WordPress, CompuServe, iMac, iPhone, CinemaScope, HarperCollins, PowerPoint, BellSouth, LaserJet, NeXT, CoComment, MySpace, YouTube, Patti LaBelle, VanDyke, Lorelle VanFossen, all of these middle capital letter words are often called CamelCase words. They’ve been around a long time and vary from words that were once two, like Van Fossen which we’ve pressed together in order to live within a computerized world that sorts us by Van or by Fossen and wasn’t able to accommodate names with spaces in the early years, to words that just added the capital in the middle for interest and fads. Or it comes from acronyms or name or word combinations squished together to form a single word.

It’s unfortunate that many judge the quality of a writer/blogger and their content by the correct or incorrect usage of the capital letter, as do those who write iphone instead of iPhone and so on. As I said, it goes a long way towards proof of expertise and reputation when a writer pays attention to the details.

URLs are a different issue as lowercase is a standard. For a long time, there was a difference between URLs and emails with capitalization. For example, cameraontheroad.com would work but CameraOnTheRoad.com would not. Now, they work just about any way the letters go, as long as they are spelled right.

Personally, I don’t really get the whole “capital P in WordPress” business. Yes, I know it’s a trademark but it’s not as if someone spelt (spelled) it “WurdPress” or “wordprez”.

Strictly speaking, then, even URLs that mention “WordPress” should be capitalised, but most aren’t.

I expect it’s an issue that will never go away. :)

Did I? That’s a good question. It could have been picked up by the editor as not being helpful to the conversation or appropriate. It could have been picked up by the comment spam filters. My user level permissions access on this blog is limited.

Either way, I’m sure it was constructive and helpful and encouraged the blog conversation in compliance with the Blog Herald comment policy, so if you would like to restate it accordingly, you are more than welcome.

Wow, you’re a “real” blogger, aren’t you?

And what did you tell them? When I’m asked, I tell them that it is a trademark, but more importantly, using the word right is a sign of respect.

You know that little sick feeling you get when you find your name misspelled? Sure, it isn’t the end of the world, but it tells a lot about a person who takes the time to write about you and your blog, one that has your name all over it, including in the title, and they spell your name “Lorel” or “Laurelle” or something worse. Okay, that’s about me, but what if they called you polf or piff.

It sends a clear message that someone wasn’t paying attention to details, and that’s not a person I want to work with. It’s about respect and attention to details. That’s my answer. :D

I once mentioned in a blogging forum that WordPress has a capital P, and guess what? There were bloggers who asked why I was so concerned about the capital P.