I just realized that at some point, I stopped bolding users’ names when referencing them in my posts. I don’t object to it or anything, and I’m willing to start doing it again. So I’m curious. The custom is clearly to do so, but in not doing so, am I actually being rude?
A connected question for me is: How much harder does it make it for you to read and follow a thread if user names are not consistently bolded? Are you likely to miss posts directed at you without this (assuming you are in ‘conversation’ with another poster already)? Do you find it makes following the conversation simpler?
I do think it’s easier to see bolded names, and it does make it easier to follow the “mini-threads” within a thread, but I don’t think it’s rude not to bold names.
Hmm, not actually rude to not bold them, but definitely flouting the convention here. It is much easier to see the bolded names, and I wouldn’t mind it if everyone bolded names (at least the first time in a post - later mentions optional.)
Not bolding a name!!! There’s a level of hell reserved for you! **
okay, so I really don’t care one way or the other. if someone said it was bad manners, you have my blessing to ham a large, cumbersome object up their butt
I bold-face names if I am talking to two posters within the same response.
Such as:
Blah, blah, blah, blah, John Smith. Blah, blah, blah.
Jane Doe, blah, blah, blah, blah.
I don’t think it’s rude not to do so, but I think it makes it easier to read, especially since some Doper names aren’t capitalized, and sometimes they blend into the sentence confusingly.
If you don’t bold names in general, how else would you show disrespect for someone by not bolding their name? I usually bold everyone’s name. There are a few posters whom I dislike and don’t respect and I never bold their names. Not that I expect anyone to notice or care; but I do it for me.
I don’t bold usernames out of politeness, though that is a secondary reason. I bold it because so many names are not “names” per se, but descriptions or stuff like that and thus blend right into a sentence sometimes.
So, I’d like them bolded, but it’s not a big deal.
If I make a remark in a thread and am looking for a response to that remark, I’ll look for my bolded name or a quote. Sometimes I’m forced to skim the loooong posts that neither interest, nor concern me. If you were to make a comment to me in the middle of a thread without bolding my name, I might miss it. Then perhaps, you might think I were being rude by not responding.
Oh drat. I don’t bold names when I forget. Which is about once in every four names.
Now, if they follow you, Homebrew, are they going to think I’m disrespecting them?
Hm. Maybe I should make that Homebrew?
Do you feel half dissed? Or just that I’m half clumsy?
Ensign Edison: I do not think it is rude to not bold usernames, however I do think it is helpful to bold them.
In addition we have the example of the software doing the bolding for us in the reply/quote function.