One's Gotta Go: A Game

[Phillip]

Bad options all around, but losing caps is the easiest pill to swallow.

[Anna]

4 doesn't exist in my native language, so it would be very easy to see them go in other languages, too.

[Anna]

Oh, unless you mean that the first word in a sentence also wouldn't be capitalized? That I *haaaate*, and in that case I'd see commas go.

[Anna]

To be clear:


One's Gotta Go: A Game -> weird
One's gotta go: A game -> normal
one's gotta go: a game -> nope!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

it's the third one. like this. XD

[Anna]

yeah no cant do that itd be horrid yuck

[Nanu]

I'd be okay with capital letters vanishing. After all, punctuation marks would still tell me when a sentence ends and so on

[Anna]

but it just looks like a wall of text. capital letters are a visual marker of where a sentence starts, it tells you at a glance. punctuation is great, don't get me wrong, but a period is tiny, it's way easier to spot the capital letter! also it's hard to tell a comma and a period apart in a wall of text, when you're just glancing at it, when your eyes aren't looking at it straight on. maybe it's just me, my eyesight isn't the best. oh my goodness this looks horrible.

[Phillip]

Anna wrote: "but it just looks like a wall of text. capital letters are a visual marker of where a sentence starts, it tells you at a glance. punctuation is great, don't get me wrong, but a period is tiny, it's..."

But you'd lose so much context without appropriately placed commas. For example:

Male version: A woman without her man is nothing.

Female version: A woman, without her, man is nothing.

[Anna]

I wouldn't want to lose commas, either! But I'm assuming authors would know that they can't use commas, so they'd structure their sentences accordingly. Not that we'd just take commas out of all existing books. Shudder.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I mostly don't use capitals in texting/IM so it doesn't bother me. I also think apostrophes are the chains of the oppressor and that capital I pronouns in English overstate our individualism, so realise that I'm a bit of a grammarchist and that sometimes my techniques serve only to keep purists from forcing more finicky grammar upon us.

[Anna]

I also don't mind lack of any kind of sense in instant messaging, but I'm thinking books here.

Sentence structure without commas would be pretty simple, so I might be changing my mind a second time.

Since Allison specified quotation marks, not all manner of marking dialogue, I'd say that one can go, and we'll use hyphens/dashes instead. I don't know the rules for those in English, but in Finnish there are two ways to mark dialogue, the other one being this:

- Haha, I found a way around your stupid game! Anna exclaimed

- Hey, it doesn't work like that! cried Allison

- It does in Finnish, so don't even try to stop me!

(No, I won't be changing my mind a third time, at least not to get rid of periods.)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

hahaha! I should have said "quotation marks, double apostrophes, guillemets and related punctuation."

[Kristin B.]

CAPITALS CAN GO! XD

(Sometimes I think I'm funny)

Seriously though, I need the rest of them.

[CBRetriever]

does 4 mean sentences don't begin with capital letters? If so, that's as essential as periods at the end of sentences. I guess I'd have to go with quotation marks then

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Lol, Kritin haha

Yes, Chessie!

[M.L.]

Allison wrote: "Inspired by a real life event, which one can go?

1. Period marks/full stops
2. Commas
3. Quotation marks
4. Capital letters for anything other than proper nouns"

None. The book goes.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

M.L. wrote: "Allison wrote: "Inspired by a real life event, which one can go?

1. Period marks/full stops
2. Commas
3. Quotation marks
4. Capital letters for anything other than proper nouns"

None. The book goes."

XD

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I think I'd have to go with quotation marks... and then everyone would just be: And then she was all like, dude, this is not the way you want to be, and then he was like, no, but it's totally better than the other options, and then she was like, yeah, I guess so...

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Colleen, that is what started this. It turns out I can't read a novel without quotation marks. Thank god for audio.

[DivaDiane]

LOL, Colleen! I would go with quotation marks, especially since Allison didn’t specify other speech markers and can’t take it back now. Italian doesn’t use “” anyway, just an m-dash (I think that’s what it’s called) on a new line. But Colleen’s dialogue, like, completely understandable.

[Margaret]

It's worth contemplating the fact that when writing was first invented, none of these markers were used. Talk about "wall of text"!

That said, I'd go with either eliminating capital letters or periods, with the edge given to the former. Either one can tell you where the break between sentences comes. The problem with eliminating periods would be when a sentence started with a proper name!

[Sarah]

Ha. I’ve read this book. It was not a good book and drove me bonkers.

Then I read The not so direct sequel by a better author and liked it better but still hate the style.

Then I listened to the third book and eliminated the problem.

But I don’t like listening. Therefore quotation marks stay.

I’ll give up the capital letters too. It may be as much a marker of a sentence beginning as periods but I’m reasonably sure I could learn to live with it. It would be a difference of being ugly versus rage inducing frustration with the punctuation.

[HeyT]

I think I'm on team give up the capitals.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

According to this NY Times article from 2016, the full stop is already on its way out: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/wo...

[CBRetriever]

I'd believe that more if there was a paragraph in that article that was more than one sentence long

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

lol! I think it's trying to make sure things are clear for folks who don't speak textese, which is very much what I had in mind when I thought about lack of caps. We've now woven emotion into punctuation, so it would make sense that sometimes periods wouldn't be contextually appropriate.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

CBRetriever wrote: "I'd believe that more if there was a paragraph in that article that was more than one sentence long"


I think that's part of the point, though. In text messages, at least, it's become more the norm to use separate messages for a new sentence, instead of using multiple sentences in one text message. The article reflects that type of thinking - except in the last paragraph.

[Margaret]

One-sentence paragraphs make a certain amount of sense for text messages, where the space is so limited. But in a book, too many one-sentence paragraphs in a row make for a choppy style, and leave the writer unable to use the occasional one-sentence paragraph for emphasis, which is what it's actually good for.

[YouKneeK]

I’m joining the crowd in getting rid of caps. I like them, but they’d be the easiest of the four for me to live without. I found Anna’s example in message 358 easy to read.

Could we get an option to eliminate excessive punctuation? I’d be very enthusiastic about that! I work with somebody whose punctuation always comes in triplicate. She ends most of her sentences with an ellipsis. When I first started IMing with her, I’d answer a question or give her directions and she’d always answer, “Ok…”. At first I was asking myself, “What’s wrong with this person? Does she not believe me? Does she think this isn’t something she should have to do? Does she find this simple thing confusing?” Eventually I realized that’s just how she ends every sentence. Well, except for the ones that she ends with !!!, ???, or ?!?!?!.

I’d like to take this moment to tell the world, “Punctuation has meaning!!! Use it responsibly, ok?!?!?!”. ;)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

ok...

XD

Yeah, the ellipsis has become a sort of "pause" in speech now, like textual filler words.

[YouKneeK]

LOL! :)

I’m used to seeing it in the middle of sentences… I do that sometimes myself in informal chats.

Putting it at the end of a sentence, on the other hand, especially if literally the only word being said is “Ok”, comes across to me as either sarcastic or confused.

Edited due to an overabundance of the word “in”.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I am rather fond of the ellipses...

[DivaDiane]

I’m guilty of the occasional use of the ellipsis. But only if there’s something that needs to be filled in by the person reading or it’s an open ended statement. Whether that works for other people or not remains to be seen....

[Melanie, the neutral party]

Kids these days have basically eliminated quotation marks in favor of italics. I’m okay with that.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I'd be cool with italics if they were easier to do...

[D.W.]

I really only like their use when it is for specific forms of communications. Such as foreign languages, telepathic, or introspection

[Phillip]

1. Movies
2. TV shows
3. Books
4. Video games

I'm dropping gaming from this list.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I'd say video games for me, cause i don't play much.

[Jemppu]

Yup, easy. Gaming.

[Gabi]

Movies for me please - I can spend hours on video games but for years now I can't concentrate on watching anything. (and TV shows have to stay since I can't without Discovery)

[Nicol]

No!! I love them all but if I was forced I guess Movies - I spend less time on movies compared to the others.

[YouKneeK]

Movies can go. I watch very little TV or movies, but I’ve greatly enjoyed some TV shows over the years and wouldn't want to lose them. With a few exceptions, movies usually leave less of an impression.

If anybody in this group picks books, will they be evicted? ;)

[Anna]

YouKneeK wrote: "If anybody in this group picks books, will they be evicted?"

Shhhh!

[Raucous]

TV shows. The last TV show that I followed was Star Trek (the original one).

[Jessalyn]

Applebee’s has to go! If o had to pick one restaurant that had to go I could live without Applebee’s

[CBRetriever]

Raucous wrote: "TV shows. The last TV show that I followed was Star Trek (the original one)."

no news or weather?

for me it's movies as they will often be released on TV anyway

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Jessalyn, do you want to put together a poll for folks to pick from? You could put 4 restaurants and folks would have to say which one from the list they'd let go. It's just hard to think of restaurants that are globally known, but give it a go!

[Sarah]

A hard choice but I'm going to say movies. I can't really live without the other three.

[Margaret]

For me, video games is an easy choice since it's not something I do!