[General] Spam style

[Grant Baillie]

On 16 Nov, 2006, at 10:10, Jared Rhine wrote:

> Apropos of nothing, I'd like to gently suggest that if there were an
> Internet-specific style guide, it would mention that spam, when  
> referring to
> email, is not an acronym.  As such, spam is not properly a  
> capitalized term.[1]
>
> [1] http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Anti-spam/
>
> (sheepishly submitted for fear of being a nit-picker) -- Jared

To confuse the issue a little, the acronym-happy federal legislature  
passed the "CAN-SPAM" act a couple of years back,

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.htm

There the 'S', 'P', 'A' and 'M' are part of an acronym and should be  
capitalized. Even though the government didn't do it in their own  
URL, a clear case of bad government.

(double-sheepishly submitted for fear of being a nit-picker of nit- 
pickers)

--Grant

PS: Don't add a ™ to "spam" used in this context, or Hormel (IIRC)  
will get mad :).
PPS: It would have been nice if they'd added a letter so it was  
either CAN-O-SPAM or DONT-SPAM or CANT-SPAM, but there you have it.