Netiquette
Somehow, though, there are still people who if you TYPE IN ALL CAPS will reply [via Twitter or similar]: “WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING,” as if caps lock text were actually, quantifiably and materially somehow still analogous to ‘shouting,’ as if it were possible to ‘shout’ via unvoiced prose. Whenever I type in caps and someone replies re me ‘shouting’ I feel like they must have just finished watching a ‘netiquette’ broadcast circa 1996.
Oh, netiquette! The original rule book of how to behave online, because it was a new world that needed rules. Except, as Leigh points out, the rules of netiquette didn’t stick because they weren’t necessary. People just figured out what to do.
This made me realise that part of my objection to the #ttrttpt hashtag is that it’s a form of netiquette - a rule dragged out for the sake of having a rule. Most people are smart and can figure out that tweet A is a continuation of tweet B. But #ttrttpt assumes no one will be able to figure this out, but also assumes that they will be very interested in doing so, and so #ttrttpt says “OH HAI YOU NEED TO SCROLL BACK AND READ THE OTHER IMPORTANT TWEET I DID BEFORE THIS ONE. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT. I WROTE IT”
Wotevz~
