>But I agree with Mike Yearwood, the best practice is one of consistency. A truly "high regarded database expert" is not going to fall on his/her sword on this topic, and is far more interested in practices than standards.
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>A standard should be a guide and not a master <s>.

This evening I went back through one of Celko's books on programming style - his chapter on typography and code is very "common sense" and the book has a ton of gems.

Yes, often standards are guides, though the downside of deviating from the guide can be almost self-evident. Having five tables with columns for "OrderDate", "ShipDate", "DueDate" and then one table with "Date", "Date1", "Date2" clearly means someone wasn't paying attention on a particular day. :)