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CAPS and Newbies
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Posted by: rockjock
I completely disagree with your putdowns of a newbee using caps. Why not just be informative? Advertise that you are a bunch of close minded web geeks that have no time or patience for new people if that is your desire. This so called new language was developed out of laziness and a lack of typing capabilities.
I will continue to use capitals in the normal sense. Some of us have jobs that require a report be typed formally. Why would I want to ruin my typing performace so that conformity can be reached at the lowest common denominator?
I am a newbee if you haven't been able to figure that out yet. Woe be to the newbee that introduces themselves to you without framing their report in web geek terminology.
I thought that this was a technical support forum that might have some useful dialog. It would appear that any dialog will be difficult unless the syntax is approved by members.
Do you think any of you can comment without using explitives?
Posted by: Outlaw
I dont know if you've ever been in bnet ots but when I first got there I tried asking people to stop using caps, sometimes they stopped, most times they called me a *** or something like that and that gets old real fast so after a while I just started ignoring everyone that used only caps and I guess I'm not the only one
Posted by: -Memnoch-
I think you may have misunderstood the tone of the comments made in those posts. Most folks here tend to be humorous or make attempts to be anyway. But at times the humor doesn't tranfer well into text format. A missing  or a misplaced comma can really change the message. I wouldn't make a big deal out of it in any case.
As for caps; I just find it annoying to read text in all caps myself. I have even edited messages to format the caps down to normal case just to make it easier to read for others.
One more thing that may open your eyes as to the quick response all caps brings from the gallery here is, that this sites Creator Mr. Laggus and many of its Staff and members came form the Blizzard game service Battle.net. A place that was again text based in chat rooms or channels. Here all caps was considered yelling or deemed as spam. So much so that default settings on most chat bots would ignore text in capsafter a certain character count was met.
Even in AOL kidie chat caps is considered a nono unless your yelling. Its just a given.
But as your a newbie I guess you gotta figure it out as it comes to ya. Much as the rest of us did at some point along the road. The best way to learn the jargon is to watch and listen and ask questions. Some of it is not important, but much of it is in order to effectivly communicate with others on the net.
Posted by: rockjock
I have been criticized (not here) for using caps at the beginning of sentences. All caps is just as incorrect as no caps!
I may have gotten a point across here. We are all newbies at a given place and time. How can anyone learn to communicate with others without relying on the patience of the experienced?
There is a tremendous amount of the abreviated dialog that is unknown to me. I did not grow up on the web as some of you have. I hate to even ask what some things mean because of the eletist snob attitude of some of the geeks. You get hammered just for asking. I freely use the term "geek" as I am one but in a different field.
Why would you bother with bnet chat etiquit? Would you rather talk about playing or play?
Posted by: Canis Lupus
Thank you for your thoughts rockjock, it is greatly appreciated. Now excuse me while write out a rebuttal 
This IS a technical support forum ... it is even evidenced by us putting the support forums on top of the discussion forums to emphasize this site's purpose. If you have a technical problem, and you post it on our support forums, we help out, and we help out the best we can.
Now as for discussion forums, it's a little different. People are given free rein to discuss their thoughts that are not necessarily technically oriented. Sometimes the discussions are fun, and sometimes they can be quite tough, depending on the subject matter and the way it is presented.
The use of caps lock in conversations on the net has ALWAYS been associated with shouting, and most of the time shouting is not nice. Ask any newsgroup, chatroom or message board and they will tell you the same. Some of us have been in the battle.net chatrooms since its inception and have had our fair share of capslock-toting individuals who, most of the time, don't care if their caps lock is annoying anyone. The first thing we say is to remove the caps lock - is that so wrong? If I was talking to you and shouting in your ear throughout the whole conversation, would you suffer me just so you won't hurt my feelings? I doubt it.
Granted those who replied initially to Phazer's introduction might have overreacted a little, I don't see any instance of them demeaning Phazer in any way - they just told him ot lose the caps lock. One of our moderators, Memnoch, was even nice enough to rewrite Phazer's whole post so that it won't elicit any more reactions. Is that considered a putdown?
We're not grammar teachers here (as evidenced by TheeMon, hehehe j/k man), but we do ask that statements be made in a clear, coherent way. Would you bother answering someone's question if it was not framed in a coherent or readable sentence?
We are an open tech support site. We volunteer to help out people without asking for anything in return - except common courtesy. We like discussions from new people, in fact, we encourage it because we are trying to build a community here. As with any tightly-knit group, there are always some people who are wary of someone new entering the group, but not all of us are like that. All people are different.
I am surprised you brought up "web geek terminology." As far as I know, very few of us use it, whatever web geek terminology is to you. Most of the time, we only use it at the support forums, because it's supposed to be used there. Almost all the conversations in the discussion forums are like the ones you will hear in everyday conversation.
We're not forcing anyone to change their normal typing or writing style. We ARE asking for a little conformity. If you visit a privately-owned organization, would you be justified in doing whatever the heck you like to do? Would you not try to at least exercise a little courtesy and conformity to the ones who are in the organization? We can be a tough group sometimes, but we are not shutting anyone out. Being a generally liberal group, our use of so-called "expletives" usually were not intended to demean anyone, if at all. Most of the time the moderators edit the posts to remove these expletives.
NOW COMPARE CONVERSATIONS THAT ARE TYPED LIKE THIS TO ONES THAT ARE TYPED NORMALLY, LIKE THE ONE YOU TYPED ABOVE, AND YOU WILL SEE A BIG DIFFERENCE. CAPS LOCK IS FINE AND DANDY IF YOU'RE WRITING A REPORT, OR A TERM PAPER, OR EVEN A GREETING CARD, BUT FOR MESSAGE BOARDS, CHATROOMS AND NEWSGROUPS, YOU "WILL" SEE A LOT OF PEOPLE ANNOYED BY IT. PROVE ME WRONG AND I'LL EAT MY COMPUTER.
So in essence, we welcome any "newbie" into OTS. We have had some bad experiences with people who enter our forums just to be a troll or a flamebaiter (and yes, they talk in CAPS LOCK). We apologize to Phazer and to anyone else who has gotten the impression that OTS does not welcome "newbies" ...
Posted by: rockjock
I must be old. All caps in a term paper would have been an immediate failing grade when I was in college.
Posted by: EOT(US)
ELLENOFTROY a computer geek? or even a computer tech geek?
*gasp*  *gasp*
ELLENOFTROY <--- was created in ALL CAPS before she got "educated" - five years ago  hehe
Posted by: Outlaw
 Quote:
Originally posted by Canis Lupus
PROVE ME WRONG AND I'LL EAT MY COMPUTER.
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you're wrong! YOU'RE WRONG!! 
Posted by: rockjock
I'm not sure but I believe that they taste like chicken.
Posted by: Swilo
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY 100% WRONG.
This is a nice sentence to read. As is this one. Also this one.
this is just annoying. still wrong, but nowhere near as the first one.
AGAIN, THIS IS A PAIN TO READ, AND IS NOT FORMAL.
I believe you misunderstood their complaints.
Posted by: redwench
i hope laggys hungry.
using all caps will get you ignored by pretty much everyone, since it hurts the eyes to even try to read it. use proper capitalization, or be lazy like me, and never capitalize anything.
oh, and what new language? am i missing something? anyone typing in all caps is just as lazy as i am.
oh, dear, should i throw in some expletives to make you feel at home? well, just so laggy doesnt have a heart attack, ill refrain from such antics.
Posted by: Outlaw
Quote:
Originally posted by rockjock (& redwench)
expletives
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what are expletives?
Posted by: rockjock
Quote:
Originally posted by Swilo
I believe you misunderstood their complaints.
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I understand the complaint. All caps has the connotation of shouting. I would hope that we would try to help not shout back. I may have reacted more than liked to the critism given.
Posted by: Canis Lupus
Quote:
Originally posted by SniperIII
what are expletives?
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expletives
Posted by: rockjock
Quote:
Originally posted by SniperIII
what are expletives?
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expletive n. exclamation, oath
Posted by: rockjock
Quote:
Originally posted by redwench
oh, dear, should i throw in some expletives to make you feel at home? well, just so laggy doesnt have a heart attack, ill refrain from such antics.
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Please do not put yourself out. I asked for response without expletives. It must be another house you're thinking of.
Posted by: laborat
Beware my Webby Geekness!!! I can come up with terms and jargon that even I don't understand...
(this comment was closed CAPtioned for the terminally dull)
Posted by: Outlaw
expletive n. exclamation, oath 
expletive
I think I'll just forget about the expletives now 
my brain hurts...
Posted by: rockjock
This CAPtious CAPer is losing its CAPable CAPacity to CAPtivate.
I CAPitulate.
Posted by: Null Actor
I don't think anyone here would give you hell for using capitals where they are required... we only get annoyed when someone speaks in all capitals. It's annoying.
http://www.opentechsupport.net/foru...=&threadid=2773
Posted by: laborat
I am also extremely annoyed by people who speak in all
consonants...
Posted by: Canis Lupus
flyby trysts n' hyms ... grrrr ... why try?
Posted by: AK47
ditto what Nova said.
Thats what rockjock was inititally posting about. He was saying how he was yelled at for using caps where they are necessary (like at the beginning of sentices).
I dunno if anyone caught that- everyone just asumed he was talking about speaking in ALL CAPS.
whatever, back to sleep.
Posted by: redwench
No. we got what he was saying. but the only person that was yelled at for using caps, wrote a long post in all caps with no grammar to speak of. until someone fixed it.
Posted by: Ion Silverbolt
No one that works at this site has put down anyone for using capslock in a post. There are however other members of this site who don't work for OTS.net . They can pretty much say what they want provided it's not offensive. If anyone insults another user for using capslock, their post would be deleted. I even delete posts where users ask people to stop using capslock if they post it in the tech support forums. If they don't have any help to add, they shouldn't post.
An example of it would be this thread. Notice someones post was removed.
Personally, all caps threads are annoying to me. But it's not like someone is letting my toe on fire. Some people overeact to silly things. Especially on the net where people are afflicted with virtual courage.
On a side note, the guy in that thread admitted to using a copied CD later. If anything deserves to be annoying, it's typing all that tech support just because someone didn't want to admit to piracy.
Posted by: Chako
Amen Bro....
You will notice rockjock that I did not chastise him for his all caps...I tried to help him by giving him some good starter links to read up first so that he could ask some good questions later on when he feels that he is almost ready to put it all together into a case.
I did however tell him why some of the other members reacted the way they did. Netiquette is something I don't put much stock in it. Some would have you not type in English but that awful lazy geek speak you mentioned full of abbreviations and such. We don't do that in here.
Posted by: rockjock
It is nice to see a lot of reasonable responses. I think I could get comfortable here.
Posted by: Digitalphatman
Mabye there is something wrong with me,but i really don't think all caps is that bad to read. Also I kinda wish people would stop complaining about how the English language is being mutilated (i.e by refusing to spell out the word u or not capitalizing words). Has anyone listened to how people talk. The English language is buchtered eveyday with out any one having to type any thing. In fact its even worse than what is in here (or other forums, chatrooms, im's, etc.)
Posted by: TheeMon
hell look at the hax0r form of english hehe... second yes look at my posts if you think were all about grammer (i no it grammar but i spell some things diff like kool heeh) and i had no input on his post so i didnt say anything more then "yes plz dont use caps "
and rockjock i hope you find a nice home at ots.net i think we'll be more then happy to acsept you... p.s venture into the "general forum" i only come in rants and raves when its late (2:47AM now)
and im bord so i venture into other parts of the forums hehe cyaz man
Posted by: Chako
You guys are lucky I am not an English teacher.
Posted by: Bishop
In an alternate universe, I'm sure we're all english teachers.
Posted by: Canis Lupus
Well, I was an English teacher a few years ago... teaching college sophomores at that at my alma mater... you haven't experienced pain until you've tried to read more than a hundred essays and technical term papers written by students who didn't have English as their first language
Posted by: Freak
I need help with my biology homework :P
The teacher kicked half the class out today, it was so funny. Fortunately I was at the other end of the class and didn't get the boot. It was funny tho cause the guys that got kicked out missed the test review. Hah. Hah...HAHA!
Let see....the field diameter.....yawn....
Posted by: laborat
I was a Body English Teacher at my local bowling alley...
It required me to BONE up on my Grammar.
my Chiropractor is now a millionaire.
Posted by: EOT(US)
TheeMon has a language "all his own" .... still trying to figure out just what it is j/k'in (aka just kidding)
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