dancing the Y/y tango
"can't Y/y'A/all just get along?" - overheard in a D/s chatroom
i admit it. i am a capper. i cap letters for Dom/mes, for their names and pronouns and i use little letters for myself. when i first got onto the internet i swore to myself i would never become a capper, but i didn't stick to that for very long at all. i drive my vanilla friends crazy when i send out group icqs addressed "to A/all my F/friends", and there are times at work i have to erase something i have written because i used a little i for me or a big H in the Her for my boss. it has started to affect all my writing, but... i don't plan on stopping either.
moving from the world of r/l D/s to online, i had to make a myriad of adjustments. though i was fully trained as a r/l slave, i was told online that my manners were poor and needed improvement. part of this was my initial reluctance to adopt the different usage of capitalization that has taken online D/s by storm. it seemed silly, even petty to me at first, and when a Dom/me would chastise me for using a capital I, i would roll my eyes at my computer monitor and begin to wonder if E/everyone in online D/s was simply nuts.
since then, i have changed my tune. with the severe hindrances of cyberspace, there are only a few very limited ways to show respect for a Dom/me. one can bow, and nod, but only to a limited extent, and it gets a little clogged in the conversation if one has to keep repeating, *lowers her eyes respectfully and says*... before every line one speaks. using caps for Dom/mes is a quick, simple way to show that respect while keeping the conversation moving.
i admit it... there are times i slip; most often in capping pronouns and names of fellow slaves and subs. they often look at me a bit startled, and will at times correct me. to me, i am only showing them respect, not saying they are any less submissive than they are. i told a friend once, who said she was "a little you" that E/everyone was a big You to me. this is true, amongst those i respect and care for, and it is often hard to keep from showing even the "little you"s that same reverence and respect i have for Dom/mes.
now, that is not to say that i respect everyone who is "a big You". there are some Dom/mes that i am acquainted with that i have very little or no respect for based on their behaviour and actions. respect does not come automatically with a capital letter in O/one's name... it must still be earned.
and yes, i still cap the names of Those i do not respect, however i mainly only do this to avoid trouble. usually i prefer not to speak to These particular People at all, but there are times a girl cannot avoid it, particularly in my role as a system op at the chat site i frequent the most. this can be very trying, and, i admit, there are times i have slipped and used "little you"s to refer to said persons. i always apologize, and correct myself (if i catch it in time), but i have thought recently that perhaps apologies are not in order. that one will take a lot of thinking about, before i decide, and i doubt my shy nature would truly let me do anything but apologize.
regardless, as long as i am in chat, i will keep dancing the Y/y tango... and showing respect where it is due, to both the big Yous and the little yous alike. be well til next we meet... --di.