nsmb.com Online Style Sheet

***RECENT UPDATES ARE NOTED WITH A RED 'N'***

UPDATES

N 07/02/05 - Capitalization - Only capitalize proper nouns (e.g. the Shore, Norco, B.C. Place) or words at the beginning of a sentence. Words in the middle of a sentence shouldn't be capitalized (e.g. "Vancouver is world-famous on the Freeride scene" is INCORRECT).

N 07/02/05 - Apostrophe-'S' combo - use an apostrophe-'s' to show ownership / possession of something (e.g. "Cam's bikes are dirty"), NOT when you want to pluralize something ("there are lots of bikes in the bed of that pick-up"). The exception is the contraction of "it is", which becomes it's, as in "it's a nice day today."

General Rules

  • All content on the nsmb site will use Canadian spellings
  • Companies are referred to as 'it(s)' rather than 'they/their'

Front Page Style

  • First letter of small text links on front page articles/teasers should be capitalized

Dates

  • Date format for months and years is May 2002 (without a comma), but changes to May 22, 2002 (with comma) when day is added
  • Do not use 'th' or 'rd' when writing dates. Write as March 15, not March 15th
  • Do not use hyphens for ranges of dates. Write as March 15 to 20, not March 15-20
  • Years are abbreviated as '03, not 03

Time

  • Times are written out with periods after letters; either 1 p.m. or 1:00 p.m. is correct

Link formatting

  • Links to other sites should open in new windows (target="_blank")
  • Site names should be spelled out in links with appropriate capitals; also, do not use 'www' in links - links should appear like this: RaceFace.com or Norco Performance Bikes

Currencies

  • Canadian dollar amounts are written as C$100 or CDN$100
  • American dollar amounts are written as US$100

Number usage

  • Spell out numbers one through nine, use numerals for 10 and higher

Rotor size and fork travel

  • Disc brake rotor size should be expressed numerically, NOT spelled out, i.e. either 8" or 203mm
  • Fork travel should be expressed numerically, NOT spelled out, i.e. either 6" or 150mm

Specific Rules

A
• Allen, not allen, bolts (hex bolts is an alternative)
• a.m. - with periods after each letter; morning
• Apostrophes - apostrophes are used to signify possession, not plural items.
• ASAP - as soon as possible (capitalized)
 B
• B.C. - with periods after each letter
N •bashguard - one word
• Brake - the thing that stops your bike. A break is what happens when the bike doesn't stop.
• BB - bottom bracket (capitalized)		 C
• Chainrings - one word
• Chainguides - one word
D
• DH - downhill bikes/trails/runs
• Decades - the 1970s or '70s, NOT the 70's
• Derailleur - with a double 'L'
• Dirt jump(ing) - two words
• Disc (brakes) - with a 'C'; information is stored on a floppy disk (with a 'K')
N •Down tube - two words
 E
• Email - without a hyphen		 F
• Freeride / freeriders - one word
G
• Grip Shift - two words, each capitalized
 H
• Hardtail - one word
 I
• ISIS Drive - independent, non-Shimano crank and BB system
• It's = it is (contraction); Its = possessive (i.e. Norco uses aluminum to build its frames.)
J
K
• km/h - kilometres per hour
 L
M
• Months - see formatting note above
 N
• nsmb (all lower case) - North Shore Mountain Biking.com
• NSMBA (all caps) - North Shore Mountain Biking Association
• Net - short version of the Internet
 O
• Online - one word, often used in place of Internet (lower case 'o')
P
• Periods - no periods in article titles or teasers (they aren't sentences)
• p.m. - with periods after each letter; afternoon • Premiere - the first showing of a movie
 Q
• Quick release - two words
 R
• Race Face - two words
• Rapidfire - one word, Shimano shifters
• RockShox - one word

S
• Seatpost - one word
N •Seat tube - two words
• Set-up - the way a bike or components are put together

 T
• That / which - use "which" where there is a comma and "that" in other cases. Ex. - "Race Face, which makes cranks, is..." or "Race Face is the company that makes cranks..."
• They're - contraction of "they are"
• Their - possessive
N • Top tube - two words
 U
• U.S. - the United States of America
• U.K. - the United Kingdom
V
W
• Web site - two words, with Web capitalized
• Web (page) - short version of the World Wide Web / Internet
 X
Y
• You're - contraction, "you are"
• Your - possessive
• Years - abbreviate years as '03, not 03
 Z