I really dislike it too.

I think it might be adults ignoring established grammar rules to make a statement about how they identify a part of a group of AI evangelists.

Kind of like how teenagers do nonsensical things like where thick heavy clothing regardless of the weather to indicate how much of a badass them and their other badass coat wearing friends are.

To normal humans, they look ridiculous, but they think they're cool and they're not harming anyone so I just leave them to it.

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chongli 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

make a statement about how they identify a part of a group

That’s what it is. A shibboleth. They’re broadcasting group affiliation. The fact that it grates on the outgroup is intentional. If it wasn’t costly to adopt it wouldn’t be as honest of a signal.

	▲	cucumber3732842 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		On a scale from the purest, not lifting a finger anymore than to strike a keyboard, of virtue signaling to putting one's money where their mouth is this shibboleth is about as costly as the tidal zone is dry land.

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webdood90 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

can't imagine getting this riled up over lowercase text. some serious fist-shaking-at-clouds energy.

it's meant to convey a casual, laid back tone - it's not that big of a deal.

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rhines 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You convey tone through word choice and sentence structure - trying to convey tone through casing or other means is unnecessary and often just jarring.

Like look at the sentence "it has felt to me like all threads of conversation have veered towards the extreme and indefensible." The casing actually conflicts with the tone of the sentence. It's not written like a casual text - if the sentence was "ppl talking about this are crazy" then sure, the casing would match the tone. But the stodgy sentence structure and use of more precise vocabulary like "veered" indicates that more effort has gone into this than the casing suggests.

Fair play if the author just wants to have a style like this. It's his prerogative to do so, just as anyone can choose to communicate exclusively in leetspeak, or use all caps everywhere, or write everything like script dialogue, whatever. Or if it's a tool to signal that he's part of an in-group with certain people who do the same, great. But he is sacrificing readability by ignoring conventions.

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verdverm 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's hard to find sentence breaks, it is actually about readability and accessibility

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mejutoco 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Ironically, this sentence is called a comma splice or run-on sentence. A period or semicolon would be correct.

I agree with the sentiment too, or maybe I am getting old :P

	▲	verdverm 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I don't think it's about getting old, it's about expecting clear and parsable communication Some people are being lazy, they will get less attention, ideally

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outime 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I also agree it sucks, and I don't see a problem pointing it out.

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superdisk 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's just very poser behavior.

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webdood90 3 hours ago | parent [-]

TIL hacker news is dominated by boomers

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verdverm 2 hours ago | parent [-]

if by boomers you mean a community with above average expectations for the quality of submissions and commentary, sure

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cucumber3732842 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I thought it was a joke about a propensity to peddle public policy that will drive the world off a cliff, but not until after we get ours.

	▲	verdverm 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		That's politicians and media influencers of all ages, not the general public The new generation of tiktok / podcast "independent journalists" is a serious issue / case of what you describe. They are many doing zero journalism and repeating propaganda, some paid by countries like Russia (i.e. Tim Pool and that whole crew that got caught and never face consequences)

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calepayson 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> to normal humans, they look ridiculous, but they think they're cool and they're not harming anyone so i just leave them to it.

fixed it for you! now it’s in a casual, laid back tone.