Style guide

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”)

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.

A website containing collection of blog posts.

A single post on a blog.

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

Never capitalise civil servant unless starting a sentence.

Capitalise when referring to the UK Civil Service.

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

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

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”.

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.

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

Do not use the definite article.

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

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.

Never capitalise “nano”.

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).

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

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

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

Example: “Mac Mini devices”.

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.

The best kind of pop. Never hyphenated.

Never capitalise senior civil servant unless starting a sentence.

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

The current owner of Xitter.

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

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

A way for websites to communicate with each other.

See What are Webmentions?

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

See doingweeknotes.com.

To produce a weeknote.

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

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

A post, posted on Xitter.