Why is it so hard for people to use capitalization and punctuation!?

Lazy, maybe!

There are actually a lot of people who can’t figure out things like two and too. I try to use all the proper things but when I’m on my Iphone I take all the shortcuts I can. There are probably a lot of other people posting from cellphones.

There’s still no excuse with the iPhone, which I assume is over 90% of the mobile traffic here. I can type almost as fast, and just as effectively on my iPhone as my computer, as can most people I know with the iPhone.

It just seems like an inconsiderate thing to do when you’re on a community forum that alot of people are going to be reading.

The iPhone does not correct all spelling, grammatical, or punctuation mistakes. Nor do computers for that matter. Have you ever considered that not everyone who visits this site excells in English. If this were a forum that used math would I be considered lazy or inconsiderate because I am not good at math? Think of all situations before judging, and have fun with the site because it isn’t really all that serious. Peace.

You could google anything you weren’t sure about. You would not only get your immediate answer, but you would also never make the same mistake again!

I think its called learning.

P.S. I’m sure foreign language users are a very small percentage on here.

well . . . i rarely use capitalization while talking casually online. however! i’m always a stickler with proper grammar (your, you’re, their, there, they’re, two, to, too. . . ) and can’t stand when people don’t use them correctly.
it will all be okay spargett [:

i think you might get yourself sick stressing out over this. i fancy myself an excellent speller and punctuationist (ha!) but i think of no-caps etc. typing as more casual, i guess.

Well, the first thing to point out is the fact that you mis-spelled “believe” in your question. Which has less to do with your intelligence, obviously, and more to do with speed. BECAUSE the internet is so instantaneous, people post or send the first thing that they write most of the time, without double-checking. People have to be reminded to read their e-mails twice so they don’t send something unclear or inadvertently offensive.

So little things like to/too/two are easy to miss if you’re not paying attention. I have a degree in English and even I sometimes mix them up when I’m writing quickly, in an e-mail response or IM window. I take the time to correct them before sending, but most people don’t. They’re just interested in getting their point across, as quickly as possible. The fewer keystrokes they have to make, the better for them.

I find that “leading by example” is extremely effective. When I use proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar online, others around me will tend to do the same because they don’t want to seem “dumb”.

well i like the way all my writing looks lowercase so i usually don’t capitalize. i do like using periods. like above about the iphone, it’s true most stuff is usually corrected, just not everything.

from a typography standpoint, there is no one letter that is more important than another. that is why i do not use capitalization.

@row4food: It’s backfiring with me, row4food, since every time you use lower-case incorrectly, it draws my attention to that letter and makes me stop and try to figure it out.

I try my best by English isn’t my mother
tongue.French is! Sorry if I offend anyone.

DS – Ne vous inquietez pas. Je vous felicite de pratiquer votre anglais ici ! Soyez la bienvenue ! :)

Spargett, I feel your pain. However, I think that all of this electronic input media, with its imperfect (but seemingly good enough) spelling and grammar checkers, is actually rendering us worse in those departments. My spelling is certainly not what it used to be, alas.

While I respect that this is a casual site, I’ve always thought that using decent spelling and grammar (in any circumstance) is a way to show courtesy to your intended audience. The lowest common denominator is sometimes higher than you think. And thanks to the Fluther makers for installing a spell checking feature in the Compose window (but fluther is being flagged as an error – ironic, no?)! That helps those of us who are concerned a bunch! :)

@blueberryme Thank you. Fluther is the best community site I’ve experience people really try to answer every question even the ” dumbest” one. I learn little more every day :)

why have two symbols to represent a single letter?
punctuation is a meta script
designed for the written medium
so that we don’t waste paper

break out of that
and perhaps we write in what appears to be a more poetic form
although
in my humble opinion
it shows how once breaks up comments
in one’s thinking process

that is
if reading this is hard
we don’t get along
whereas
if reading this is easy
then…
well something interesting is going on at a deeper level

It’s a combination of laziness and dull wittiness, because, unfortunately most people nowadays don’t have enough brain power to fill a AA battery and they use that as a crutch to not try to improve their skills…if you would want to call them skills… Also, I think people just have put up with it for so long, that folks who type like 3 year olds think it’s okay, and thus choose not to put forth more effort into anything, typing on the internet being no exception.