Comment Re:Crank physics (Score 1) 239
Generally in online vernacular, capital letters are used for emphasis. On slashdot, which lacks the extremely basic functionality of WYSIWYG formatting cues, it's simply much easier to do this than to fully type (open bracket) bold (close bracket) text (open bracket) (slash) bold (close bracket).
Of course, the hyperbolic nature of the internet has cycled past emphasis, so now ALLCAPS is quite often used as a sarcastic marker of emphasis, ridiculing the over-emotionalism of a previous post (or in this case, likely the OP summary of the text which was surprisingly emotive over a rather objectively dispassionate subject), rather than actual emphasis in and of itself.
Does that help explain?