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This page in a nutshell: Capitalization is a must in Wikipedia. However, misuse of it is also bad. You need a balance of both. |
This page could trigger seizures. You have been warned. |
So, let's say that you're working on the article of a lifetime (or something like that), and you want to make it perfect. The least you can do to make it meet your quota is to give it proper capitalization so it doesn't look like absolute garbage. However, misuse (or lack of use) will not do.
lack of capitalization
now, i get it, most people get that one can't be bothered to move their finger to the shift button (or caps lock, if you aren't someone that only has a shift key) to make the first letter in their sentence more notable, but if you don't do that, well, then this paragraph is a result of your laziness. as you can see, it makes the whole thing look like you were searching something, or you were just not bothered to simply move your finger to the shift/caps lock button, or maybe this is just a sentence that is way too long for you to do that. the solution for this is simple: just press the shift button or the caps lock button. it's simple and you only need to do it once (unless it's for the shift key).
TOO MUCH CAPITALIZATION
IF YOU USE THIS IN YOUR ARTICLE, EITHER YOU ARE TRULY DEVOTED TO GIVING YOUR CAPS LOCK BUTTON A SAY IN WHAT YOU TYPE, YOU GIVE WAY, WAY TOO MUCH LOVE TO YOUR SHIFT KEY, OR EITHER BUTTON BROKE. EITHER WAY, TWO THINGS WILL HAPPEN:
- PEOPLE WILL NOTICE THIS MISUSE, AND THEY WILL ASK.
- IF YOU USED IT IN TALK PAGES, IT WILL BE VIEWED AS SHOUTING, AND CAN POTENTIALLY LEAD TO YOUR TALK PAGE PRIVILEGES BEING REVOKED.
IF HAVING YOUR TALKING PRIVILEGES REVOKED ISN'T YOUR STYLE, WE'D SUGGEST EITHER FIXING YOUR CAPS LOCK BUTTON, GETTING A NEW KEYBOARD, FIXING THE SHIFT KEY OR STAGING A REVOLUTION ON THE PESKY KEY. IT'LL WORK, OK? OR, YOU KNOW, NOT USING THOSE BUTTONS SO MUCH.
Other Examples of Poor Capitalization, and other minor formatting stuff
While these are bad things to do if you are making an article, there can be, and will be, other misappropriations of this rule, some just doing with text style. (But, is it really style if it looks poor?)
Italics and Bold
The inappropriate usage of italics and bold can do things to you. Bold will make you sound stern and unfriendly, and could be viewed as shouting. Italics make you look like a liar, or an overemphasizer. The worst one of all is a combination of both. If you use such a thing, you need to be kept away from society at all costs.
A mIx Of CaPs AnD nO cAps
iF yOu ArE oNe Of ThOsE pEoPlE wHo TyPe LiKe tHiS, StOp It> PlEaSe; iF yOu CaN'T, ThEn YoU pRoBaBlY dOn"t BeLoNg In WiKiPeDiA, nOr nUpEdIa. In FaCt< yOu ShOuLdN"t Be EdItInG oN aNy WiKi_eSqUe WeBsItEs>
Unnecessary Capitalization
Now, To Be Fair, This Would Be Considered Using Too Much Capitalization, However, Unlike Doing It Too Much, You're Just Doing It On Words That Aren't Sentence-Beginners, or Names... Or Pronouns... Or Places... You Get The Idea.
Inverse Caps
wHY WOULD YOU NEED TO DO THIS IN AN ARTICLE? iT JUST LOOKS LIKE YOU FORGOT TO TURN OFF CAPS LOCK. sERIOUSLY, WHY? iF YOU DID FORGET TO TURN OFF THE CAPS LOCK, DO IT NOW, AND SAVE YOURSELF FROM EMBARRASSMENT.
U s e o f S p a c e s
T h e u s e o f s p a c e s i s f i n e , b u t a s s o o n a s y o u s t a r t p u t t i n g s p a c e s I N y o u r w o r d s . . . J u s t . . . d o n ' t . Y o u ' r e b e t t e r o f f j u s t n o t p u t t i n g s p a c e s i n y o u r s e n t e n c e s i f y o u d o t h i s .
Subscripts and superscripts
Using either is perhaps one of worst ways to write an article. Unless you are trying to use exponents, or are doing... whatever subscripts are for, there is no reason to use either of them. It's also a well known fact that when you use both subscripts and superscripts on one text, the article takes a screenshot.
Block Quotes
All this does is give the text space from everything else. Unless you are quoting something, most likely a text, there is no need to do this unless you are trying to practice social distancing for your poor, meek letters.
Weird... box thing
I won't dwell on this for too long, as I'm not sure what this is called. Just know, it's only good if you are writing a section about a code that the subject uses, or needs.
No Punctuation
Why would you even do this It makes it look like one whole complete sentence If you do this then learn How To Use Punctuation Seriously
Painfully tiny
This way of making an article, while funny at first, gets pretty annoying when you have to read it. Of course, if you want to, you can go smaller... and smaller... and smaller... and smaller... and smaller... And great, now not even a bacterium can read this![1]
የተለያዩ የላቲን-ያልሆኑ ቋንቋዎች
ይህ በጥሬው የእንግሊዝኛው ዊኪፔዲያ ነው! አንድ ሰው ይህን እንዴትሊሽረው ይችላል! ነገር ግን በቁም ነገር፣ የሆነ ነገር በተለየ ቋንቋ መጻፍ ከፈለጉ፣ በቋንቋው በሚዛመደው ዊኪ ውስጥ ያድርጉት።[2]
Mathematical formulas
Using this is fairly impractical, as it actually doesn't turn this all into math, but rather gives the text a special font. Please don't do this. Please.
References
UseOfCamelCase
IfYouDon'tUseSpacesAndRatherUseCamelCase,That'sGoingToBeAProblem.ItWillBeConfusingToReaders,EspeciallyIfYouUseAcronyms. IfYouDoUseAcronyms,YouMightAsWellUseJustSpaces,OrDashes.
A l L
It should be noted that this is way outdated, as it only has violations of Italics and Bold and A mIx Of CaPs AnD nO cAps (the original ones). If you want to try to incorporate the most recent additions to the "Other Examples of Poor Capitalization, and other general minor formatting stuff", go ahead. Just one word of advice: good luck. |
I f Y o U d O t H i S d R e A d E d M e T h O d O f T y P I n G , Y o U d E s E r V e T o B e S e N t E n C e D , P u N I n T e N d E d. I t " s S i M p L e N o T t O d O t H i S , A n D i T ' S f R e E .
Hitting Return Too Many Times
Do
Not
Do
This
Ever
Or
You
Will
Suffer
A
Block
Except
If
You
Are
Writing
Poetry
Extreme examples of formatting
While this essay's main purpose was to showcase possible mess ups in formatting, some of these sections were too... delibrate. No one would accidentally do these, so they are here as a sort of you-get-the-gist-y thing.
Grunts
Uh? Ugh! Mugh. Ouh! Ugh uh.
Google Translate
Of course, you can also use Google Translate if necessary. However, if you're not careful or just lazy, you can do the opposite and lose valuable information. Google Translate is great. [5]
h ̸̢̳̻̱̝̮͑͐̀̊̕W̴͍̭͙͕͛̀̐̕͠ơ̸̖̪͉͋̽̓̾ẅ̶̧̯̝͎̟̲́̄͊̈́̈́,̶̟̻̖̭̳̭̟͋ ̷̢̛̫͉̳̳̞͈̈́̂͌̍̈͝ḩ̸͚̠̗̓̃̆̇̈́̔͝a̵̱̟͓̺̋ͅh̷͓̪̯̣̀̀a̴̡̢̦̝̞̖̽,̴͕͈͓̤̪̳̱͋̀̚ ̵̬͂͐̅̄̚͝I̸̧̛̛̪͉̱͔͙̦͊́̒̊͠ ̶̢̤̲͖̠̩͗̔̈́̓̀̚̕ͅg̵͈̞̪̈́ͅẹ̸͔̫̓̇̆͑̏̅̈ț̷̠̱̹͛̇͠ ̸̞̟̓̄̀̎̿̏t̷̘̼͇͌̄ḫ̶̣̬̟͈̐̉̔̾͌̈́̀e̵̛̩̯̔̊͑͆͝ ̸̟̖͍͖̭͕̬̅̋̂̀̀̀͝j̶̧̹̻̬̈ö̵͖͇̲͙͚̑̑̔̄͜͠k̷̝̍͂̈͒͌̆ẹ̴͕̼̣̼̹̲̈́͌̉̎͑͆͝.̴̧͔̖͓͚̀̈ ̶̞͎̼̳͈͐̍̍͗̓F̵̙̼̟̣̅͊̾̄̕ǔ̷̩̘̬̾̈́͊̊͘͜n̷̡̹̖̼͓̭͑̇̅̕͜n̴̗̗̬͙̝͂̉̅͂̑͒ȳ̶̡͇̹̟̹̮̪̃̓̊ ̵̡̬̫̅̌̃͛ͅL̶̪͓̆̍͑̄̆̈́͝ǒ̶̧̮͂̏͘͝v̵̢̦͈̾͜ͅé̵͉͎̻̦̩̰̫͝c̵̡̭̥͍̯̠̈́͗̆͆̍r̷̬̺̲̹̫͌̊̊̑̕͜a̷͇̾͌͛f̷̛̱͐ͅṭ̶̥͓̤͕͔̒ ̶̨͇͉̬̮̍̉͂͝t̵̨̠̳̬̝̍̆̾̒e̸̯͛̽̀̓̈̃̄x̶͙͂̓͒̂̐̚͜͠t̴̟̜͈̻͎͈̏̌̀̆̚̕͝.̷̧̝̩̠̑̓̀̓̓͒ ̶̤͈̹̱̬̲͐͆̔̀͌Ị̴͒̃͝f̸̡͍̰̙̂̿̍̾̈́̈́͝ ̷͖̖̪̘̱̤͍̐̔̈́͝͠y̸͉̗͒́̈́̿̎͝o̵̫̰̟͇̬͒̒̔͌͗̚ù̵̢̨͈͕̻̰̱̔̉͊́̋ ̷̼͋́d̸̤̘̺̳͈̖̲̒̏̀̃̍͐͘o̶̡̩͖͕͎͇̍͂̓ ̵̻͕̖͖̇̆͒͋͝ṫ̵͚̰̲͓̿͜ȟ̶͈͍̙͍͇̊̐̊̎i̷̤͉͉̔s̸͔̥̦͈͆̔̾̽͆͠͝ͅ.̶̧͔̤̺̮͓͐̒.̷̨̭̒̀̎̆̿̚͝.̵̻̻̼̻̃ ̴̨̮̩̀̆͒t̶̲̬̼̓̈́h̶̠̲̠͙͂̅͝ẻ̴͔̲͈n̴̢̨̲̘̠̘̒ ̷͙͚̙̼͋ẗ̴̡́͆ḩ̴̳̼̦̃̎̌͝͠͝ĕ̸̢̤̣̜͉͍̄̿͜r̶̡̜̞̃ȩ̷̰̓͌́͛̃̚ ̸̭̞̿̅̋̾̽̑̓͜ͅḭ̶̧̧̦̻͒̆s̴͑̈́̊͜ ̷̢̞̥̹͈͋̑n̶̗̞̗̯̤̻̂͌̒̀o̸͈̤̒t̷̢̛̹͚̳̪̖́h̶̦̭̀̍í̶̛̥̪̄̅͝n̴̨̢͕̋̾͒̍̐̌g̸͕͒̚ ̶͚̆̆̊w̵͒̋͜e̵̪̠̊̈́̄͐͑̚ ̸̫̬̮͖̮̎́͘͝c̴̥͔̪͙̓ͅą̴̟̜͉͚͇̃ņ̵̭̘̘͎̈́͑̎͠͝ ̴͕̺̝͌͠d̵̛̙̖̳͈̬̔̓̔̓́o̵̗͓͘͝ ̶͕̮͉̗̗̇̀̌̂̓̕͘͜f̴̖̝̖͕̞̊̀͠o̸̤͂̎̍̈́ŕ̷̦̏̕ ̵̢̳͙͍̞̾̆̏̒y̸͇͉̳̪̝̌͛̒̐͆o̵͕̗͈͔̎͂͋̀̍͛̕ǘ̴̢͓̰͚̞̀̈.̷̻͎̻͍͓̅̚͝ [6]
My eyes! Why would you write an article in Comic Sans‽ This isn't text anymore, it's all just scribbles now! Don't do this unless you either want to commit a crime against humanity, or you like skeletons! Please!
Ywhay? Ywhay ouldway ouyay evenyay useyay isthay? Iyay an'tcay evenyay eadray isthay![7]
Pls, dn't vn thnk bt t. Vr. n fct, why wld y s t?
fəˈnɛtɪks
ɪf ju kænt ˈfɪɡjər aʊt ðæt ðɪs ˈɪzənt wɪkʃən(ə)ɹi, lɛt mi spɛl ɪt aʊt fɔr ju: ju ˈkænɑt ˈlɪtərəli spɛl aʊt ˈɛvəri ˈlɪtəl ˈɑdəti wɪð ði (əˈmɛrəkən) ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ ˈlæŋɡwəʤ... ənˈlɛs ɪts ˈnidɪd fɔr ˈsʌmθɪŋ laɪk isɑˈiɑs, ɔr ˈsʌmθɪŋ. nɑt ˈoʊnli ɪz ɪt ˌɪnkənˈvinjənt tu meɪk, bʌt ɪt lʊks mɔr laɪk ən ˈeɪnʧənt ˈlæŋɡwəʤ.[8]
Slashes
So/great,/now/your/article/looks/like/this.
What/is/this?
/dev/sda0?
Seriously,/don't/do/this./This/looks/like/a/UNIX/filesystem.
Backslashes
Ok,\I\give\up.\This\looks\like\MS-DOS\already.
C:\Windows\system32.\This\is\why\you\don't\do\this.\It\looks\ridiculous.
01010111 01101000 01111001 00100000 01100101 01111000 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101101 01110000 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110101 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01110011 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01110101 01101110 01100011 01101000 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101110 01110101 01101101 01100010 01100101 01110010 01110011 00100000 01101100 01101001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00111111 00100000 01010111 01100101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101101 01110000 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110010 00100001 [9]
.-- .... -.-- / - .... . / .... . .-.. .-.. / .-- --- ..- .-.. -.. / -.-- --- ..- / .-- .- -. - / - --- / ..- ... . / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / ..-. --- .-. / .- -. / .- .-. - .. -.-. .-.. . ..--.. / - .... .. ... / .. ... / ..-. .- .. .-. .-.. -.-- / ..-. .- .-. -....- ..-. . - -.-. .... . -.. --..-- / -... ..- - / ... . .-. .. --- ..- ... .-.. -.-- .-.-.- / -.-- --- ..- .----. -.. / -. . . -.. / - --- / -... . / .- / -. . .-. -.. / - --- / -... . / ..- ... .. -. --. / -- --- .-. ... . .-.-.- .-.-.- .-.-.- / .- - / .- .-.. .-.. --..-- / .-. . .- .-.. .-.. -.-- .-.-.- [10]
sdrawkcab
.resrever ...txet a htiw desrever saw txet elohw siht ,tsihcosam a ton m'I esuaceb ,esruoc fO .looc ...eb ot gniyrt morf ehcadaeh a teg osla lliw uoy tub ,"depyt" uoy tahw daer ot gniyrt morf ekorts a teg sredaer lliw ylno toN .od nac uoy gniht tsrow eht ylbissop si sdrawkcab txet gnikaM[11]
D0n'7. Ju57, d0n'7. P1e45e.
Helicopter text
the Helicopter text
Rainbow text
Enormous text
Some doctors think that Wikipedia's text is too small, so let's make it bigger! Great, now even people on the other side of the Amazon River will be able to see it.
𓅂𓎼𓇌𓊪𓏏𓇋𓄿𓈖 𓉔𓇋𓅂𓂋𓅱𓎼𓃭𓇌𓊪𓉔𓋴
𓇋𓆑 𓇌𓅱𓅲 𓅃𓄿𓈖𓏏 𓏏𓅱 𓋴𓊪𓅂𓄿𓈎 𓇋𓈖 𓄿 𓃀𓄿𓋴𓇋𓎢𓄿𓃭𓃭𓇌 𓂧𓅂𓄿𓂧 𓃭𓄿𓈖𓎼𓅲𓄿𓎼𓅂𓄼 𓎼𓅱 𓄿𓉔𓅂𓄿𓂧. 𓉔𓅱𓅃𓅂𓆯𓅂𓂋𓄼 𓇋 𓎢𓄿𓈖𓈖𓅱𓏏 𓅲𓈖𓂧𓅂𓂋𓋴𓏏𓄿𓈖𓂧 𓏏𓉔𓇋𓋴𓄼 𓄿𓈖𓂧 𓈖𓅂𓇋𓏏𓉔𓅂𓂋 𓎢𓄿𓈖 𓇌𓅱𓅲𓄼 𓅓𓅱𓋴𓏏 𓃭𓇋𓈎𓅂𓃭𓇌.[12]
Hex
77 68 79 20 6A 75 73 74 20 77 68 79 20 57 69 6B 69 70 65 64 69 61 20 69 73 20 72 65 61 64 20 62 79 20 68 75 6D 61 6E 73 20 6E 6F 74 20 72 6F 62 6F 74 73 20 20.[13]
𝔐𝔢𝔡𝔦𝔢𝔳𝔞𝔩 𝔱𝔢𝔵𝔱
𝔒𝔨, ℑ 𝔤𝔢𝔱 𝔦𝔱, 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔩𝔦𝔨𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔞𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔱𝔦𝔠, 𝔟𝔲𝔱 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝖎𝖘𝖓'𝖙 𝔞𝔫 𝔬𝔩𝔡 𝔪𝔞𝔫𝔲𝔰𝔠𝔯𝔦𝔭𝔱!
𝚆𝚎𝚒𝚛𝚍 𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚢
𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜𝚗'𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝙸𝙳𝙴!
𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚆𝚒𝚔𝚒𝚙𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊!
TYPENG LIEK THISE
Wan shud nawth tyep liek thise. Yews yar speelchekk. Ohkey?
😎😎😎😎 using a lot of ✨emojis✨
Wikipedia is 🚫 a 💬 👩💻 site. ✅? This also applies to 🪽dings.
Using symbols as an ~embellishment~
——-Don’t you know those—- #symbols could mean ~something else~ on Wikipedi@?
Summary
The absolutely horrible capitalization, spacing, formatting, and sizing that you saw were all done to convey one, hopefully simple message: Don't play with your keyboard. Ever. Unless it's a musical one, in which case, you are fine.
However, because your lazy head failed to read through this, your article was nominated for cleanup, perhaps along with a deletion, speedy or otherwise! If you have done this multiple times, on a sensitive topic, or if you did this on purpose, you will, most likely, be blocked, maybe along with the loss of talking and emailing privileges. Anyhow, it was on a topic already on Wikipedia. Oh well... I guess you can reconsider what you've done, and maybe next time, you can learn from this foolish mistake. Well done, boss.
See also
- Wikipedia:Capitalization - The actual article for those who hate comedy, or thought that this was a serious article about capitalization.
- Wikipedia:Nobody cares about your garage band - While it's mostly about notability, in particular for musical acts, it still has some good points in this article's subject matter.
Notes (mostly translations)
- ^ Translation: This way of making an article, while funny at first, gets pretty annoying when you have to read it. Of course, if you want to, you can go smaller... and smaller... and smaller... and smaller... and smaller... And great, now not even a bacterium can read this!
- ^ (Google) Translation: This is literally the English Wikipedia! How can one undo this! But seriously, if you want to write something in a different language, do it in the language's corresponding wiki.
- ^ What is even the point of writing an ENTIRE article in one single, tiny, reference? I thought you were writing an article!
- ^ It's even worse if you figure out how to make the stupid references take forever to appear! Why is that even a feature? I need an explanation, seriously... Why?
- ^ Original Text: If you must, you can indeed use Google Translate. However, if you are not careful, or if you are just mad like that, you get things that contradict and omit important information. Google Translate wisely.
- ^ Translation: Wow, haha, I get the joke. Funny Lovecraft text. If you do this... then there is nothing we can do for you.
- ^ Translation: Why? Why would you even use this? I can't even read this!
- ^ Translation: If you can't figure out that this isn't Wiktionary, let me spell it out for you: You cannot literally spell out every little oddity with the (American) English language... unless it's needed for something like Isaias, or something. Not only is it inconvenient to make, but it looks more like an ancient language.
- ^ Translation: Why exactly would you want the readers to attempt to understand a bunch of numbers like this? We're not a computer!
- ^ Translation: Why would you want to use Morse code for an article? This is fairly far-fetched, but seriously. You'd need to be a nerd to be using Morse... at all, really.
- ^ Translation: Making text backwards is possibly the worst thing you can do. Not only will readers get a stroke from trying to read what you "typed", but you will also get a headache from trying to be... cool. Of course, because I'm not a masochist, this whole text was reversed with a text... reverser.
- ^ Translation: If you want to speak in a basically dead language, go ahead. However, I cannot understand this, and neither can you, most likely.
- ^ Translation: Why just why Wikipedia is read by humans not robots.