Can I get an "Amen" on not using all lower case in posts?

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As someone who tries very hard to not be an embarrassment to the many fine teachers who made the effort to teach me spelling and grammar so many years ago, I appreciate the efforts folks make to render their posts readable.  I will continue to use spell check, and continue to proofread all my posts, out of common courtesy to the reader.  AMEN

now, y'all jus carry on as y'all see fit ;) :D
 
wincom6 said:
Disagree
I have thought for some time that this is the friendliest place on the net.   
I really don't think we should start grading each others grammar.  Some of us are not very good at spelling and punctuation but we may have some really good information to share.  If  my  input is going to be graded or my mistakes pointed out by those of higher learning, may be (or maybe)I will not be as ready to share my thoughts.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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For me, at least, it is not so much a matter of judging someone as it is in making others understand what was intended to be said.  Reasonably proper use of capitalization and punctuation make the messages much easier to read and understand.  If this weren't helpful, no one would bother.
 
wincom6 said:
Disagree
I have thought for some time that this is the friendliest place on the net.   
I really don?t think we should start grading each others grammar.  Some of us are not very good at spelling and punctuation but we may have some really good information to share.  If  my  input is going to be graded or my mistakes pointed out by those of higher learning, may be (or maybe)I will not be as ready to share my thoughts.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
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I don't think the purpose of this thread was to grade peoples' posts, so much as to try to make things more readable. All lower (or upper) case, especially with little or no punctuation, makes for a difficult read. It's even worse if there are no paragraph breaks in a longer post. I'd think that typos, spelling mistakes, and so on aren't a serious problem.

Personally, if I see a post with all lower (or upper) case (more than a sentence or so), all run together, or otherwise difficult to read, I just go to the next post. I don't worry too much about punctuation not being according to the book, but if there are no commas and if periods are scarce, it's tough to read.

That information you want to share I'd love to see, provided I don't have to spend 20 seconds trying to read a sentence or two, then reread it to see if I really understood what was said. And it's worse with long posts. A misspelled word, use of colloquialisms, grammar a bit off, and other such don't bother me a great deal, but when things are difficult to read, I won't waste my time.
 
It's even worse if there are no paragraph breaks in a longer post.
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Understand what you mean Larry. I spent a large part of my career reading and interpreting large volumes of specifications and government regulations across multiple continents. So, I'm usually able to quickly digest the written word. However, I've read every one of the 650K messages here, and the ones written in one long paragraph with little or no punctuation are really tough for me to digest.
 
driftless shifter said:
try using a wii for posting, you may be more understanding of no caps.

bill
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I do a lot of posting from my ipad and wii, but I use a Targus blue tooth keyboard while posting. I find that I tend to lose interest in a subject that is all cap's or all lower case.


Lee
 
Many years ago there was a participant on several of the old C*serve forums (not RV related, and I forgot exactly which ones) who posted in all lower case.  She was obviously intelligent and well read, but her lower case postings bugged someone enough to comment about them.

Turns out she was a middle aged librarian at the Library of Congress.  She was also deaf and blind since birth and communicated by placing one hand on a Braille reader while typing with the other.  Using mixed case meant she had to remove her hand from the reader to press the Shift key, which made her lose her place on the Braille screen.

I found out about this when she was profiled in a magazine article about how her life was transformed by being able to participate as an equal in online forums and chat rooms.  Prior to the advent of online communications her disabilities isolated her from most human interaction.  Online, except for that little capitalization quirk, no one had a clue that she was different.
 
Amen and no text language either.  I'm afraid that in a few years, the youth of today won't know how to spell correctly.  They'll think  u r is the legitimate way to spell you are.  I've tried it once or twice, and I just can't do it!!
 
Joezeppy said:
I get frustrated using the Wii just to search for a movie on Netflix. I can't imagine using it to type more than 1 or 2 words!!!
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that's why my posts are generally brief.
agreed, on the use of text language, except maybe rite and lite.:)
 
It is the bane of the advent of "texting" and surfing the internet on smartphones and other non-keyboard devices...it is one of the reasons I refuse to "text"....drives me crazy.

I am all for capitalization and the best grammar possible and with adequate punctuation to make it understandable.

But I am also considered and old fuddy duddy by many, so there...

I agree that our youth will have lost the ability to write a proper sentence, back in the working world, I used to get resumes from prospective employee's and they were filled with misspelled words and terrible grammatical errors and they would end up in the file...and I bet they wondered why they were never contacted...

Enough of my rant....

Jim



 
I'm usually wrong at the top of my voice. Check out the typos/errors in your rant  ;)
 
I'll have to add an Amen to that.  A message that is all lower/upper case, uses text "language" that is meaningless to me, or has little or no punctuation is a real turn off because it's so hard to read.  We all understand that people who didn't learn English as their first language might have problems writing it, but that's not an issue and not a problem.  By the same token, if a person posts something they want others to read, then they also need to try to make it readable for those they are trying to address.  Like others have said, if it's too hard to read, I generally just move on to the next message, so writers who do such things aren't really reaching their intended audience.

ArdraF
 
Me too Ardra. A long post that is not broken up usually gets passed over.  When I was writing the Alaska journal in the Trip Forum, I would reread my posts several times, and then would still wind up missing some stuff. If I really want to be tuned up, I just have the DW proof read it.........
 
I compile and/or edit newsletters for several clubs, and I get to correct a lot of spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors. I'll also split or rewrite unnecessarily long sentences. All this stuff seems to 'jump off the page' while I'm reading, and I'm usually on autopilot fixing stuff. But I've never failed to comprehend the respective author's intended message.

Maybe I have a little more tolerance, or a different filter, but I'm struggling to recall more than a handful of forum messages that I couldn't comprehend. We're approaching 1.5M messages over a period of 20 years.
 
I can't say I've that I have noticed this to be a problem on this forum.  But I only read threads where the subject line catches my interest.
 
All of this reminds me of what Elmore Leonard said about the art of writing - "Just leave all the stuff out, that the reader would skip over".

There is nothing more irritating in trying to read endless ramblings that could have been said in a few short sentences. In this regard less is more!!
 
Betty Brewer said:
I'm so glad to  see some  folks still want to adhere to English language formalities.  Count me in as an "Amen" to using correct spelling, grammer, case and conventions in the written word. 

You can take the teacher out of the field (retired)  but you can't take the teacher out of me.

Betty
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I have been out of the classroom for years (still working in the school district as an administrator).  As a high school math teacher, I expected all mathematical terminology to be used and spelled correctly and other spelling, usage and grammar was scored on a rubric that ranged from "Little or no minor errors (errors that do not detract from the meaning)" to "Significant errors that make it impossible for the reader to engage with the text in a meaningful way."  Kids scored the work of peers before I ever got to it and they were brutal!
 
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