Thursday, February 3, 2011

SHOUTING when writing

I participate quite actively on the Amazon Kindle board on facebook.

I go there to exchange information, help out newbies, chat with other regulars that I've gotten to know in the course of the months that I've been visiting the forum.

Some days are quite fun and there can be a fair bit of silliness going on.

Some days can be quite aggravating like when someone (a troll) from the nook page decided to come over and attack one of our members. There was swearing, but not by me. I was just gobsmacked at the person's vehemence and nastiness. But that's besides the point.

Most of the time there's just a whole lot of niceness, book recommendations, helpful hints and such going on.

There's also the aggravation of some newbies and others who ask really, really dumb questions that makes me want to throw my hands up in the air and just walk away from it it all, but that's also not the point.

The point is today there's been a lot of SHOUTING on the board.



How do I know it's shouting? you ask.

Well, because, as one person decided to post:

ANYONE GOT ANY BOOKS I CAN READ? I LIKE THRILLERS ... HORROR ... AFRICAN AMERICAN FICTION ... BROKE RIGHT NOW SO CAN'T AFFORD TO BUY ANY ... HELP A FELLOW READER OUT!

So us helpful sorts provided some advice and comments,  plus I added:

And do you really need to type with your CAPS lock on? It seems like you're shouting at us.

To which she replied:


DEANNA I TYPE HOW I TYPE I FOLLOW MY OWN RULES AND NOT ANYONE ELSES...WHO SAID TYPING WITH CAPS IS SHOUTING? PROBABLY SOMEONE WITH ISSUES :)

No really, no issues, but truly, when you're commenting and writing on a post, some basic grammar, punctuation and even the appropriate use of upper and lower case letters would be helpful.

I mean, doesn't all that CAPS lock "speaking" sound like SHOUTING to you? When everything else is said in nice moderated lower case tones, with appropriate grammar and punctuation in place?

It really seemed to me as though she was shouting at all of us. Maybe I do have issues ... but I don't think so. 


It just doesn't seem like good manners.

Where is it written or when has it become acceptable to be rude just because you're writing online and on a social networking site rather than submitting an English Lit essay? 

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