I know. I read lack of punctuation as someone breathlessly talking. I feel tired for them. And I can’t shut it off, like I can for capital letters occasionally.
(And lowercase only doesn’t faze me as long as everything is spelled correctly and it is limited to normal short paragraphs.)
Writing in either of those styles is an indication of sloppy/incompetent methodology, which will colour my ability to take the content seriously. You can go ahead and post in either manner, but chances are pretty good I’ll just gloss what’s in there and not bother to respond as it probably won’t be worth my time.
Can’t decide which is more irritating; count me in as another who probably won’t bother reading either.
Excessive exclamation!!!11! points and posts peppered with emoticons: also ugh.
I don’t know where you got the notion that three sentences is the maximum length of a paragraph; that’s insane. I’m not recommending huge, unbroken blocks of text, but three is far too little.
I’ll agree that, in general, a change in subject calls for a paragraph break though.
I would have picked the “equally annoying” choice, except that sounds like I’m giving a pass to whichever the OP chooses. So I chose ALL CAPS AS THE MOST ANNOYING, because if I had to choose to read one or the other I would prefer lower case.
Either one will make me take the poster as having teh stoopid, and not read the post.
I’m pretty sure all caps is a surefire way to make everyone put the poster on their ignore list. They’ll wonder why no one ever replies to their posts. tiny violin
I have to wonder why people continue writing posts with no capitals or punctuation when the far majority of posters have stated that they flat out don’t read posts like that.
What on earth is the point of taking the time to write out a post knowing that most people here won’t even read it?
It’s a bit baffling.
i HAVE an IDEA
how ABOUT alternating ALL lowercase AND all CAPS and STILL no PUNCTUATION
Then you sound like you’re putting em PHA sis in odd LO kay SHUNs. That’d be weird.
No cite, but I’ve heard that ALL CAPS are actually more difficult to read. The shape/height of the letters is more similar than when there’s a normal mix of upper and lowercase or even all lowercase, so the reader has to pay more attention to each letter in order to make out the word. This can be an effective way to make the reader pay attention to a specific word or brief phrase, but it prevents people from reading longer passages at their normal pace. Hardly anyone is going to bother to slog through an all caps message board post.
A passage written in all lowercase may irritate the reader, but as far as I know it wouldn’t interfere with the reading process the way all caps does.
I don’t have a preference. If I skip over your post, it won’t be because you’re posting in all caps or all lowercase.
Oh, God, all caps is worse. All lower case is annoying/childish-looking, but tolerable. All caps is totally unbearable.
In my experience, if you can’t or won’t capitalize and punctuate correctly, you probably have nothing interesting to say. It’s probably not worth my time to try to decipher your shitty writing. If you have something interesting to say, then it’s probably worth your time to do it well. If you don’t take the time to do it properly, don’t be surprised when no one takes the time to read it. Oh, and the harder you make it for them to read, the less likely they are to even bother.
In other words: If you have nothing interesting to say, say it any way you like. But if you do have something interesting and useful to say, do it right. If you don’t, and no one understands it, or even bothers to read it, it’s your fault.
I’m not being paid to read your crap. If you want me to read it, and take your ideas seriously, don’t make me have to work at understanding you, because I won’t make the effort.
I voted “oTheR”. While I find all capitalization annoying and and no capitalization more annoying, random capitalization would annoy me the most.
50rrY 9Uy2 I’v3 5377L3D 0N a 7hiRd 0P7I0n 70 WrI73 IN l337 5P33K PhR0m N0w 0n. unl352 J00 HAV3 ANY 08j3c7I0n2. 0k, 53ri0U5ly, C0MpAR3d 70 73h PR3Vi0u2 7w0 0p7I0N2, W0Uld j00 c0n5iD3r L337 5P33kiN’ gr8 0r tEh 5Ux0r?
K0X1n94 b0i
Gosh, I was picturing Margaret Dumont glaring sternly over her pince nez but THAT is hardcore.
Unfortunately, I follow several 14 year-old girls on Tumblr (they have all the good Justin Bieber pictures) so I actually understood that.
Also I forgot that the first rule of Tumblr is to never mention Tumblr.
Yeah. Grate, Koxinga. Really grate.
Leet in size 1, multi-colour.
I think it’s all that’s left in your piss-people-off posting styles.
Are you trolling or polling? Because you didn’t include Leet in your intolerable poll.
A mid-level Thai civil servant who was applying for graduate school in the US once asked me to proofread his essay for his application. He used all caps. I asked him why on earth he would do such a thing, and he said his friend told him it would improve his chances of being accepted. I told him his friend was a moron and that I would not read it until it looked decent. My eyes were crossing and burning just looking at it. He did bring it back to me typed normally, and it was actually a decent admissions essay. He did get accepted somewhere, but I don’t remember if it was that particular school.
“Good to the last lash, Mistress Cora!”
ALL CAPS - SEE? DOESN’T IT LOOK LIKE I’M SHOUTING AT YOU FOR NO REASON? ISN’T THIS SO ANNOYING TO READ?
Also, all caps has a tendency to be the preferred style of writing on message boards by religious fundies who try to pressure everyone else to believe what they do…BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, YOU JUST CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT I’M SAYING PROPERLY IF I’M NOT SHOUTING AT YOU. :dubious:
Strangely enough, people who hand write in all caps don’t bother me as much. shrug That style tends to be favored by people who have done technical drawing and that sort of thing (such as my dad; never seen him write normally). Or people whose cursive is shit. 