WHY DO ALL CAPS MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A MORON?

[Jeff]

Anyone who's been online for more than a month and has any experience all with instant messaging, chat or forums knows that using ALL CAPS WHEN YOU TYPE is the written equivalent of shouting.

Well there are some very good reasons for turning the CAPS LOCK off. Here's what Western Michigan University says about it:

quote:ALL CAPS

Perhaps the most frequently violated rule of readability involves the use of ALL CAPS (capital letters). Designers are often drawn to all caps because it forms neat, uniform, visual elements, or "blocks." Unfortunately, for precisely that reason, type set in all caps is more difficult to read.

Your brain does not recognize words solely on the basis of specific letter combinations, but on the overall shape of the words. In fact, your brain recognizes whole phrases based on letter shape rather than identifying individual letters and words. Which of the following is easier to read: GOOD OLD DOG or good old dog.

For readability, avoid all caps even in heads and subheads. The most readable headlines and subheads are set only with the first letter of the first word (and proper nouns) capitalized, just as in sentences.

They put it politely. Personally, I think it makes the author look like a raving lunatic at best, and more often a psychotic moron. Using all caps is ugly, hard to read and makes me want to ignore everything the author has to say.

I'm not alone.

Here are a few more resources for you to pass on to the CAPS-LOCK fans that are still out there:

• Writing in All Caps is Like Shouting - About Email Tip
• Hints for Typography Choices - Georgia Tech
• Why Are Caps Difficult? - EnglishClub.com

I could go on, but what's the point? Using all caps in your message is the surest way to get ignored.

[darkc0ne]

So if someone posts in all caps should we ask them not to and if they say "NO, I LIKE CAPS!!" we dont answer them? Seems like it would work well enough.

[tangledlisa]

I'd much rather see all CAPS than someone using slang all the time. Cuz to b4 real its hard to read for us simple folk.

[Jeff]

quote:Originally posted by browneyes078

I'd much rather see all CAPS than someone using slang all the time. Cuz to b4 real its hard to read for us simple folk.

Ah, but that's a whole different problem, isn't it? I'll save that for my next rant!

[darkc0ne]

see....we need to have a rant about useing both caps and slang
cuz then you get posts like this.."WARE CAN I GT DEAD AIM 4 FRE???"
makes me want to break somthing....or someone

[ShadowSlayer469]

Thank God Jeff, its about time some one said something about this! I also disagree with short hand(GTG, TTYL, etc...), but you cant really stop people from using it.

Now I don't know much about ASP, or Snitz, but mabe something could be added to the bad word filter to force all of the posts to be in lower case. I think there is a way to do that in My SQL if your running on Linux, but I don't remember. Don't take my advice if it would be extremely hard. Besides, not to many people post in CAPS. And I would check in the Snitz MOD forum and see if it has already been made.

[UKorbust]

I hate it when people post all in CAPS! What exactly is the point of posting in all CAPS? Is is to try to make yourself look as stupid as you can? I would only expect immate kids to do things like this, its just not right. And I disagree with short hand too ShadowSlayer, I just cant stand it.

[Faizan]

Shadow Slayer, the link you put above is for people who need help "installing" a MOD, the one which has MODs is called: MOD Add-On Forum (W/Code)

And to stay on topic, YUP I ALSO HATE PEOPLE WHO TYPE LIKE THIS.

[slntOPS]

yse all caps is annoying but personally i think abvriations are good there quicker for me and after a while they become natural.

[DJHyperbyte]

quote:Originally posted by slntOPS

yse all caps is annoying but personally i think abvriations are good there quicker for me and after a while they become natural.

Don't tell me you are one of those people who abbreviate "you" to "u" and "to" to "2". I hate people who type "u" instead of "you". If you can not take the time to type those two letters extra you don't have enough patience to do something useful with a computer and should not be allowed to have one.