Posting in all CAPS

[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!

[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.

^-.-^

[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. ^^

[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.