Where it is acceptable to use all caps? I personally think it is a silly pet-peeve. It's actually kind of funny, you can say anything you want all in caps because chances are, no one will be able to get past the the audacity. The gratuitous use of caps should not be a painful experience to a reader.

Perhaps I'm being harsh, I too have pet peeves. One of my favorites is when poeple feel the need to quote the dictionary in a debate. Where does one go with a dictionary quote as a response to a debate?

Another favorite is the use of purposeful misspelling of words for additional flavor. Words like 'kewl'.....ughhh, I weigh what a person writes mostly by how it is written. What I mean is, if you take the time to think out what you want to say, why use these strange cryptic spellings?

ok pointless rant over....for the moment.

Personally, I think that posts with all caps are annoying, not because they might represent yelling like other members say, but because it takes extra effort to read. We're all used to reading posts in 'normal' format like ours...I think that because it's different, it takes longer to read, and thus is even more of a dissapointment when you find out that reading the post was a total waste of time.

The dictionary quoting is just plain silly I think, unless you want to clear up everything that could be taken a different way before the debate really starts. But you'll find some posts in a debate where the first 'argument' is made completely out of definitions. How do you argue with that?! I saw a post recently, although I won't mention who wrote it where it was just as described above...

The last point, about the abbreviations is annoying too in my opinion, and work like the all-caps in the sense that they make everything more difficult to read. They also work against the poster because they come off as being a moron. If I see a topic title that I find interesting, and I see a bunch of abbreviations, stupid ones, I just skip it even thought it could be a good post. At least ATS is a mature discussion board. I just can't stand the ones where it's common to see something like "stfu u l33t n00b! u r teh uber suxor...gay fag". Surprisingly 'gay fag' is quite common, although I think this acts as a double negative

huh, would you look at that? ATS decided to correct the intentional misspelling for "the" and correct it in bold to rub it in my face!

heh heh heh...I think it is an automated correction....(at least I hope it is)
I understand your stance on the all caps, I was ill last night and was being facetious. Thanks for agreeing with my other two points.

WHATS CAPS MEAN?? IS CAPS KEWL?? I LIKE U

I really think it was needed to post this, as you taunted me. I really dont mind people talking in all caps, because it tells me that i dont like them, and its better i learn that early then after weeks of talking and learning then.

heh heh that was funny
didnt mean to taunt you personally. I think 'netiquette' is silly, but conversely, I also think creative spelling is silly. I guess Im a paradox.