Style guide

• Act

  Noun

  As in “Act of Parliament”. A piece of legislation that has achieved Royal Assent. Always capitalised; e.g. “the Act”.

  When referring to a specific Act of Parliament, either use the full title (i.e. “Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021”) or the date of the Act (i.e. “the 2021 Act”)

• Bill

  Noun

  A piece of legislation that is being scrutinised by Parliament. Always capitalised; e.g. “the Bill”.

  Once a Bill has become an Act, refer to the Act at all times.

• Blog

  Noun

  A website containing collection of blog posts.

• Blog post

  Noun

  A single post on a blog.

  Always include a space between ‘blog’ and ‘post’. Never ‘blogpost’. Never ‘blog’.

• Civil servant

  Noun

  Never capitalise civil servant unless starting a sentence.

• Civil Service

  Noun

  Capitalise when referring to the UK Civil Service.

• Fediverse (the)

  Noun

  The federated social web. Always “the fediverse”, never “fediverse”.

  Some people disagree with using “the”. Those people are wrong.

• Game Boy

  Noun

  A series of games consoles by Nintendo. Whilst popular amongst online communities to omit the space between “Game” and “Boy”, Nintendo includes the space, and therefore so do I.

  Examples: “Game Boy”, “Game Boy Color”, “Game Boy Advance”.

• Game Pak

  Noun

  Cartridges used for Game Boy consoles. Whilst popular amongst online communities to omit the space between “Game” and “Pak”, Nintendo includes the space, and therefore so do I.

• iPhone

  Noun

  Pluralise “iPhone”, not the series moniker. Alternatively add ”series”.

  Do not use the definite article.

  Examples: “iPhones 16”, ”iPhone 16 series”.

• iPod

  Noun

  Pluralise “iPod”, not the series moniker. Alternatively add ”series”.

  Do not use the definite article.

  Examples: “iPods Classic”, ”iPod nano series”. Do not use the definite article.

• iPod nano

  Noun

  Never capitalise “nano”.

• LGBT+

  Noun

  Preferred collective term for lesbian, gay, bi, and other minority sexual orientations, and trans and other gender identities. Always include the ‘+’. Don’t use other acronyms unless specifically necessary (for example, when quoting something else).

• MacBook

  Noun

  Pluralise “MacBook”, not the series moniker. Alternatively add ”series”. Do not use the definite article.

  Examples: “MacBooks Air”, ”MacBook Pro series”.

• Mac Mini

  Noun

  Never pluralise “Mac”; it sounds like “max”. Never pluralise “Mini”. Use “devices”. Do not use the definite article.

  Example: “Mac Mini devices”.

• Post

  Noun

  Preferred term for a piece of digital content made available on a website or social media platform.

  Do not use “tweet”, “toot” or “skeet”. “Xeet” is acceptable when relevant.

• Senior civil servant

  Noun

  Never capitalise senior civil servant unless starting a sentence.

• Senior Civil Service

  Noun

  The senior cadre of the UK Civil Service. Capitalise when referring to the Senior Civil Service.

• Space Karen

  Noun

  The current owner of Xitter.

• Text

  Verb

  Past tense of the action of sending a text message. Never “texted”.

  Examples: “I text them”, “I have text them”.

• Webmention

  Noun

  A way for websites to communicate with each other.

  See What are Webmentions?

• Weeknote

  Noun

  A note written at the end of a week. No space between “week” and “note”. Pluralised as “weeknotes”.

  See doingweeknotes.com.

• Weeknote

  Verb

  To produce a weeknote.

  Examples: “I weeknoted”, “She weeknotes”, “They are weeknoting”.

• Xitter

  Noun

  The website formally known as Twitter. Never “X”.

• Xeet

  Noun

  A post, posted on Xitter.