STORM2K

(CNN) -- Well, it seems the U.S. Navy finally got the memo: DON'T USE ALL CAPS! IT'S RUDE!

The Navy is switching to a new messaging system that's cheaper and more efficient.

And oh yeah, one that does away with a century-old practice: communications using all uppercase letters.

"Lowercase messages are here to stay; they provide a more readable format," a Navy news release said, citing James McCarty, the naval messaging program manager at U.S. Fleet Cyber Command.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/13/us/navy-a ... ?hpt=hp_t2


Would be nice if they did.

I feel weird whenever I read NWS/NHC bulletins that aren't in all caps. It feels less "official" for some reason

Some NWS WFOs have already made the switch. NWS Tallahassee is one of them

At first when I started reading NOAA messages I thought the all caps was odd but now I'm used to it and I agree, it feels "official". If they switched to lower-case it would take a long time to get used to that.

Hopefully, NWS follows suit. Sure, we've all become accustomed to the ALL CAPS format but lowercase is definitely more readable.

It is a strain scanning through NWS advisories especially when they go on for over 100 words or so.

What's worse is that there's no thought to making the text easier to parse by employing some
sensible paragraphing and line insertions.

It's a grind for the non-professional reader. I'll be glad to see the ALL-CAPS disappear. There's really
nothing really more "official" about the old-style telex look. It's way obsolete and puts off a lot
of folks that need to see important information from official sources.

JonathanBelles wrote:Some NWS WFOs have already made the switch. NWS Tallahassee is one of them

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/product.php?sit ... hlight=off

That looks so strange. You know what throws me off the most? They use commas.

We've been using lower-case letters ever since... at least 1980 when I started working for a private weather company. The government is slow to adopt changes.