Forum Manners?

[Lily]

Evidently there's a thing called netiquette. Forum manners are included within that.

For an example of forum netiquette, I discovered by researching forum etiquette online that ALL CAPS ARE CONSIDERED SCREAMING. Interesting. It does sound like SCREAMING when you read it.

Anyway, further consideration of various forms of forum etiquette, and since I don't want to flame anyone, I'll be vague. But sometimes I've read a retort post like the following, antagonizingly second-guessing an already difficult and personal decision that's already been explained in great detail: "SO, I can't help but wonder what it is about [insert whatever type] valves themselves that concern you."

And I always think, "Huh? What?" I would never think to ask such a question. Nor in such a challenging or condescending manner.

Afterall, we're all as different as snow flakes, as our fingerprints, as our DNA. And we all have different reasons for making our decisions.

Maybe there's a more polite way to word the question. Or maybe it doesn't need to be asked. Anyway, it bugs me.

Any thoughts? On any particular forum netiquette issue?

 

[Nancy]

I do not believe that an occasional word capped means "screaming", in this case it is meant to show emphasis that would occur in a voice conversation. All caps has an angry connotation, that is true and is pretty universal in all forums, unless someone is computer illiterate and doesn't know how to unlock their caps.

I guess you feel the entire sentence is belligerent. But it may be or it may not be, it might just be a point of clarification.

It is very hard to read people's voice inflections online. That's why smilies were invented, but they cannot give all the little nuances that we are used to when we have a spoken conversation with someone. And we cannot see the person's face to see their expressions.

I have to think about acting schools and how many ways there are to say a simple sentence, giving very different meanings depending on how it is said and emphasized. You can't do that when writing things online.

For myself, I prefer to give the person the benefit of the doubt. I don't think most people deliberately want to start a "dust-up". Sometimes, they just need clarification to be able to form a cogent answer, or help the person.

I go to many forums and this happens all the time. Someone misreads the true meaning of what a person is trying to say, so it doesn't just happen here. It is universal.

 

[Lily]

Huh. I mentioned the screaming all caps as an example of netiquette, a new term to me. For clarification of my meaning, this is one of several sites I found earlier about netiquette and forum etiquette that describes using all caps as screaming: http://www.ehow.com/how_2106033_use-proper-forum-etiquette.html It was new information to me.

But I think smilies can be really excellent tools also and I'm glad the site has them More people should use them

 

[Kathy McCain]

Thanks for the link. Invaluable information.

 

[tobagotwo]

The caps rule has been in place for quite some time, so it's not just an affectation of that website. In fact, I'd like to take this opportunity to commend Al Capshaw for his transition over time into standard case from caps. Al never meant it as shouting anyway, as far as I could tell.

I try to use italics when emphasizing a point. I sometimes wonder how that gets taken by people. I'm wordy, and I tend to think I need to break it up in some way when I'm trying to bring attention to the point I've been dancing around through three or four lengthy paragraphs.

True about trolls, flame wars, and futility as well.

Nice link.

 

[Bina]

The most common usage of all CAPS is shouting or a raised voice, and using bolded text is for emphasis.

 

[Bina]

BTW Bob, we love your wordiness.

 

[Lynlw]

The most common usage of all CAPS is shouting or a raised voice, and using bolded text is for emphasis.

Yes but computer impaired idiots like me can ONLY use all caps since a key is marked for that..anything more fancy sadly is beyond me, even tho numerous helpful people have tried over the years..I'M hopeless

 

[kfay]

I've known about the all caps standing for screaming in e-mails and on forums for years. My father-in-law types everything this way, so my husband and I have had a laugh about it for a long time now. And I agree with you Susan on the other points as well.

 

[Kathy McCain]

I myself use ALL CAPS for emphasis. It seems the easiest for me. Sure hope I'm not misunderstood. If I were to use an (!) with it, then I might be shouting.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

The most common usage of all CAPS is shouting or a raised voice, and using bolded text is for emphasis.

Sometimes bold and italics do not work on old operating systems and old versions of software such as AOL.
That was the case with my OLD computer. Aren't you all glad that I now have an XP based computer running a newer version of Internet Explorer?

Susan, er, ah, I guess you are Lily now, I'm glad to see that you are still reading my posts.
What would I do without you to keep me straight? ))

'AL Capshaw'

 

[Kathy McCain]

Uh oh, I'm sorry Susan. I can't believe I called you Lynda again! Please accept my apologies.

 

[Luana]

Sometimes people use all caps because they have vision problems and it makes it easier for them to see what they're typing.

 

[Lynlw]

Sometimes people use all caps because they have vision problems and it makes it easier for them to see what they're typing.

I have the oposite problem, I can't read posts that are in all caps, it turns into one big blur for me..even with my bifocal contacts AND reading glasses. I have to skip over them

 

[Glenda]

That's FUNNY about the caps. At the hospital in General Surgery, everything is typed in caps. EVERYTHING! I don't know why, that's just the way the hospital wants us to do it.

 

[Freddie]

I've never meant to shout using caps or bold letters, just wanted to emphasis my feelings toward the matter at hand.

Nancy hit the nail on the head by saying "It is very hard to read people's voice inflections online".

Oh well it is what it is and how you intrepid the wording

 

[Lily]

. . .Susan, er, ah, I guess you are Lily now, I'm glad to see that you are still reading my posts.
What would I do without you to keep me straight? )) . . .

Thank you; you too And yeah, I'm STILL, oh I mean still keeping my eye on you AL . . .
[Hey there is no winking smilie in this new bunch of smilies; so please just picture a wink here AL ]

And yeah, when I rejoined I just figured I couldn't use my old member name, which wasn't even my very first original member name because I think I'd been off the site for too long after my valve replacement and it had to get changed when I posted again; and Susan means Lily. Probably too much information again. Sorry Verbose and futile.

 

[Ross]

As long as there are forums, people are going to do and say things that will bother you. It's the nature of forums.

 

[skeptic49]

I have good friends who use all caps...one because of eyesight problems and another because of being computer challenged. They don't mean any harm or offense, of course. It's not always easy to determine someone's intent based on how they come off on line.

Jim

 

[Trinityheart8891]

or you could be like my mom and forget she had her caps lock on when she transitions from Auto-Cad to non-work stuff at work, I've recieved entire half emails from her typed in caps lock, as well as chatting with her over facebook, honest mistake, I laugh at her when she does this....um, actually, I do it at work myself, we have some programming that requires caps lock, half the time I'm wondering why my passwords wont work, hmm, caps lock has nothing to do with it, eh??? LOL