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Capital letters.

• Message 1. 

  Posted by Polly Tunnel (U1530077) on Monday, 2nd July 2012

  Tayler, can something be done to stop the recent outbreak of capital letters in both thread titles and in the main body of posts?
  
  The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's basic tips on message writing state "Don't type your messages in capital letters as it LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING!" and I for one don't come here to be shouted at.
  
  Thank you,
  
  Polly

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Syzygy (U14428371) on Monday, 2nd July 2012

  Polly, I think it may be more serious than simply causing irritation.
  
  As I understand it (and I'm more than happy to be corrected on this if things have changed recently) screen reading software will often speak words written completely in uppercase letters at a greater volume than that employed for 'normal' text.
  
  While this might not cause any real difficulty for a blind or partially-sighted mb user when only the thread title is capitalised, it must be very wearing, quite stressful in fact, to have entire messages 'shouted' at you. Indeed, if caps are greatly overused, I believe a case could be made for it constituting a 'Disability Equal Access' violation.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by Syzygy (U14428371) on Monday, 2nd July 2012

  And of course I should have added that, violation or not, imo it's extremely unpleasant to disadvantage blind and partially-sighted mb users in this way.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Monday, 2nd July 2012

  While this might not cause any real difficulty for a blind or partially-sighted mb user when only the thread title is capitalised, it must be very wearing, quite stressful in fact, to have entire messages 'shouted' at you. Indeed, if caps are greatly overused, I believe a case could be made for it constituting a 'Disability Equal Access' violation. 
  
  NO because the capitals are MEANT to be SHOUTED so the software is provided a fair representation.
  
  And the choice and volume of stress is almost certainly USER CONTROLLABLE.

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 3.

  Posted by Spartacus (U38364) on Monday, 2nd July 2012

  And of course I should have added that, violation or not, imo it's extremely unpleasant to disadvantage blind and partially-sighted mb users in this way. 
  
  Ironically, one of the regular culprits I complained to about this told me that (s)he had sight problems, so would often do a thread title in ALL CAPS so they could easily find it...
  
  Another told me that it was too much hassle to use *asterisks* when they wanted emphasis, and that thus they couldn't see the "point" of the Script.

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• Message 6

  , in reply to message 4.

  Posted by Syzygy (U14428371) on Monday, 2nd July 2012

  NO because the capitals are MEANT to be SHOUTED so the software is provided [sic] a fair representation. 
  
  OI, I don't see a problem with your example which is, as you say, using uppercase letters for emphasis. Screen-reading software would indeed render this correctly.
  
  However, I believe Polly was referring to posts where the whole body of the text is written in caps.
  
  You're correct in your assumption that a blind user can control the volume of speech delivered, but that would really only help if everyone agreed to type exclusively in uppercase letters, otherwise the volume would need to be adjusted constantly between posts using u/lc and those using uc only. I'm also afraid that, if everyone used uc only, you'd have to find a different method of adding emphasis to your prose.
  
  Ironically, one of the regular culprits I complained to about this told me that (s)he had sight problems, so would often do a thread title in ALL CAPS so they could easily find it... 
  
  Peet, yes I can see how that might be an advantage.
  
  If you read my msg #2, you'll see I was referring to posts where the main body of the text is rendered exclusively in uc. I appreciate however that Polly was also complaining about thread titles, and actually I agree with her that giving one's own thread prominence by capitalising the title may well appear boorish to other mb users.

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• Message 7

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Monday, 2nd July 2012

  Tayler, can something be done to stop the recent outbreak of capital letters in both thread titles and in the main body of posts?
  
  The Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's basic tips on message writing state "Don't type your messages in capital letters as it LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING!" and I for one don't come here to be shouted at.
  
  Thank you,
  
  Polly   Hi Polly
  
  I'll keep an eye open for this if it gets worse. It's not against the house rules and there seem to be some reasonable points made in this thread about why people use them.
  
  Tayler

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