[thelist] Is there an Internet style guide?

[Paola Kathuria]

Alessandra Gillen wrote:
> Is there an standard on whether
> "e-mail" or "email" is the correct
> spelling?

One of the perks of being an adviser on the OED Online
project was the chance to discuss this exact topic with
the Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Electronic mail has been around for several decades and was
referred to as "e-mail" up until the 1990s.  "Email" and its
new plural - "emails" *cringe* - is a web-era thingy.

However, the main entry in the OED is "email".  I tried to
persuade the Editor to relist it under "e-mail" but he
wouldn't have it (and he pointed out that in the notes I'd
been taking for the meeting we were both in that I'd
written "email" *sigh*).

O'Reilly's word list (in their guide for authors) also
refers to "email"
http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/author/stylesheet.html#E

Pah.


Paola