READ ME! ME!

March 3, 2002 7:15 PM

I always thought it impolite to type in all caps -- etiquette, usability, etc. There are two posts today(1, 2) that use all caps for their links.

All in favor say 'aye'. All opposed 'nay'. I'm curious.

posted by zpousman to etiquette/policy at 7:15 PM (20 comments total)

Nay
posted by mischief at 7:19 PM on March 3, 2002

I say 'shrug.' Chacun a son goût. "Impolite" is surely too strong for someone who doesn't mean to give offense. "Suboptimal," maybe?
posted by rodii at 7:20 PM on March 3, 2002

It looks like both posts were cut and pasted from the links' all-cap headlines (the Time magazine one is from the Drudge headline). Readability decreases when you use all caps, but I don't think it's a big deal.
posted by jpoulos at 7:44 PM on March 3, 2002

i second that, suboptimal
posted by rhyax at 7:55 PM on March 3, 2002

umm, not sure whether aye is for all caps or for caps control....but i'm against all caps....i find it incredibly annoying
posted by rorycberger at 8:09 PM on March 3, 2002

SOMETIMES IT'S JUST FUN TO YELL.
Although the sheer laziness of not simply retyping something rather than cutting and pasting it is kind of weak.
posted by dong_resin at 8:34 PM on March 3, 2002

Maybe they're posting using Revision 0 Apple ][ Pluses.
posted by aaron at 9:03 PM on March 3, 2002

Nay. Even to preserve the original formatting, if you post in all caps you're applying another site's style to this one, and the two don't match up at all. And it's annoying.
posted by Hildago at 9:04 PM on March 3, 2002

Me, I just think it's fucking lazy.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:10 PM on March 3, 2002

I'm not sure, but do ya'll feel the same way about overuse of CAPS and bold in the thread as well? I've seen people bold entire paragraphs and my eyes felt burnt out after reading through them.
posted by BlueTrain at 9:33 PM on March 3, 2002

Anything longer than, say, five or six words printed in ALL CAPS, I just don't read. Really.
posted by webmutant at 9:44 PM on March 3, 2002

Suboptimal
posted by riffola at 10:13 PM on March 3, 2002

I JUST WANTED TO SAY THAT WEBMUTANT IS A BIG SISSY. NYAH NYAH!
posted by rodii at 10:23 PM on March 3, 2002

MY USERNAME IS ALL CAPS!!! TOTALLY EXTREME!!
posted by D at 11:24 PM on March 3, 2002

will you all stop shouting so loudly, i'm trying to sleep
posted by feelinglistless at 3:24 AM on March 4, 2002

I say nay - caps annoy me enough in SMSs, let alone webpages.
posted by Mossy at 6:37 AM on March 4, 2002

The only thing I can read that's set in all caps is Cometbus.
posted by sudama at 8:46 AM on March 4, 2002

It isn't set, it's handwritten. If it was written in pig latin I would read it.
posted by goneill at 9:10 AM on March 4, 2002

When my father first started using email (at age 72), he always kept the shift lock key on, as he did when he used a typewriter (that's a pre-computer word processor for you younger people ;-)). He was so hesistant and resistant to the whole computer thing anyway that I didn't dare say anything discouraging like, "DAD! TURN OFF THE SHIFT-LOCK KEY! IN EMAIL, IT'S THE SAME AS SHOUTING!" Finally someone told him, thank goodness.
posted by Lynsey at 11:48 AM on March 4, 2002

this thread is long dead to the world, but I'll agree that it is indeed "suboptimal" instead of the somehow more serious "impolite".
posted by zpousman at 2:32 PM on March 22, 2002