zlacker

>>Philpa+(OP)
Do other people react as strongly as I did to the lack of capitalisation at the start of sentences? The post is generally "well" written with good grammar and punctuation so I find it strange - it feels like a style choice. But the style choice just instinctively makes part of my brain feel like it's written by a child.

>>rkange+m5
Wow a lot of people have very strong feelings about this. Parent comment is fine but some of the replies are quite out there, calling this "arrogant" and "dumb". Let me provide my own opinion.

IMO content over style. Nobody owes you adherence to a particular set of rules, nor do they owe you their thoughts at all. If the writer's style is a bridge too far for you, kindly just close the tab, don't complain about it. Certainly don't use hateful words to describe them.

Remember, the same English teachers who taught you to capitalize also taught you that there is no singular "they" and that you should use "he/she" instead.

>>aftbit+2E
I think that while authors are obviously free to make whatever stylistic choices they want, it's also valid for readers to point it out when those choices are so distracting that it interferes with the intended message of the writing (as long as it's done civilly). It reminds me of another recent-ish article that was posted to HN that used uncommon ligatures looping between certain letters, where a large part of that discussion was centered around how distracting that was.

As an author, if you notice that your style choices are generating more interest and discussion than the actual content of your writing, it's probably worth considering whether the reasons that led you to those choices are really worth taking away from the messages you're trying to convey. Seeing as how the author of this post chimed in here to call their use of lowercase an "asshole filter," I suppose it's clear where they stand on that question.

I can see a future where we'll have browser extensions that use generative AI to "correct" style and grammar of articles to match the preferences of the reader, at which point stylistic choices may cease to matter as much.