SHOUTING; emphasis?

[Mark A Mandel]

On Sun, 8 Sep 2002 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

#I realize of course that M is a referring to an "appropriateness" convention
#that many people adhere to; he was no doubt doing so for the instruction of
#the seemingly naive author of the previous e-mail. Still, his message seems
#more patronizing PREscriptive admonition than purely DEscriptive advice. It
#is clear from context that the writer was not "shouting" (whatever that means
#in a written medium)--he or she was typing all caps (for whatever reason). So
#to say, "Please don't shout!" is a peculiar utterance when the speaker was of
#course not REALLY shouting at all. It has always seemed to me more than a
#
#In a message dated 9/8/2002 7:50:45 AM, mam at THEWORLD.COM writes:
#
#<< Please don't SHOUT. Try to avoid using uppercase text, except of course
#where the case is intrinsic, as when quoting a headline that's all
#uppercase. For your own message, normal casing is appropriate.
#Uppercase, like THIS, is only for emphasis, and many people -- most on
#this list, I think -- prefer to emphasize like *this* or like _this_.

I have been away from email for several days and am only beginning to
catch up.

I recognize that the person did not realize that they were, as perceived
by many net users, "shouting", and I thought that the rest of the quoted
paragraph made it clear
 1. that that is the common perception, and
 2. what is the commonly preferred behavior.

Having said that, and seeing a lot more on this thread, I will try to
avoid saying more on the topic.

-- Mark A. Mandel