4 ms·

Looks cool, but is there any reason sentences on the website don't begin with capital letters? It is a youth thing?

handrous 5y ago
Oh my god. I thought maybe it was just some "quirky" thing on the landing page that the author reckoned they could get away with because every piece of copy is only one sentence, but it's even like that on other pages on the site that have multiple sentences per paragraph (try the "config" link at the top of the page). No. Do not do this.
- ggus 5y ago
  why does this stylistic choice triggers such clear-cut rejection? the "use capital letters at the beginning of a sentence" is a pretty useless rule from the point of view of having your reader understand what you write.. the goal of the language is completely met by the webpage.
  - handrous 5y ago
    I can't tell if this post is serious, or a sarcastic demonstration of why omitting capitals at the beginning of sentences is a very bad idea if your goal is to communicate clearly.
  - Mountain_Skies 5y ago
    I'm far from an expert on these matters but my understanding is that using capital letters to start sentences is done because it helps anchor the reader's place in the text. When capital letters are excluded, it's easier for a person to lose their place while reading. There are other ways this could be accomplished such as returning to the old custom of using two spaces between sentences or making sentence ending punctuation marks larger or heavier, but initial capital letters is the one English has settled on and is almost universally used.
  - dTal 5y ago
    Because periods are very small and a capital letter makes the semantic delineation more distinct, like indenting code does. Because capital letters are mostly omitted when the writer is in a hurry and doesn't care very much for details, which is insulting to the reader in a context where care and attention is expected. And if you hadn't thought of those reasons - the fact that everyone else does should be a clue. Chesterton's Fence and all that. Show some humility!
delecti 5y ago
One sentence begins with "i", despite "I" being capitalized in the middle of the prior sentence. It seems to be a deliberate stylistic choice, for whatever reason.
xxpor 5y ago
I think it's a youth thing from 10-15 years ago, i.e. people who are ~30 now (e.g. me :) )
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- NackerHughes 5y ago
  I guess we were optimistic in thinking you all would've grown up by now.
  - folkrav 5y ago
    Such a gratuitously pretentious take.
- sh-run 5y ago
  I'm 29 and have never even heard of anyone doing this, but I grew in rural Texas so maybe we were just behind the times.
awestroke 5y ago
Maybe some kind of OCD? Same thing with the README and description on Github
DougWebb 5y ago
That, and "it suites my needs" makes me reluctant to just install and run this software without carefully examining the source code first, and maybe building/running from source myself.
cuddlybacon 5y ago
Likely yes. Gretchen McCulloch has a book called Because Internet which talks about how the internet has changed English. People joined the internet in different waves. Each group of had the challenge of re-inventing writing conventions for the writing that falls outside of the relatively formal academic/business writing taught in highschool. For the people were using a cellphone with autocorrect was a significant part of their internet usage, uncapitalization became a way to indicate casual tone. Since autocorrect would capitalize for you, it was clear that the lower case letters weren't the result of you being lazy. Instead you were going back to deliberately undo the capitalization of the word. So yes, it is probably a youth thing and it's done to indicate a casual tone. [0] - https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/ https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/
toomanyducks 5y ago
It's certainly an informal thing, and in my experience, yes, a youth thing. For me, capitalization/no capitalization is akin to the difference between a formal/informal 'you' in other languages (i.e., German, French). There's nothing wrong with either in the right context. A fun little software toy seems informal enough to me, so I wouldn't question it too much.
- brokenmachine 5y ago
  I'm not installing an exe from someone who doesn't respect me/his readers enough, or doesn't have enough care to use capital letters.
JustSomeNobody 5y ago
This is awful. Stylistic choices and a casual tone are one thing, but nearly everyone who reads English is thrown off by this particular choice. Style should almost never take precedence over forcing your readers to put effort into actually reading.

Oh my god. I thought maybe it was just some "quirky" thing on the landing page that the author reckoned they could get away with because every piece of copy is only one sentence, but it's even like that on other pages on the site that have multiple sentences per paragraph (try the "config" link at the top of the page). No. Do not do this.

ggus 5y ago
why does this stylistic choice triggers such clear-cut rejection? the "use capital letters at the beginning of a sentence" is a pretty useless rule from the point of view of having your reader understand what you write.. the goal of the language is completely met by the webpage.
- handrous 5y ago
  I can't tell if this post is serious, or a sarcastic demonstration of why omitting capitals at the beginning of sentences is a very bad idea if your goal is to communicate clearly.
- Mountain_Skies 5y ago
  I'm far from an expert on these matters but my understanding is that using capital letters to start sentences is done because it helps anchor the reader's place in the text. When capital letters are excluded, it's easier for a person to lose their place while reading. There are other ways this could be accomplished such as returning to the old custom of using two spaces between sentences or making sentence ending punctuation marks larger or heavier, but initial capital letters is the one English has settled on and is almost universally used.
- dTal 5y ago
  Because periods are very small and a capital letter makes the semantic delineation more distinct, like indenting code does. Because capital letters are mostly omitted when the writer is in a hurry and doesn't care very much for details, which is insulting to the reader in a context where care and attention is expected. And if you hadn't thought of those reasons - the fact that everyone else does should be a clue. Chesterton's Fence and all that. Show some humility!

delecti 5y ago

One sentence begins with "i", despite "I" being capitalized in the middle of the prior sentence. It seems to be a deliberate stylistic choice, for whatever reason.

xxpor 5y ago

I think it's a youth thing from 10-15 years ago, i.e. people who are ~30 now (e.g. me :) )

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
NackerHughes 5y ago
I guess we were optimistic in thinking you all would've grown up by now.
- folkrav 5y ago
  Such a gratuitously pretentious take.
sh-run 5y ago
I'm 29 and have never even heard of anyone doing this, but I grew in rural Texas so maybe we were just behind the times.

awestroke 5y ago

Maybe some kind of OCD? Same thing with the README and description on Github

DougWebb 5y ago

That, and "it suites my needs" makes me reluctant to just install and run this software without carefully examining the source code first, and maybe building/running from source myself.

cuddlybacon 5y ago

Likely yes. Gretchen McCulloch has a book called Because Internet which talks about how the internet has changed English. People joined the internet in different waves. Each group of had the challenge of re-inventing writing conventions for the writing that falls outside of the relatively formal academic/business writing taught in highschool. For the people were using a cellphone with autocorrect was a significant part of their internet usage, uncapitalization became a way to indicate casual tone. Since autocorrect would capitalize for you, it was clear that the lower case letters weren't the result of you being lazy. Instead you were going back to deliberately undo the capitalization of the word. So yes, it is probably a youth thing and it's done to indicate a casual tone. [0] - https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/ https://gretchenmcculloch.com/book/

toomanyducks 5y ago

It's certainly an informal thing, and in my experience, yes, a youth thing. For me, capitalization/no capitalization is akin to the difference between a formal/informal 'you' in other languages (i.e., German, French). There's nothing wrong with either in the right context. A fun little software toy seems informal enough to me, so I wouldn't question it too much.

brokenmachine 5y ago
I'm not installing an exe from someone who doesn't respect me/his readers enough, or doesn't have enough care to use capital letters.

JustSomeNobody 5y ago

This is awful. Stylistic choices and a casual tone are one thing, but nearly everyone who reads English is thrown off by this particular choice. Style should almost never take precedence over forcing your readers to put effort into actually reading.