Been there, done that, doubt you have.
3 Likes
Oh, hey, does this mean youâre going to stop adding paid Amazon referral links to every product you mention? No, Iâm kidding, I already know the answer.
12 Likes
I work in marketing.
Still cranky? Awwwww
Not only that, butâŚ
iOS runs on your phone
IOS runs on your core routers
Ios is the plural for Io, the Jovian moon. Not sure how often Iâll need to use that in a conversation, but whatevs.
Get off your high horse and relax a bit.
17 Likes
I wondered about bell hooks/Bell Hooks and e.e. cummings and the like, too. Although I freely admit I never know quite how to feel about writing their names that way myself, so itâs not like the Doctorow Doctrine will really mess things up for me if it catches on.
I get that this was probably just conversation-bait, and not an actual expression of a personal belief or conviction, but I wonder if weâll get an answer? Might as well flesh out the rules.
1 Like
@Lexicat, would you provide some examples of the context in which one would use iPhone 5s and when one would use Appleâs mobile phone?
No. No I wonât.
I agree with Professor Doctorow. We shall overcome the tyranny of branding in 2014!
A few excerpts from Dr. Doctorowâs righteous upcoming bestseller, Dr. Prof. Doctorowâs Take Back the Style Guide:
-
Lady Gaga: Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. (Because
Iâm not your personal handbill, lady Germanotta.) -
Elvis Costello: Declan Patrick MacManus. (I refuse to
shill for a double imposter!) -
eBay: Electronic Bay. (And youâre not really even a âbay,â
so Iâm cutting you a lot of slack.) -
Google: Googol. (Donât be cutely evil.) -
Netflix: Internet Flicks. (How dare you portmanteau on my
$8 a month.)
18 Likes
I just realized that the logical next step for Cory is to start saying âMicro$oftâ and âU$Aâ. This should be fun.
1 Like
I sort of understand where the criticism in the first comment was coming from and why it could be so popular but could one of the many people who liked post 5 please explain to me why any of the pictures posted in any way strengthens, or even represents, the criticism?
1 Like
On the one hand, I agree that using internal caps in the first place is an ugly and annoying practice. On the other, itâs a ship that sailed a long time ago, and it makes useful distinctions once in a while, boosts clarity, and signals to the reader that the writer is careful.
iPhone is clear, which is about all that it has going for itâbut thatâs all it needs to have going for it. As others have mentioned, Iphone looks like a typo. And âAppleâs mobile phoneâ is a wordy and unnecessary replacement.
I dunno. A lot more people pay to read Coryâs writing than pay to read mine, so maybe heâs onto something, but this seems like a pretty silly hill to die on.
3 Likes
He makes a point of saying that it should be âWho Represents (www.whorepresents.com)â and not âWhoRepresents.comâ, but then the Twitter bio says âOfficial BoingBoing.net feedâ. Shouldnât it be boingboing.net? It also seems silly to be complaining about brands and their use of capitalization when Boing Boing used to be bOING bOING.
1 Like
As many have said, this is about Proper Nouns, Emphasis, and according entities the dignity of referring to them by their preferred name - itâs not about a blow for your independence against The Man (to whom you would pointlessly and confusingly refer as âthe manâ).
You want to say that Koch Industries is a scum-sucking, labor-busting, enthusiastically polluting hive of public corruption in the service of enriching a few people whoâve already got more money than sense? Do it! Iâll stand up and cheer! But do it referring to them properly, as Koch Industries - if you do it as koch industries youâre just making an ass of yourself and impairing readersâ comprehension in order to make a petty point. It is no better than calling them C*ck Industries, and no more useful in communicating your intended points.
3 Likes
Not capitalizing e e cummingsâs name is free advertising and letting poets dictate language!
2 Likes
Cory isnât against advertising, heâs just selective about free advertising. Look how much free advertising he constantly gives to Disney, or is it?
3 Likes
Well, but, see, thatâs paid advertising.
Cory isnât objecting to paid advertising; boiNG boiNG runs on paid advertising. Cory just doesnât want to give away free advertising.
Cory obviously doesnât mind shilling for megacorps. He just wants to be paid to shill.  : -)
I presume heâd be happy to intercap iOS correctly if Apple would just pay him to do so. Â Â : -)
2 Likes
Iâm pretty boggled by this whole idea. In order to not âadvertiseâ for companies, you will talk about them just as much and in the same manner, but you will miscapitalize their names and their productsâ names. Okay? Does anyone read a scathing article on iPhones and after seeing that the productâs name was typed in the standard fashion say, âWait a minute! If they actually didnât agree with or work for the company, theyâd ignore the capitalization used in the productâs name! These horrible condemnations must really be ringing endorsements of the product!â (âWell, this article SAYS thereâs no War on Christmas and that Bill OâReilly is completely wrong but itâs really an advertisement because they didnât write âOreilly.ââ)? I think itâs more likely that people would brush off the words of a writer who doesnât even know how to capitalize âiPhoneâ correctly (because who would assume a word is wrong due to a deep political agenda?).
Edited to add: even in your extreme example above, Iâm not jumping out of my chair to buy BP after reading an article about their oil spills, even if it has logos in it or - gasp - InCaps.
3 Likes
I wonder what the CEO of MakieLab* thinks of this.
*Alice Taylor, wife of Cory Doctorow.
6 Likes
Uh, did you see where it said âbOING bOINGâ? Each word has random caps in it.
Iâd contend that art is a creative pursuit and as such gets more of a free pass than an entirely commercial pursuit.
The fact that people are so upset that Cory would dare question the âauthorityâ of the word iPhone is testimony to how effective their marketing has been.
1 Like
