[theforum] [thelist] evolt.org style (was: nomenclature - site map / web site)

[Erika]

Simon MacDonald wrote:
>
> I'd be interested to know if evolt.org has a literary style guide; or is
> that too much an imposition to put on potential authors?
> 
> -S

See Bob's post and replace "e-mail" with "email" -- I hereby declare 
that evolt.org style with all the power that may or may not be vested in 
me.

Ok, in all seriousness, yes, we need to write this up for consistency, 
mainly because it has all changed so much in the past few years.  In 
reality, consistency within a publication is more important than the 
finer nuances of any single rule.

Evolt.org (as you know) has some content editors, but we need more. Even 
though we aren't currently fielding a lot of articles, there is much to 
address in terms of process, and site content.  So consider this a 
shoutout; if you are interested in contributing to evolt.org content 
(managing, editing, creating), email me offlist[1].

It is also worth mentioning that a long-time goal of ours has been to 
become a truly international, and even a multilingual site.  So if that 
is an interest, and you want to help us work toward *those* goals, your 
contributions would be welcomed as well.

Style-wise, aside from the net-specific stuff, I've recently proposed we 
use _Chicago Manual of Style_ as a primary reference for American 
English (I think this essentially what we've been using.  For example, 
we use the serial comma[2]).  And for British English I proposed using 
_The Oxford Guide to Style_. So far I've not received feedback on either 
suggestion.  In any case, once we decide what we are going to use, we 
should make sure our stylesheets reflect it, in terms of how and when we 
use italics, and etc.

One thing we have decided is that everyone who speaks English is allowed 
to use the language as is proper in their country.  For the site as a 
whole, however, I think we're leaning toward a British English.

Erika

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[1] offlist is not technically a compound word, yet on the web, it is. 
Another example of how internet usage changes language.

[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma