Deviations from the norm have had as long and solid a history as the norms themselves. The world as we know it has not ended, and is not ending (at least for this reason). It is simply being commented upon.

Nemo

damnit, Nemo, I will destroy westerN ciV if it's the death of me!!

Well, actually...

I agree with what Brian said and I'm also sticking up for Kevin for the reasons he gave; and here's yet another reason why:

I joined the U3A (University of the Third Age) when I retired ten years ago; now I, and countless others, are outraged that they've seen fit to do some ''rebranding'' - which includes changing the logo to u3a. The plural of it is rubbish: u3as versus the former, clearer use of U3As.

The rebranding has cost £16K of members' money (OK, not a fortune in the great scheme of things) but why change a perfectly good logo (and we all have many products sporting it, which are now out of date) in the middle of a pandemic? Is that going to attract new members to the organisation? I think not.

Back to the here and now... I, too, find lower case titles irritating, because I just can't see any justification for them, but it's up to each of us to post however we see fit. I also don't like the use of ampersands instead of the word 'and', or 'w/' for the word 'with' ... after all, typing those two extra characters is such a chore, isn't it? :rolleyes:

(Is someone now going to post a comment with ''& and w/'' to deliberately try to annoy me, I wonder?) I'm getting cynical in my old age.

Jayne

My point is it had nothing to do with Aaron’s post. It’s boorish, again, for Kevin to interrupt the conversation with his insults. If we’re so concerned about things that have changed maybe we should discuss manners and courtesy and learning to be part of a group instead of ripping g it apart with one’s need to create conflict like some third-rate talk radio blatherer.

John,

We're talking about thread titles, so Kevin's comment "Speaking of editing thread-titles, yours could use some capitalization" is hardly what I'd call "insulting", and it is on the topic.

I think others have been a good deal less courteous than Kevin.

Jayne

Jayne, I entirely agree w/ u 2. Ooops! How did that happen?

Trust you, Brian! :p :D

Jayne

Hi Jayne,
It actually takes longer for me to type & than and. I do it for many reasons. To pay homage to other poets who have influenced me and whose work employed it, to be needlessly idiosyncratic, to reflect my anxiety over how poetry can unite the past and the present, and simply because I find the shape of the & aesthetically pleasing!
I think this conversation (as much as a flame war is quite fun to watch) is a little like polishing the fiddles while Rome burns, there are entire groups of poets (Danez Smith and Jay Bernerd come to mind) which refuse to use any form of capitalisation in all or some parts of their work. The real question for me is not whether its appropriate, but 1) what does this typical break from convention signify about their poetry? and 2) is it justified?

Regards,
Cameron

Hi Cameron,

Oh, this isn't a flame war! Things are only lukewarm, not on fire :)

Gosh, ee cummings has a lot to answer for! (Only joking.)

As I said earlier, everyone is free to write how they choose so you don't have to justify, to me, using ampersands (I find them aesthetically pleasing too, but only in the right place) nor using lower case letters rather than capitals. Each to his/her own, but we can still have a conversation on the subject.

Jayne

Yes, if it's necessary to stand up in defense of besieged capitalization I'm sure it's my obligation to not notice how Kevin twisted a light-hearted thread into another dumb fight. I will look past how that behavior injected even more of the unnecessary static that has consumed the public world into a conversation about changing thread titles, how it is just more of the pettiness I would love to be able to come here to escape. I'll forget that for the greater good.

Now what about all those acronyms! Can someone tell me what WAP means? I'm too enraged to look it up.