Why is AB messing with the title of my question?

[gen2]

I have just posted a question in 'Science' where the distinction between upper-case and lower-case letters is important to understanding their meaning.

My question title included two lower-case letters which AB automatically, and without my permission, converted to upper-case. Not even a prompt to ask if I was happy with the change (which I wasn't).

So I repeat my question:
Why does AB insist on capitalising lower-case abbreviations in Science?

Oh, and since this is 'Suggestions' I think I had better include a suggestion.

May I respectfully request that AB implement a laisser faire policy regarding question titles within the Science section.

Ref. http://www.theanswerb...e/Question884219.html

[factor-fiction]

It's because you put the 'ge' in the title box. The custom in the English language is for words in titles to have capital letters.
Having said that, i suggest AB should dispense with the automatic use of capitals because so many posters now put the whole question in just the title box, making it difficult to read.

[gen2]

No, factor30, not quite; the custom in the English language is NOT for ALL words in titles to have capital letters. There are rules for capitalisation and AB does not follow them.

Here is an example link to such rules:

http://henshaw.me/704...talization-in-a-title

Please note AB Ed.

[HoneyBeeTree]

I'm not completely sure but it could be something to do with online. Where I work when we describe anything online in the title we have to use first letter capitalisation for every word.

[factor-fiction]

Gen2. The convention as I know it for titles is to use capital letters for all words except for words such as:
a, in, at, on, and, the
I agree AB doesn't follow that convention.
But I'm not sure the convention is for single letters to be a lower case ( w h Smith would be wrong, for example). So if you put 100 g e as the entry in the title box I can see it appeared as 100 G E.
AB should review its practice for the reason I gave earlier (too many capitals make it difficult to read when posters put the whole question in the title box), but you can get round your example by typing 100ge as one word without any spaces. See my example in Science

[factor-fiction]

http://www.theanswerb...e/Question884247.html

[jno]

this used to be the standard format of headlines on a lot of American newspapers, and I think still is for some; I suspect AB has got it from a US program.

[ABerrant]

In regard of capitalisation of titles there is not one hard and fast rule, however conventions of style have emerged within various fields:

It is the convention of publishers using American English to employ 'title case'
It is the convention of publishers using British English to employ 'sentence case'
It is the convention of computer programmers to employ 'start case'.

AB follows the rules for start case.

[AB Editor]

Hi gen2,

It is quite standard for "The Internet" and it stops users from not capitalising anything.

I suggest you use the "details" area of the question entry pod to give exact details, and use the title for a more general question, possibly mentioning the themes of your question.

All the best

Spare Ed

[factor-fiction]

I agree, Ed- the title box is being misused by many users who post questions.
When a user starts to raise a question they get guidance in white text that says if they are using youtube "Please describe this clip for users who are unable to view You Tube videos, this is for their benefit". I suggest that a much more useful piece of guidance would be to say next to the title box something like "please limit your title to 10 words and put then put your question in full in the box below".