Feedback from Cate

Just trying to build a list of the feedback that we've received from Cate.

• Avoid using “this,” “these,” etc. by themselves (as pronouns); your sentences will be clearer if you follow them with a noun.

• I'm deleting virtually all exclamation points.

• Avoid using ampersands, even when space is tight.

• Any questions about my “remarks”? The first one was about heading structure; I recommend reviewing the other chapters for the same issue. (This was in regards to Chapter 1.)

• My first impulse was to start doing away with italics, but I stopped because it looked like you're using them in an expanded application of O'Reilly style for first mention of technical terms - you're using them for everyday terms and names in a social media context (see below). Still not sure you need them, though; it might get a little old by Chapter 6.

• Here are my style notes so far:
  • <eBay seller's> Feedback score
  • explicit reputation statement
  • global reputation

• italics: use not only to introduce technical terms but to introduce known terms, names, or categories in the context of social media
  • reputable entities
  • reputation statement
  • Web 2.0

• Will you have a glossary of some kind?

• Not riddled with passive voice
• Not laced with passages that I couldn't understand (in Chapter 1 there was only one paragraph I couldn't rewrite)

• An http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AS3Cgwn1f_hEZDU3Nm12Z18yNG4ycTZnc2c5&hl=en][editing stylesheet (hosted on Google Docs.) She says “note that it includes a couple of terms whose usage in the book is not yet clear or consistent.”

• Many figures in this chapter are diagrams without captions. I think that's OK for these figures, but I think the meaning of the diagrams could be clearer; consider adding callouts and more explanation in the text.
• https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AS3Cgwn1f_hEZDU3Nm12Z18yNWhtM2h6OGNj&hl=en][Updates to Style Guide. (GooDoc.)

• Overall, italics and caps are used too much to be effective in highlighting things, so in this chapter I took out a lot of italics and lowercased a lot of capitalized words. Most of the time this worked - i.e., the terms were actually easier to grasp without the extra italics and caps treatment - but in a few cases I had to change the wording, e.g., “the <i>Helpful</i> claim” didn't work as “the helpful claim,” so I changed it to “the was-this-helpful claim.”

• Are you planning to include a glossary? If you are that would be a really, really good thing.

• Please see additions and changes to attached stylesheet, including the last section on overall changes.

• https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AS3Cgwn1f_hEZDU3Nm12Z18yNmduajZ6dmho&hl=en][Updated Stylesheet (GooDoc.)