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Hey guys, first time posting on Meta, so bear with me if it doesn't belong here.

In the new descriptions for why certain things are closed, Internet is spelled with a lowercase i. It should always be capitalized.

This question would only be relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet.

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    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_capitalization_conventions - Everything published by ICANN, WWWC, IETF, IEEE, etc all use capital I.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 22:59
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    And SQL should be pronounced ESS QUE ELL just like the ANSI standards committee have decided. The nice thing about standards is there are so many to choose from!
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 23:02
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    @ Pollyanna - Haha, unless you're using Microsoft SQL Server, they market it with the "sequel" pronunciation. The capital I is more than precedent though, it's a proper noun referring to a specific internet.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 23:04
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    @MarkM i've always wondered why microsoft thinks i'd want a sequel when i can't stand the first one.
    – quack quixote
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 23:32
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    Nouns should be capitalized generally. Stupid language.
    – Ladybug Killer
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 23:42
  • @John Smithers - I think you mean proper nouns should be.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 23:44
  • @Mar: I mean Nouns!
    – Ladybug Killer
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 23:49
  • @John Smithers - I think I'm missing something obvious here...care to fill me in?
    – MDMarra
    Commented Feb 9, 2010 at 23:51
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    @MarkM If I follow John correctly, I think you are missing German. german.about.com/library/weekly/aa020919a.htm
    – David Hall
    Commented Feb 10, 2010 at 0:16
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    While we're nitpicking how about an I11 version for the rest of the world that reads "localisation"... we could have this argument allllllll day
    – Mark Henderson
    Commented Feb 10, 2010 at 0:36
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    @Farseeker - Sorry that you see this as nitpicking. The capital I is used to differentiate THE Internet from an internet. It's not trivial, it changes the meaning completely. It may seem like a nitpick, but for a site with this focus, it should be correct.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Feb 10, 2010 at 0:40
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    @MarkM - Technically no one uses the word internet (to refer to several interconnected networks, as opposed to an intranet which is also not widely used). For all intents and purposes the word internet, capitalized or not, means The Internet. Colloquially one could argue that the distinction is no longer important.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Feb 10, 2010 at 1:08
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    @Pollyanna - I would argue that if every major governing body does it one specific way then that was is the right way.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Feb 10, 2010 at 2:09
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    i 100% agree with this statement from the wikipedia page linked above: critics argue that some things that are unique yet distributed, such as "the power grid", "the telephone network", and even "the sky", are not considered proper nouns, and are thus not capitalized.
    – Kip
    Commented Feb 10, 2010 at 3:32
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    @MarkM - and you further argue that if there is a right way, everyone should follow it. That's perfectly fine. I still feel it's unimportant, but I'm glad that there are people who care enough about the things I don't care about. Mainly because there are a ton of things I care about that are terribly unimportant to others, and I don't want to be the only crazy person here trying to maintain order in my realm of insigificance.
    – Pollyanna
    Commented Feb 10, 2010 at 3:34

2 Answers 2

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If you're going to fix the spelling, you should at least fix it right.

[...] not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of teh Interwebs.

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I think the word "Internet" capitalised is too localized. The internet is so vast, and encompasses so much that one word can't really be expected to hold all that communication and information goodness. We really should be open to other possible phrases and words, as suggested by ~quack. Fortunately XKCD provides a table for such situations:

Terms I have used or heard used to make fun of the internet (table with worldwide, inter-, blogo-, blago-, web- on the rows, and net, web, sphere, tubes, and blag on the columns. The cells contain X's where the row word is used with the column word, such as blago-net, or inter-tubes)

I propose that this be coded such that the actual word used in the informational message is randomly chosen each time.

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  • +1 for blogoblag: however, it is considered proper English to spell Internet with a capital 'I'. I can't read Japanese, Arabic, or Cyrillic, so I don't know if they capitalize or not.
    – IAbstract
    Commented Feb 13, 2010 at 1:46

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