Posting in all CAPS

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

SHOUTING IN THE WRITTEN WORD IS POINTLESS AND ANNOYING.

I often have to explain this to newbies on the forums that I admin on; namely that all caps is basically the internet equivilent to shouting and if they want to accentuate their words, they can bold or italicise them instead.

Indeed. And even if they are on a forum where such HTML formatting is not permitted then one can always do the trick that I use to accentuate a word.

I frequently use the asterisk "*" to surround something. Such as "Are you *really* sure you want to do that?"

It gets the point across without being a shout.

I save the all caps shout for when I am really annoyed. Such as a recent Yahoo Answers post I did when a kid in a library insstead of getting a book on the Amazon, hopped onto a computer and is asking us to do his work for him. I said "GRAB A @#$%ING BOOK!"

I "shouted" at him because I would have done the same in real life has some kid come up to me and asked me to give him the answers that they should be doing for themselves.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Same. I also find it's much easier to say "All caps is the internet equivilent of shouting" to newbs rather than saying, "All caps causes eyestrain". For most cases, the simpliest explanation is usually the one that's understood better. ^^

[Andara Bledin]

I often have to explain this to newbies on the forums that I admin on; namely that all caps is basically the internet equivilent to shouting and if they want to accentuate their words, they can bold or italicise them instead.

Don't forget that text that is written in all caps also is actually less legible than mixed case and can contribute to eyestrain.

Here's a link to an excellent article on why it's harder to read text in all caps:
http://uxmovement.com/design-article...-users-to-read

I'm going to take the completely opposite side of this argument and say why the hell does it matter if they're in all caps or not?

As stated, it's actually more difficult to read.

Also, I can't read a sentence written in all caps without it being "shouted" in my head except in circumstances where all text is in caps.

Since it is a very common standard for all caps text online (forums, emails, chat) to represent yelling, my mind translates it as such any time I come across it in those venues.

Sure, I know the difference between net yelling and someone who just doesn't use their shift key, but I'd much rather that people didn't do it. Hell, I'd prefer that they type in all lower case before typing in all caps.

To be honest, the whole "Grammar/Spelling/Typing Nazi" thing has just gotten out of hand.

There's a difference between making honest mistakes and just being willfully ignorant or "special." As there is a difference between offering constructive criticism and being nitpicky.

And Lachrymose, I did not know that little net meme and no...it may be funny but not to me cause I am not cool, never was...

You're missing the point, methinks. The phrase is usually used to mock those who think it's cool to post in all caps.

His reason: "I type 70 words a minute and this place isn't worth proofreading for." Yes, really, like typing speed counts when that's the result!

I'm not sure what typing speed actually has to do with anything.

And fast typing is worthless without accuracy. I could type 200 wpm if I didn't care about what came out.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

On another board, one of the regulars' posts are filled with typos. I don't mean occasional ones, I mean if he'd typed the post I'm making now it would have about 25. Makes it very difficult to read. His reason: "I type 70 words a minute and this place isn't worth proofreading for." Yes, really, like typing speed counts when that's the result!

[Lace Neil Singer]

Also, I don't buy the often heard "I'm dyslexic!" excuse, simply cuz my older brother is dyslexic and he always checks thru his posts on Facebook and emails before posting to make sure it's correctly spelled. Refusing to do so and citing dyslexia is just lazy.

[blas87]

That would annoy me, too. I forgot that. I guess I don't see that a whole lot on here or CS.

Nearly everyone is fine with spelling/grammar and I don't recall anyone being a CAPS monster. There are a few people who cannot spell or it looks like they are typing while intoxicated. Those are the posts I tend to skip over because it hurts trying to read it. I'll never fault anyone for making a boo boo or not knowing how to spell a word on a forum, but it's hard to take a person seriously when they won't use a spell-checker if they are that bad at spelling.

[Ginger Tea]

sorry for only reading the first page, but it just reminded me of someone who no longer visits a programming forum I lurk in, no longer program in the niche lingo used, but I like to keep tabs on some of the works in progress.

one guy, I kid you not, broke his sentances into lines, in my head I was reading it like William Shatner

how do i

make a

cube

that when

the mouse ...

how the hell is anyone meant to find the time to work that out and then post an example code and then decipher his butchered attempt to "fix" it to suit his needs

[LexiaFira]

numbers in place of words is called "leet" aka 1337 or l33t
chat/text speak since it takes up money and time to text it all abbreviations were created but yeah this
"whr r u" or "l8tr" are annoying as well
unless the terminology has changed

[Sarah Valentine]

Is chat speak that thing where the person puts numers in place of letters, if so that really pisses me off. It looks like the persons cat jumped up on the keyboard and had a seizure. Another one I hate is when people use mostly initials for the entire conversation or text or email, please stop it how hard is it to type the whole word, it's not like it'll kill you.

[smileyeagle1021]

I know many deaf people will type in caps lock because the old TTY machines were caps only and that is what they are used to... 99% of the people who do it though are just, well, annoying as hell and need to be flailed with a trout.

[evillebee]

My MIL types in all CAPS all the time and I find it not only annoying, but hard on the eyes to read.

[Boozy]

Why is it annoying? It's just text on a screen.

I find posts made in all caps to be annoying. If you don't, that's fine too. All it means is that one of us will read the post made in all caps, and the other one of us will not.

I agree with you in that I don't think it's something worth getting upset over. If I see a post in all caps, or with very poor spelling or grammar, or in a wall-of-text, I just don't read it. And nor will many, many others.

That's something all-caps posters and the like should keep in mind. Do as you will, but if you want to be heard and taken seriously, you have to be conscious of how you present yourself with the written word.

[telecom_goddess]

I've noticed something interesting in terms of typing in all caps and whether or not it's easier to read. On printed paper, double spaced it's easier to read copy if it's in all caps (news, commercial copy etc)

But on a screen it's a nightmare and is much easier to read when normal capitalization rules are used.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I have done, of course, and I probably will in the future, but I try to limit it to times when pointing such things out is more amusing than vicious - while also remaining aware that what I think of as amusing may not be to someone else.

In which case, a picture is worth a thousand words. In the case of a person posting a huge block of text, the following picture does nicely: http://i52.tinypic.com/2v1w6q9.png

[Stormraven]

I try very hard not to be a grammar or spelling nazi. That's mostly because I've seen the truth of the meme that when you point out someone else's errors, you're very likely to make one or more of your own. There's also the simple fact that I don't know why they're writing like that. English could be their second (or third) language, they could be dyslexic, they could be fighting off a kitten on the keyboard, or any of a dozen other possibilities.

That's why, if I see a poster with persistent grammar or spelling problems, I just ignore them. I don't throw my two cents in, I don't threadcrap to show off my grammatical endowments, and I don't try to correct people.

I have done, of course, and I probably will in the future, but I try to limit it to times when pointing such things out is more amusing than vicious - while also remaining aware that what I think of as amusing may not be to someone else.