Why is it that so many users of this site don't capitalize the names of their colors, palettes, and patterns? The simplest grammar lesson at any level of public school will cover English capitalization rules, and one of the simplest of those is that you capitalize names of things! Are people here just lazy? Even on the Internet, disregarding spelling and grammar is a sign of intellectual weakness.

Vid the Kid wrote:

Even on the Internet, disregarding spelling and grammar is a sign of intellectual weakness.

... or artistic freedom :P

Vid the Kid wrote:

Why is it that so many users of this site don't capitalize the names of their colors, palettes, and patterns? The simplest grammar lesson at any level of public school will cover English capitalization rules, and one of the simplest of those is that you capitalize names of things! Are people here just lazy? Even on the Internet, disregarding spelling and grammar is a sign of intellectual weakness.

Hmmm...
Good idea!
CapitalizationRulesLovers.com...

:-)

hmmmm thats a rather rash and generalised statement i think! i don't capitalise a lot on the net because i prefer the flow of lowercase sentences, but thats purely an arty preference rather than laziness. i do like to capitalise my palettes though. i think there's probably far more to it than ''intellectual weakness''.

For me it depends on the context. I think 99% of my palette and pattern titles are capitalized simply because they are Titles. My colors however, follow different rules. Sometimes a color name is a phrase. In that case I might only capitalize the first letter, or none at all. Sometimes the colors in a palette are supposed to read like a sentence.
Anyway, I agree with _stefan. It's the artist's choice how to title one's work. Heck, what about artists who spell their own names in all lowercase? k.d. lang anyone?

To me, the name of a palette / color / pattern is just as subjective as the colors used. I think it's important to remember that this is an artistic website and not necessarily a place to demonstrate one's knowledge of grammar. But on the flip side, I think it could be considered an artistic expression to follow English syntax while naming colors / palettes / patterns ... it all boils down to personal preference ...

I made the choice not to bother with capitalization on palette/colour names because I have a really bad habit of accidentally hitting the caps lock button AND THAT CRACKS ME UP!!!
It seriously went against the grain for a while and I swithered for at first but ultimately it has made life easier for me and any capitalization I do use is for a significant reason.

find me one empirical study where grammar is connected to IQ definitively and I will start capitalizing from then on.

Until then Bite Me ;)

manekineko wrote:

find me one empirical study where grammar is connected to IQ definitively and I will start capitalizing from then on.

Until then Bite Me ;)

hehe manekineko your comment made me laugh out loud! :D

I don't capitalize my titles here because I don't want to. So what if I'm breaking grammar rules? This is a site for colors, not a site for grammatical correctness. I do not disregard spelling and grammar; in fact, I hold it in highest regard. But this is an artistic site, and part of being artistic is doing what you feel like. If I feel that a palette's name would be better in capitals, then I'll capitalize it.

I am not unintelligent for not capitalizing my palette names. I know more about grammar than your average person, but when it comes to my art, I have the freedom to do what I want - in both the content of my art and its titles.

Let's look at a great artist who never used capitalization or punctuation: ee cummings. A very influential poet with many incredible pieces. Yet he never capitalized anything, not even his own name. It was his own personal choice - his choice as an artist. Was he unintelligent? No. He was himself and he was creative.

To call somebody unintelligent based solely on the names of their palettes shows close-mindedness. There are so many different types of intelligence that one cannot call another unintelligent without really knowing them. Some people are intelligent in that the excel in academia, others are intelligent in that they are very creative and expressive, some are both, and some are neither.

All in all, capitalization is a matter of choice. Artistic license plays a role, but so does personal preference. Intelligence does not play a role.

I don't know...it seems to look more streamlined when I do it all in lowercase letters. And, if I really wanted to make up an excuse for myself, proper capitalization makes it easier to read = more attention drawn to the name = less attention drawn to the colour/palette/pattern.

I suppose I can always say I am trying to make my actual colourthing the focus, and not the name. ^^ I'm awful at naming, anyway.

I am forever fiddling with how I write—currently I am trying to force myself to write actual ellipses, instead of three periods separated by spaces. And I changed how I write my fs the other day. They look much prettier now.

I have never seen all that much sense in capitalizing usernames and various other internet-type things. When I started my amateur webdesigning, I faithfully followed rules regarding filenames (all lowercase, no weird symbols, dashes/underscores only) and I still largely have that view for the general internet. But when I'm actually typing something long and opinionated, I capitalize. More natural.

(As a random note: 'empirical' is such a nice word.)

It's right to have grammar, but people can be sort of lazy or forget. That or they're rebelling grammar. xD
Maybe it's freedom of internet.

manekineko said it.

But, really, for me, the lack of capitalization is aesthetic. It is about artistic expression for me -- when I first came to CL, I capitalized the names of a few palettes, and ultimately went back and changed them; they didn't look right to me. Lowercase titles flow and seem more natural.

when talking to friends in IM, oftentimes I won't capitalize anything except proper nouns, or words that need Special Emphasis. that's just a matter of laziness, but you are right -- disregarding proper conventions makes a person seem ignorant and/or careless. that's why I don't usually do it in public forums, on my blog and so on, just amongst my friends, who all know I'm perfectly intelligent. <3

tensaiface wrote:

manekineko said it.
when I first came to CL, I capitalized the names of a few palettes, and ultimately went back and changed them; they didn't look right to me. Lowercase titles flow and seem more natural.

I did the exact same thing. For me its either all lowercase or all uppercase, I prefer all lowercase.

Even on the Internet, disregarding spelling and grammar is a sign of intellectual weakness.

I dont know. Seems to me that making statements which are based on generalizations and unexamined assumptions could be a more accurate indication of the weakness in question.

Go klip.......! I'm with you.

klip wrote:

Seems to me that making statements which are based on generalizations and unexamined assumptions could be a more accurate indication of the weakness in question.

Hear, hear!

MOUNTAINS OUt Of molehills

eh

Usually I do; sometimes i don't...mood, mode-dependent and also depends on the naming convention needed for intended mental navigation of a color or theme.

don't think it matters much HERE

Northstar wrote:

hmmmm thats a rather rash and generalised statement i think! i don't capitalise a lot on the net because i prefer the flow of lowercase sentences, but thats purely an arty preference rather than laziness. i do like to capitalise my palettes though. i think there's probably far more to it than ''intellectual weakness''.

I second that. I also like to capitalize my creation here but I usually don't use uppercase in any internet conversations (exept for I).