[quote=“elektronisk”]
WHAT? I was agreeing with you. If something is written in such a way that I can’t read it easily, I don’t bother. I wasn’t being rude to you, I was agreeing with you. I was simply noting that lack of capitalization is a pain but lack of using paragraphs is too much of a bother for me. Not your lack of paragraphs but other poster’s failing to separate text.[/quote]
Well, it shows how misunderstandings arise from ‘shorthand’, informal English.
I hope I won’t be told off for not replying every ten minutes, but have to agree that I do sometimes get fed up with poorly-written stupid responses to people who haven’t really read what I’m written, and wander away from threads in boredom. It’s not “running away”, it’s recognising that sometimes there is no point continuing. After I’ve had my say and others have had theirs there is no benefit to anyone in continuing with “I’m right and you’re wrong” crap.
Allegations of trolling, however, are not on. I think the hamster needs to reconsider his position.
My original comment was a frustrated reaction to encountering crap after a day of encountering crap. If you bother to read it, it was a good deal less rude than I can be, and certainly didn’t warrant what Fluffy said.
[quote]This has been discussed before, so I know I’m wasting my time with this. But I will say it again in the vain hope that the more lazy and inconsiderate among our users will understand. Capital letters were not invented to make life hard for the less intellectually-gifted. They are there to make life easier for the reader. They serve a purpose, and neglecting to use them shows a lack of respect for the person reading your comments. Please observe the basic niceties that have been agreed upon by millions of people over hundreds of years so that we can communicate more effectively.
Thank you.[/quote]
My second post, fueled by indignation at being maligned by a large rodent, was probably a bad idea. It certainly wasn’t my intention to call urodacus an idiot. I know from real-life experience, and the usual high quality of the information content in his posts, that he’s a very smart guy. I find it highly irritating that someone of such high standards in most other regards should therefore write in a manner that is more appropriate in the areas of the web frequented by less well-educated people. I can ignore idiots, for the most part, but urodacus’ responses are usually worth reading if he can be bothered to make his posts easily readable.
So why doesn’t he write like everyone else? The reason given is that he’s too tired and shagged out after spending all day paying attention to this stuff, and I don’t accept that. There are many editors, writers, teachers and members of other professions which require attention to detail all using this site. Many of them work longer hours than urodacus, but still seem to care enough to make that tiny little bit of effort and press the shift key at the start of each sentence.
The fact that urodacus doesn’t tells me that he doesn’t think it’s important. It’s not “too hard” at all. It’s just too much trouble. A few others agree, but they’re in the tiny minority. So why is it too much trouble to do something tiny that most people seem to agree is worth doing? I can only conclude that urodacus is lazy and doesn’t care about the reader. He’s being inconsiderate, disrespectful, and as this has been discussed before he has obviously not taken any notice of what was said. Selfish.
For a newbie to do this is one thing. For someone to ignore a request that has been made and discussed in detail is to say that the opinions of others don’t matter. Hence, I find urodacus’ attitude irritating.
I hope that clears things up.
And as for ee cummings, more power to him. I’m all in favour of experimentation, invention, and all the rest of it. It’s part of the process that keeps the language alive and evolving. The fact that I personally don’t think much of his work is irrelevant. There should be a place for everything. But this is not the place to assume that his standards should prevail for everyone else.
If someone wants to start a thread about ee cummings, or even to discuss whether ‘the old rules’ matter in the internet age, then I don’t see why anyone should have a problem with that. But until a consensus is reached here on this site, and the rules are changed to state otherwise, anyone who can’t be bothered to press a shift key occasionally, and makes bullshit excuses to explain it away, is just being lazy, rude, and selfish.
Thank you for your attention. I have had my say. I will pay attention to the responses, but am not going to waste anyone else’s time by arguing further. If you want to suggest that I’m trolling or running away then please do us all a favour and bite your fingers off instead.
Loretta, I apologise. I thought you were going to treat this like one of your other posts. Cry wolf and all that. I was wrong, I’m sorry.
I do agree with you in principle though. Badly formatted English is hard and slow to read. Besides, Urodacus also has a rubbish name that no one knows how to spell, what is the plural of that? The possessive? How’s it pronounced? Even his name is an obstacle to speed reading. Even his name isn’t capitalised. Is it not his name?
it was in fact, lower case letters that were invented to make reading easier. Capital letters were the ancestors, at least in the Roman alphabet that we use.
Now, it can hardly be said that my use of paragraph separation is lacking. Nor that my use of punctuation is anything but exemplary, though I do tend to overuse commas a little on the web as it makes the rhythm of the text easier to discern.
Fine: you guys want to state that capitals are a sign of respect? I would posit that they are a convention of style rather than of respect. To each his own, and I far prefer to have my own style than everyone else’s. But I shall lay the blame for my so-called disrespect squarely at the foot of the Microsoft empire for inventing auto-capitalisation in MS Word, and the fact that I am a poor typist when it comes to those inflexible little fingers…
Can someone lock this thread now?
I’ve got no problems with your posts. I never noticed the odd capital letter out of place.
Full stops are very small and - lacking any following capitalization - are more often “tripped over” than seen in advance. Capitals are like STOP signs and help signal the beginning of a new sense.
Conventional wisdom, perhaps.