Garrrhhh! Gr-r-r -- there go, my heart's abhorrence . . .

A.J. Ayer.
T.S. Eliot.
A.J. Weberman.
A.J. Crowley.

And a cast of thousands, as far as I can tell. Whadda they all have in common? No space between the initials! None, not a trace!

What's with that?

It's really annoying.

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Shanoyu: What exception to what rule? The relevance of Lee Harvey Oswald is obscure to me. Perhaps you could explain how he came into it?

It is annoying, but i think it is due to the old single space after a period at the end of a sentence dillema.
typographically, for some people, it /looks/ like there is a single space there already.
another good excuse for it: shaving off a few corners. saving wear and tear on that often thumbed space bar. keeping the Everything2 database just that little bit smaller for future double quotes vs. single quotes rant-nodes.

As dem bones said in Pick Titles Carefully, node titles for person should be using the person's full name, with a dot to the middle initials, if any. So, William S. Burroughs is the preferred form of node title.

William S. Burroughs will be found by E2 Search for "William" or "Burroughs".

However, since "." is not an E2 Search Special Character, a node title of W.S.Burroughs will not be found when searching for "William" or "Burroughs"^{1}.

Fortunately the examples: A.J. Ayer, T.S. Eliot, A.J. Weberman and A.J. Crowley, all have a space before the surname. Hence an E2 Search by the surnames would find the nodes. So, it may excusable if the noder really did not know the first name of the person.

{1} That is until The Administration add "." to the E2 Search Special Character and/or allows substring E2 Search.

The problem with the standard is that many people are refered to with all three names. For example Lee Harvey Oswald, or Pamela Colman Smith.

Of course, this usually only applies to people who are dead or assassins. When was the last time you heard Lee Harvey Oswald refered to as Lee H. Oswald? I daresay never, and even if you did at one point, that point more than likely being when you just read it several seconds ago (smarty pants), it is rare.

Clearly this is the exception to the rule.