I can’t speak for samarm, but I know that when I point out someone’s lack of capitalization, it’s usually in the hopes that they’ll start using them. People who flout the conventions of written speech make my delicate brain hurt.
There were no teenagers that were amazingly elitist about The Matrix.
No, I’m serious. I’m not making a Matrix reference. There weren’t any fucking teenagers that thought that it was deep. They were all too busy thinking that Britney Spears was the greatest musical sensation ever.
nononospoofethoseweremostlypreteenssincerealteenshatedherbecausemarilynmansonsaidshewasntdarkenoughtheyfoundherbubblypoppinessoffensive
exactly, so in the future, don’t criticize how people post because it wastes people’s time which I am also doing to people right now.
i understood the OP’s point whether he/she capitalized or didn’t capitalize.
miller, we have been down this road before. why don’t you lighten up and accept that people write in different ways?
i see poorly expressed posts here all the time. personally i wish posters would not run all their sentences together into one large paragraph. that assaults my senses more than no capital letters or incorrect spelling.
and , in my humble opinion, correcting people’s posting style is “being a jerk”, which is against the rules here, is it not?
ps MILLER, i do truly enjoy your posts. (unless you are correcting someone’s grammar or writing style)
and if you never used another capital letter, i would still read your posts and respect your opinions, most of which i agree with. (unless of course you were correcting someone’s grammar or posting style)
i am here to read other people’s ideas. the people who do have problems with spelling and grammar will eventually improve if they are not ridiculed and run out of here.
Sorry but thats bullshit. I’ll criticize whoever the fuck I want to. Especially when they post a movie question in the pit. And half of their posts in the thread don’t make any sense. Never mind about the fact that there were no capital letters.
I’ve got no issue with mistakes and grammar errors in posts - I do it myself all the time. So I criticized owl with a quip about the hamburglar - so what? You call that being a jerk - grow a thicker fucking skin for christs sake!
As for pointing out someone complete inability to use capitals “wasting peoples time”, well if you’ve got more important things to do then you shouldn’t be reading a message board in the first place.
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Hell, just looking at writing like this gives me a headache. How many people do you think would skip over my posts or correct my “writing style” if I always wrote in this form?
*Unless you aren’t a native speaker of the language, in which case most people who aren’t jerks will cut you some slack.
Aw, djf750, you’d been doing so well. I’ve seen so many of your posts where you wrote like an adult: clearly, legibly, dare I say, intelligently? Don’t tell me you’re going to go back to writing like an apathetic teenager.
In real life, if you were talking with someone who clearly hadn’t bathed, combed their hair, or changed their clothes for several days, you’re going to have a negative impression of them, and are not likely to give much weight to anything they say. whn youtype lik this, you r givin the exact same impression. It’s not a matter of wether I can understand your point, it’s a matter of how much I care about your point. And when it comes to a matter of pure opinion, like the OP, how he presents himself is the primary determiner of how important I find his opinion. In this case, he comes across as someone who’s too stupid to find the shift key on his keyboard, which means he’s certainly too stupid to have an interesting or valid opinion. If that’s not the case, why go out of your way to give that impression? Why make getting your point across an uphill battle? Especailly on this board, where education and eloquence are practically fetishized?
What kills me about this whole topic is that following the rules for proper English is such an easy way to make yourself look a lot smarter. Hitting the shift key once per sentence takes so little effort, and goes such a long way towards making a better impression. Do you want to sound like you’re a fifteen year old who’s flunking English class? If you do, it’s certainly your perogative. Just don’t be surprised when nobody takes what you have to say seriously.
:eek:
How long did this take you to do? I know a bunch of people who insist on TyPiNg LiKe ThIs EvErY cHaNcE tHeY gEt, and even doing that little bit gives me a headache.
Egads…It’s just not for me.
Maybe DarkPrince has a translator sort of like this.
miller, maybe the guy had problems in his past and he didn’t do well in school.
maybe he was just drunk.
maybe he is an asshole.
the point is he was posting about elitism:
"The belief that certain persons or members of certain classes or groups deserve favored treatment by virtue of their perceived superiority, as in intellect, social status, or financial resources.
The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.
Control, rule, or domination by such a group or class. "
miller, you are an elitist.
this is a message board, not a university, not a large corporation.
there are people here whose ideas i would like to read. maybe they can’t spell or don’t express themselves well. i still want to read their ideas.
and i hate to tell you this. you made some spelling and grammatical errors in your posts in this very thread. but i don’t think that you are stupid because you did.
on the contrary, i think that you are very intelligent (and you seem to have a good sense of humor) and like i said earlier, i enjoy reading your posts. (except …well…you know)
and SAMARM, this wasn’t really a movie question. he was ripping people who liked the movie and then when it got very popular didn’t like it any more and asked if others saw this also.
so again, maybe there are people who will post here who had a rough time in their past or who just didn’t do their homework but now have found this fascinating place. and i would bet that by just seeing words spelled correctly (most of the time) and paragraphs and semicolons that they might improve their writing skills.
that is if they are not ridiculed so that they stop posting.
miller, pull that dangling participle out of your ass and lighten up.
Wow FairyDust, everything is available on the interweb machine. I’m dumbfounded.
Pretty sure we’ve been over this territory before, djf750, but like I’ve always said, there is a huge difference between not being able to spell or speak correctly, and deliberately flouting the conventions of English. Yes, I probably made a few typos in my post. Probably will make a few more in this one. I can say with a fair degree of certainty that I have never, not once in my entire time on the boards, given anyone a hard time over making typos. Accidents happen, and this is a casual medium that shouldn’t require pains-taking proofreading.
You’ll note, as well, that I haven’t commented on anyone’s spelling, or even grammar, in this thread. All I’m asking is that people take the .001 nanosecond required to hit the shift key so that reading their posts doesn’t give me a headache. And as bad as someone’s educational background may be, I have a hard time believing that they never learned how to capitalize. I’m not ragging on people over split infinitives or misused semi-colons, I’m just asking that they put one of the big letters at the beginning of their sentences.
Actually, I’m not even doing that. I’m merely informing them (in a pretty polite manner, for the most part) that when they don’t capitalize, they make themselves look less intelligent than they actually are. This isn’t ridicule, it’s helpful advice. And I still don’t understand why helpful advice sends you into such a rage.
As for me being elitist, I’ll confess that I have more respect for people who make an effort to improve themselves and take the time to make a good impression. I don’t think that makes me an elitist, unless you’re insisting on such a broad definition of the word as to rob it of all meaning.
So people should not be expected to use proper methods of forming written English sentences unless it’s for school or work?
It’s all about presentation. People who take the time and effort to use proper punctuation, capitalization, and sentence structure are more likely to have also spend some time and effort in forming the opinions they are expressing. Thus, I’m more inclined to actually read their posts all the way through.
I seriously doubt that simply seeing is enough. They need to have it pointed out to them that their current (mis)use of English makes them look less-than-educated, lazy, or perhaps willfully ignorant, depending on the severity and other circumstances. If they were open to correction based simply on exposure, it would have already happened as they read school textbooks or read random stuff on the Interweb.
If someone stops posting because other point out their mistakes (in the hopes that said mistakes will eventually be corrected), then they must not have cared very much about posting in the first place. Sometimes the only way to get a point across is constructive criticism.
Speaking of which, you appeared to have been a victim of the Hamburglar as well. Proper capitalization would make you posts look much more professional/educated.
Y’know, I was wondering where JeffK went after he “haxced” his site to support the troops…now we know…
“that when they don’t capitalize, they make themselves look less intelligent than they actually are.”
and i say that people like you who judge someone’s intelligence ON A MESSAGE BOARD ON THE WEB by whether they capitalize or not are not very wise.
“This isn’t ridicule, it’s helpful advice.”
it could be ridicule to someone who learned to read and write late in life (i know and i have helped a few, miller)
“And I still don’t understand why helpful advice sends you into such a rage.”
i’m not in a rage yet, miller. but i have to say i have a lot less respect for you now.
and i wish to announce that in honor of miller, the guy who is here to just offer helpful advice and judge people’s intelligence by whether they capitalize ON A FREAKING MESSAGE BOARD, i will not capitalize anymore on the SDMB.
and i have a pretty high IQ miller.
now, my emotional IQ is a different story.
but i believe that the assholes here who constantly correct other’s writing (unless it is completely incoherent due to drug usage) are BEING JERKS and are BREAKING THE RULES OF THE BOARD. (capitalization will be used only to add emphasis)
I’ve never understood this hostility to proper grammar. It’s almost as if posters like djf750 think that proper English is just a bunch of arbitrary rules imposed by “the Man” to keep him down.
Well, they aren’t, and posters who ignore good grammar regularly DO reflect poorly on their own intelligence. Here is why: the rules of grammar are an aid to communication. Well-written sentences, properly capitalized and punctuated, enhance the clarity with which one expresses one’s thoughts.
And the ability to communicate is an indicia of intelligence, or at least of meaningful intelligence. You might be Albert Freakin’ Einstein between your own two ears, but if you can’t effectively communicate your genius to the rest of the world then all your brilliance is wasted.
As Miller points out, typos are one thing: we all make 'em, and no one expects thorough proofreading on a public message board. But deliberately flouting English conventions is, quite frankly, dumb. Ostensibly, people post here because they want to share their thoughts on various topics – sharing that is useless if no one can understand the manner in which those thoughts are expressed, or if they can only be understood after great interpretational difficulty.
Please, please, please don’t jump on me, but I do have a question for ** djf750**. Why do you not use capitalization? I have no dog in this fight at all, but DO have an extremely difficult time reading posts without capitalization due to (hopefully temporary) faulty eyesight. Is there a specific reason that it’s eschewed or is it just a convenience/habit sort of thing? Again, I’m just curious and I thank you in advance for your thoughtful reply.
(P.S. I’d just like to add that I’ve now proof read this damn post 7 billion times. If there is (undoubtedly) a typo/misspelling here, it’s not for lack of effort.)
hopefool: This answers your question:
HOW ABOUT IF WE ALL HAD CAPS LOCK ON ALL THE TIME AND DIDNT USE ANY PUNCTUATION THAT WOULD MAKE POSTS EVEN MORE READABLE
Come on people, just make an effort to write readable posts - I think thats all Miller and myself are asking. If no one made any effort at all then the SDMB would be a dumber place for it. I don’t think anyone wants that - do they?
i expect people to hit PREVIEW REPLY like i do and go back and fix the words that were not spelled correctly or were typed twice etc. i can’t tell you how many times a misspelled (is that spelled correctly?) word throws me off of what i am reading. i go back and think is that a word i don’t know or did the poster make a mistake. WASTED TIME.
but no one seems to get upset by this, it’s those non-capitalizers that get the heat.
so when EVERYONE here spells, punctuates, and use paragraphs properly i will start capitalizing again.
so save your lectures. i have read perfectly written posts here that i had no idea what they were trying to say, and then read a bunch of vowels, consonants verbs, nouns and commas (like the OP) and i knew what they meant and got something out of their post.
ok time to hit PREVIEW REPLY and make sure i spelled correctly.
Ah, samarm, thank you. But actually, I meant before anyone apparently felt their back against the wall or got their dander up. I used to have a niece who did this via email and I once asked her about it. She said that she grew up typing that way on the internet and had some problems differentiating when necessary for school papers and other quasi-important things. She’s just now in her freshman year of college, so I hope it’s improving for her, but I’ve just terribly always wondered what the reasoning behind this was when confronted with how others do it for whatever reason. Ergo, standard conventions of linguistics, easier to read/follow, desire to improve one’s self or whatever.
However, thanks for taking the time to reply. 