Yes, choose one and stick to it. It's to do with editing submissions to read as though they come from the same editorial guidelines. It will make your directory more professional.
I tend to write in English not American. The Americans do weird things....like say "gotten" instead of "got". And "I could really use a drink"....
If the submission to your directory is from a US company then you shouldn't really alter the spelling to UK english and vice versa. Its going to make the submitters look stupid and confuse and possibly put of someone about to click on a link in the directory. Having a load of descriptions in UK english for US companies/sites is not correct. You need to accommodate both versions throughout the directory on the basis of where the company/website is. After they have submitted (and possibly paid) and then check their listing they may think you have problems spelling and be reluctant to submit in the future. Just incase anyone is wondering, i think Australia and possibly New Zealand use UK English.
Makes me laugh how they end certain things with "already" Btw, im not abusing americans, i know us brits are odd too at times Il not even start on (US) Fags = Homosexuals (UK) Fags = Cigarettes
I would definitely look to be consistent. I have an English .co.uk directory and have made sure I use English spellings throughout.
When I was young a fag was a cigarette. One dare not (in the current stupid politically correct obsessive culture) use that word in any context. Worse than when I used the word gimp when referring to myself. As a C6/7 quadriplegic I am not 'physically challenged'; gimp is a perfect term which I have been using since 1964. Back on topic. For some reason Yolander is near a UK directory and the spellchecker drives me nuts. Since there is no consensus I will do the both. For me it is the s verses z thing. Yes, it seems the AU and NZ use the UK style. Thanks all.
I leave it in the natural version of English the country from which the listing comes. It can be a challenge for this American to correct poor grammar while leaving in the British and Australianisms.
Speaking of funny definitions for the same word...Dad said when he was training British women during WWII to land on their "fannies" when parachuting that the women would just giggle at him. Finally, one of the more forward ones told him that he must be referring to their bums because fannies were the front side and he couldn't possible mean for them to land on that. lol
Yeah when i first entered the thread i instantly thought of the s and z difference. Theres another difference, zed and zee True, we do use both Hehe
For making the sites within a directory more easily found via search (why add them if they wont be found easily) it makes sense to use UK style English on sites where they are likely to be searched from a locale using that dialect, and US for all others. If the directory has a regional component that means using UK style in all the categories where that is the norm. Helps to have some UK or Aussie/NZ types available to do that task... cause in my experience Americans botch that task cause we just dont know the language differences, much less the idioms (as illustrated by the parachute tale above). [Been there, done that.] Not only should the descrips be different (is it spelled counselor or counsellor?), but the cat names too. For example... in the US you might search for a Lawyer or Attorney, in the UK a Solicitor or Counsellor... or we search automotive and they search motoring. [If I botched any of those examples, it probably just proves my point.] That's why when BOTW created their UK and Ireland Directory they brought on a new crew of eds from the UK (and other places where people talk, you know... funny ) rather than task it to people that didn't know the lingo. Sure makes the job easier. I'm sure guys in Wales or Scotland read what I write and to them it looks like I'm translating with Babelfish. Goes back to the old description of the US and UK being "two countries separated by a common language".
Confusing the matter more is Canadian spelling which has aspects of both US and UK. We use: - favour (UK) NOT favor (US) - centre (UK) NOT center (US) - cheque (UK) NOT check (US) (only for bank cheques, check marks are still check) - tire (US) NOT tyre (UK) - realize (US) NOT realise (UK) Some Canadians end up using American spelling anyway which I have often found odd.
To take Rob's point a bit further, a directory category page with the different spelling versions allows for more SEO opportunities as well.