You can do what you like in your diary, or blog, dude.

It's when you want me to read stuff or publish it or respond to it that you have to take account of me.

There are people who do not capitalize thier name. If you want to be one just do it: it is not a big deal. If you like get it changed legally to all lowercase.

You can do what you like in your diary, or blog, dude.

It's when you want me to read stuff or publish it or respond to it that you have to take account of me.
6m ReplyShareFlag — unenlightened

Ah, yes, so then lets say you are in an academic setting, and are required to write and submit an essay? Are these specific laws of literature ethical enough to be enforced by such authorities?

There are people who do not capitalize thier name. If you want to be one just do it: it is not a big deal. If you like get it changed legally to all lowercase. — Jeremiah

Hmm, strange that I didn't inquire about that option the first time my name was changed.

In academic settings if you don't use formal grammar then they don't read your paper, they just throw it in the trash.

If you are a student then you'll get marked down.

You may be able to get away with your name in all lowercase, but not the pronoun "I."

You seem like an odd man Xander. That's not a criticism.

Here's the deal - you know that using lowercase for your name and "I" is going to raise eyebrows and piss some people off. It's going to draw attention to yourself for something, I assume, that is not the main thing you want people to know about you. So, pick your fights. Is this someplace you want to put your foot down? Or do you want to save your social capital for a fight that might matter more. It is not an ethical question.

e.e. cummings did it, but he was a poet.

You seem like an odd man Xander. That's not a criticism.

Here's the deal - you know that using lowercase for your name and "I" is going to raise eyebrows and piss some people off. It's going to draw attention to yourself for something, I assume, that is not the main thing you want people to know about you. So, pick your fights. Is this someplace you want to put your foot down? Or do you want to save your social capital for a fight that might matter more. It is not an ethical question.

e.e. cummings did it, but he was a poet. — T Clark

I suppose I didn't consider the possibility that the majority of human beings are not open to the questioning of such things. I assume that you're warning me that this is indeed the case. That most people who hold and support much more power than myself, are essentially arrogant. So in that case, I agree that my power is best spent elsewhere.

I applaud your ability to clear up such a conscious question with reasoning. I think I'll move on from this, and leave the question for future cultures.

Ok, so this is your response to my PM to you a few days ago that you needed to start capitalizing the word "I." Just change your settings to auto-capitalize.

I'd also note that if you see a red line under a word you typed, that means you misspelled it.

...most people who hold and support much more power than muself, are essentially arrogant. — XanderTheGrey

They're not being arrogant, they're being conventional. They're judging you by the exterior signs you present. That's not an unreasonable thing to do.

You, on the other hand, are being a bit arrogant.

Ok, so this is your response to my PM to you a few days ago that you needed to start capitalizing the word "I." Just change your settings to auto-capitalize.

I'd also note that if you see a red line under a word you typed, that means you misspelled it. — Hanover

I'll have a look at the settings, I noticed that the spelling error indicators are not active only when on this forum. I never get any red underlining although I am always aware that I am probably misspelling and mistyping a decent amount of my passage.

They're not being arrogant, they're being conventional. They're judging you by the exterior signs you present. That's not an unreasonable thing to do.

You, on the other hand, are being a bit arrogant.

Mmm, oh dear, I wasn't meaning to call anybody arrogant myself, I simply mistook your meaning I guess. Nor did I want myself to be thought of as arrogant, am I?

I thought I was being curious, inquisitive, simply willing to question what others do not. I'd identify with being "stubborn" no problem, but the idea of being ridiculed as arrogant from anyone I see a use for irritates and enrages me quite intensely.

And to clarify @Hanover; I'm not venting or retaliating against your authority with this post. I thought it'd simply be the perfect time to create the discussion, since no one had enforced my grammar for so long, and the question had been reignited in my head.

People think that "unique spellings of ordinary names" will give their children something "special". So Jane is twisted into Jaynne; Mary is converted to Marrree, and so on. Words not normally used as names are pressed into service: colt, willow, sunshine, and so on. People make up names: Toyletoisha, and such nonsense. Names that sound great for infants, like Bambi, are a liability for adults. What these names do for children is signal that their parents were morons.

Some people think that an uncapitalized name will be nifty. john, don, ron, and quan. What this does is just increase social friction.

Spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammatical rules exist for everyone's convenience. These rules reduce confusion and misunderstanding and increase clarity. The more people adhere to these rules, the better.

Take any radical political position you want, publish it abroad, give mob-rallying speeches in support of it, but stick to the rules of the language.

Am I suggesting we "freeze" the language? No. Changes will occur over time. New words are added, old words fall into disuse; which words are preferred change. "Negro" is no longer preferred. "People of color" is preferred over "colored people". "Due to" as opposed to "as a result of" or "owing to" has been in disrepute in some circles for decades.

Informal language is where changes begin, then migrate into formal language. Spelling and capitalization rules are, though, quite conservative. We don't spell "night" as "nite". Some people would like things spelled that way -- brite (not bright), rite (not right) and thru (not through), for example. They are not making much progress, merciful God.

An aspect of language that changes the most is pronunciation. For instance, in the eastern Great Lakes region, the word "block", pronounced with an open soft 'a', is shifting to a pronunciation that sounds closer to "black". (This has been observed over the last 30 years, or so.)

the question had been reignited in my head. — XanderTheGrey

Fire in the brain can be a problem. I hope the smoke detector in your skull is working.

You have your answer. Case closed.