How about capslock? I've the impression that it's more annoying to read text in CAPSLOCK than bold text because usually it's also expressing anger and aggression. Or maybe my judgement regarding capslock is only a little bit damaged from
some people using it frequently where normal text seems to be not enough.
Bold text is fine if it's used in a decent way to highligh parts of a text or for sub-headlines.
Same goes for smileys.
Capslock means capitalization that has its helpfulness if used relevantly, just don' abuse Capslock.
I think using capitalization for topic title in OP can be acceptable, I do it too. However, weeks ago, when I made my thread on posting technique (
Bitcointalk posting etiquette), and I reread theymos' guide, I deeply rethought that topic title in OP is likely unnecesary, IMO. It simply repeats what writer already mention in topic title. I have still not had my final thoughts and decisions for my next threads (as well as edit my old ones), but I will keep that idea in mind. As you see in my thread history, my recent threads don't have titles - that repeat topic titles - in OP. I would prefer to keep doing this, because I feel my threads look better.
Yes, I agree with you, it's quite possible that capslock can be used for the title to specify the content (like [SERVICE], [ANN] / [BOUNTY] or [OPEN] / [FULL] for signature campaigns) or to improve the layout of a post. I can't remember if I used capslock in my posts, usually I'm using bold in my guides or
underlined font for explanations sometimes.
Like you've already said: it's relevant how often such features are being used and where (when writing a plain text, special formatting isn't useful but it's very useful in guides or even to outline technical stuff (for exapmle the formatting style of
nc50lc in his technical explanations is a very good one.)
Of course highlighting of certain words can be useful. Regardless of bold, uppercase or color. To even waste time on a big conversation about it is about what one can expect from chipmixer spammers.
If you are getting paid 7 bucks per post, you could place the letters in the correct order. We post for free so take it dirty or you can have a full refund. Can you believe the board has financed you gaining 14 bucks or whatever for this garbage. What is darkstar thinking?
Someone creates output containing some bold, uppercase or color you don't like. Move along.
Sure the effort to reward ratio can vary slightly (within a sensible range of caps, bold etc). I'm sure those presenting real value here are not going to abuse it to a level that seriously impacts that ratio to anywhere near worthy of a thread about it.
Actmyname has some strange fonts he uses for fun that make it hard to read. However, I'm sure he will not use those if he really wanted to convey and important point.
Caps is not anger or shouting in all cases. It just saves time using other variants of emphasis or highlighting.
