Forum:"Human" shouldn't be capitalised

I call for a reversal of the language at Tardis:Manual of Style on the grounds that it was not, apparently, the house style of BBC Books to capitalize the word human. In The Tomorrow Windows, EarthWorld, Halflife, The Infinity Race and I'm sure more and more, the word goes uniformly uncapitalized, even when characters are speaking. What source ever gave us license to capitalize a word that the dictionary — and BBC Books — doesn't?
 * I don't think we've ever used a source for it because it's not really been an issue. However, the names of all the other alien species are capitalized, so it makes sense for Human to also be capitalized. If, however, we decide to change it to lowercase, the same should be done for the other species' as well. --The Thirteenth Doctor 14:26, February 21, 2011 (UTC)

Well for one, Dalek is always capitalised so that shouldn't be lower case.Skittles the hog-- Talk 15:07, February 21, 2011 (UTC)


 * You're both kinda missing the point. The fact that Dalek is always capitalised is irrelevant. We're not talking about that word; we're talking about human, the single most-used species name in all Doctor Who fiction. The argument "if one species does it, all others must follow" doesn't trump canonical usage. Canonical sources don't capitalise human in narrative. We're going to need a solid, canonical reason for continuing to capitalise it. (Don't worry, I'm not asking you guys to personally change things from Human to human, so don't let the obvious workload color your deliberations. Obviously the bot will do it.)

Yes, I know I was straying from the point but I was trying to point out that "all follow suit" is not canonical. I agree that everything must be sourced so unless someone finds a reason you should have it changed.Skittles the hog-- Talk 11:18, February 22, 2011 (UTC)


 * FWIW, I support the proposal to amend the MoS. Using "Human" is so different from normal modern English usage that I notice the rule is rarely been applied across this wiki in any case; it is a bit like capitalising "Animal" or "Plant".  If editors really want to avoid ambiguity and provide galactic perspective, they could use "Terran" or "Tellurian" or "Earthling", all of which derive their capital from a proper noun indicating planet of origin; or for additional precision "from/on Earth".  We also have a category "near-Human" (unsourced) to consider, but in many cases it's safe to call characters simply "human", since we don't know about, say, Morestrans.  In general, there's a tendency here to overcapitalise: for example, Weed Creature, which doesn't seem to deserve to be a proper noun: it's not a title, and it's not a civilization, just the two English words "weed" and "creature". 93.96.136.249 13:50, February 22, 2011 (UTC)