, who's also edited a bunch of magazines in the same space.

Also, everyone here think of this: it's one thing moaning about spellings of words, but imagine how much of a pain in the arse it is for me, trying to keep track of how each publication demands certain things to be spelled.

Can't you just leave it to their sub-editors, and then send the subbies rude emails when they capitalise it?

Half the time, subs complain if you don't take note of their style guides. That said, some elements of guides I just resolutely ignore as being really awful (notably Imagine's insistence on turning 1980s into the awful Eighties). Although, to be fair, I've had literally no contact with the Imagine subs. I think they're probably scared enough of Retro Gamer writers after Stu went all HULK SMASH on them a while back.

So THAT is what it means!

Whoops missus where's me ration book, etc.

Better than turning it into 1980's though, if you ask me. New York Times, I'm looking at you, perhaps.

Well, yes, but 1980's is perfectly acceptable in American English. In British English, it's the sign of a fucking idiot that doesn't know how to use an apostrophe properly—at least if they're a paid sub-editor on a magazine.

More on this in today's, er, Daily Star (as before, I work in an office full of bored blokes who need to see tits to get them through the day, and all you might see in something like the Independent or Gardigan is Tracey Emin's saggy fried eggs)

DOCTER SMIF: I am fed up with correcting my students' atrocious spelling.

So there we have it. He just can't be fucked, not least of all with failing people who shouldn't be in university (as we've all said already).

CRISSY MARRRRRR (Plane Inglesh Campayne): It sickens me to consider we would allow anyone the liberty to destroy our heritage just because they are fed up with seeing it misused. Deal with the real problem. Stop the rot.

EYMEN SISTIR!