Journal: News & Comment

STOP IT WILL YOU?!

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I want to talk about an annoying trend. Anyone who's been around the online community for awhile knows that WRITING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS IS TAKEN AS SHOUTING! That's been true ever since personal computers started being able to use lower-case letters more than 20 years ago.

The recent annoying trend is when organizations take apparently generic words and capitalize them as trademarks. Have you noticed that in their own literature, golf's PGA Tour, registered real estate agents (what many of us would call "realtors," lower case), and Weight Watchers' "points" system turn into PGA�TOUR^™, REALTOR^®, and POINTS^®? No? Well, I have, and as an old-time modem geek and current editor, I have to tell you that IT GRATES ON ME.

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