[Infowarrior] - NAVY TO STOP SCREAMING

[Richard Forno]

(c/o DD)
 
http://www.dodbuzz.com/2013/06/06/navy-scuttles-all-cap-messages/

Navy Scuttles All-Cap Messages
By Richard Sisk <http://www.dodbuzz.com/author/richard-sisk/> Thursday,
June 6th, 2013 5:30 pm


WE DON¹T HAVE TO SEND MESSAGES THIS WAY ANYMORE, the Navy has decided.

Word went out from the Navy¹s Fleet Cyber Command on May 8 that the Navy¹s
internal messaging system now had the ability to transmit in lower case as
well as the traditional upper case letters.

³Therefore, it is not necessary to limit Navy messages entirely to upper
case,² said the directive, first reported by the Navy Times.
Of course, the message saying that upper case was no longer needed went
out this way: ³THEREFORE, IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO LIMIT NAVY MESSAGES
ENTIRELY TO UPPER CASE.²


Alone among the services, the Navy has been using all capitals for
internal administrative messages from the routine to the emergency going
back more than a century to the days when teletype machines only sent
capitals.

The reasoning behind the change was that messages in lower and upper case
were easier to read, Navy officials said. Another factor was that younger
recipients of all-cap messages might tend to think that the person sending
them was SCREAMING AT THEM AND REALLY TICKED OFF.

³The capability has been there for about a year² to send routine messages
in lower case, said Lt. Joseph Holstead, a spokesman for the Cyber
Command. The next step will be to expand that capability to secret and top
secret messages, possibly in August, Holstead said.

³There are still a couple of legacy systems out there that we¹ll have to
convert,² probably in mid-2014, Holstead said.

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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.