Is it rude to use 'all caps'?

Question

I typed the title to my previous question in capital letters because 1- It's a title. 2- I wanted it to stand out.
A red coloured message told me not to do that, it's rude...
You've got to laugh.
What if I THINK writing in red is rude? ;-)

Can I ask for specifications: are those of you who think it IS rude all Americans? Nothing wrong with that; I am French living in Britain and I'd never heard of that before, you see... I'm beginning to wonder whether this isn't one of those cultural differences?

Answer 1

i read the question about de clawing and decided that you were rather annoyed by the subject. So you used caps to show that you were indeed annoyed. So there for id say it wasnt rude to type in caps because you were showing you feelings, i also write titles in capitals usualy bold and underlined and also i would find writeing in red ink as rude. i prefer black.

Answer 2

Yeah, it is rude. As other people said, it is like shouting. I'm guessing you are typing in caps to get your question noticed or something? Just make sure you word your question so that it stands out. No need to type everything in caps.

Answer 3

edited--- I am Canadian I find it more annoying then rude and sometimes I find it neither rude or annoying. Overall I really do not care.


No I do not think it was rude the way you did it but sometimes it might be. and de I do not like de clawing cats unless the cat has a over intent on scratching things or people.

There was a cat that used to live on my street that would attack people at random sometimes so it got de clawed by its owners. Scratching furniture here and there is ok because a good owner would just punish the cat.

But if the cat is harming people or excessively destroying property either it be the cats owners property or someone else's it needs to be de clawed if all other means fail.

Answer 4

I agree with the others writing in all CAPS is supposed to be an angry kind of aggressive get your point across style. Also studies have shown that the combination of lower case and upper case are more pleasing to the human eye and much easier to read than writing all of the letters in CAPS. As you may notice it may take you a little longer to read a paragraph that is in CAPS than to read one that is not. Not sure if that is a cultural thing...I think it is a human trait.

Answer 5

typing in call caps on the internet is classed as shouting or yelling thus considered rude is a long standing rule of the net :)
The servers will be unable to distinguish the fact your typing a title or putting in a comment is all

Answer 6

Some people call this shouting i have done it in the past maybe if its something you want to point out in a letter do it otherwise write in the normal way.
Depends if it upsets the person you are writing to i suppose.
As for writing in red its meant to stand out for some reason.

Answer 7

Its relatively new invention in communicating, so therefore we`ll need a few hick-cups before we get it right. As for colour, RED ,is forward looking ie Astronomy. Red,clothing is a Confident person, + don`t take crap off anybody.The colour red in cosmetic design ie Decorating, with a lighter (cream) to show off. + I think females like it, it shows aggressiveness.

Answer 8

All caps is the regarded as being internet shouting.

Added to which its also very hard to read when its all capitals for a full block of text.

Selective use of caps to highlight key words is permissible and can be used well imo - but not when its overdone.

Answer 9

It is rude because it is considered shouting, and it is also not easy on the eyes. It really bothers some people. It is also rude to try to draw extra attention to your question, because there are hundreds of people per second here that want their own questions answered. You need to think about how other people feel about the situation.

Answer 10

I've been led to believe that the use of capitals in the realms of email, text messages means that you are portraying yourself as shouting, expressing yourself forcefully aggressively like in a one sided argument....