please recommend this diary! because we are diary whores! and we could use the hits!
as many of you know, the style sheet at skippy the bush kangaroo has but two precepts: always refer to bush as awol, and never use capital letters.
it's a fine way of writing in cyberspace, a natural way, and we must say, we expect everyone at dailykos to write the same way, because, after all, capital letters might be offensive to some people.
more after the jump.
skippy is actually a paid, professional writer, who has been making a living at it for more than a decade now. we say this to assure you that indeed, we know how and when to use capital letters, and that whenever we are working on dead trees media, we are good little capitalists.
but, for some reason even we can't explain, the non-use of capital letters in cybespace feels natural. we think it's a sort of deconstructionistic referendum on the post-modern medium which has no actual physical form, merely a representation (ie, your monitor). but, again, we're not sure. we just know that it feels right.
skippy does not even use capital letters in cyberspace in emails under his real name. it's not just a construct of the pseudonym, it's how we approach writing in a specific medium.
which brings us to our point. yes, finally.
there are many, many people coming to dkos nowadays. and many people, by definition, have many sensibilities. ergo, there is a great probability that someone out there, who is reading dkos for the first time, may be offended by capital letters.
let us stop right here. let us assure you we are not offended by capital letters. we are offended by people who say capital letters make it easier to read the material. that is a strawman. capital letters, as used in today's writing, merely signify the beginning of a sentence (or a proper name). we think that if you need to know where the beginning of a sentence is, it's because you didn't bother to read the previous sentence all the way through to the end of it, after which you would automatically know where the beginning of the next one is. ie, capital letters only make it easier to skim the material. you lazy louts!
even though we ourselves are not offended by capital letters, that doesn't mean that there might not be someone who is. and dkos is a progressive site. in fact, it's is the premiere blog for progressive thought. we sure wouldn't want to offend any small-letter americans, now would we?
people might scroll down the page, reading diary titles. what would a small-letter american think on any given day? they might think "gracious! those damn progressives use capital letters, all the time! it's like they were never taught to be overly-sensitive to the possibilty that someone might not like what they are doing! how terribly unprogressive of them! i'm going to vote for rudy giuliani!"
and we wouldn't want that!
here is a good diary. notice, there are no capital letters in the diary title. and the diary writer, sudiepatou, hardly uses any capital letters, except in proper names here and there, and for emphasis. (try bolding and italics for emphasis, sudiepatou! then you don't need caps at all!)
would that we had more diarists like sudiepatou! and with screen names as lyrical! then nobody who doesn't like no capital letters would not never not like to read no diaries!
we sincerely hope this diary starts a rash of other diaries that clutter up the front page about this and even less-relevant topics. we also hope [maryscott o'connor writes one http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/13/132117/80] using invectives directly specifically at us; we are desparate for attention from her.
please. please. think about it. we beseech you. really. we are beside ourselves. gee, we look pretty good from the side, we never noticed that before. but really. capital letters in the diaries could very well spell the difference between someone coming back to dkos or not. because we want very much for everyone to feel at home at this site.
and, if you don't agree with what we say, go fuck yourself.