Capitalization

Here's another: There is no such word as "prolly" or "probly". The word is, probably. It easy to spell, type, and pronounce.


Unfortunately, people make initial judgments of others by the language we use. In verbal conversations your grammar is key to the first impression others make about you. If you constantly mispronounce words or misuse words, or use a lot of foul language, others can, will, and do form an opinion of you, based on that.

Likewise, in written conversation, such as we have here, people form opinions of others based on comments, on spelling, on the proper use of grammatical skills.

Since written communication is lacking inflection, we rely on punctuation to set the tone of a comment. Exclamation points (!) are used to indicate excitement, surprise, or anger, Question marks (?), naturally indicate a question. Periods are to end a sentence, an abbreviation or a number or letters to itemize a list. Commas (,) are punctuation marks used especially as a mark of separation within the sentence. They have other uses, too.

These are very basic grammatical items that help in conveying your thoughts more clearly to others, reduce the possibilities of misunderstandings, and simply make our written comments much easier to read. The are also extremely easy to use. Periods, commas don't even require using the shift key!

Most older members here use these punctuations regularly. Many younger members don't. It's a matter of preference. That said, it's also a matter of making yourself understood. Especially in longer posts.

I'll admit, when I see a post that isn't punctuated, or is simply a run on sentence for more than 20 words or so, I usually just move on to the next post. I'm simply not going to devote the time to reading, and re-reading the post trying to make sense of it.

I'm not claiming that my reading and understanding anyone's post is important to anyone besides me, but, it's a pretty sure bet that if one person is doing that, others are too.

It's a pity that your comments, opinions, questions, etc. stand the possibility of being ignored simply because you decided that capitalization, punctuation, and decent (not excellent) grammar isn't necessary.