At 05:31 PM 8/13/2009, shag carpet bomb wrote: "I personally don't give a crap about 'u' or 'k' or 'ty' 'tx' or 'r' or any of that. who cares?"
It bugs me because we have one writer who can exercise a little discipline, thereby saving hundreds or thousands of readers extra work, but because the writer wants to save a few keystrokes, the readers are called upon to expend additional effort to make out what the writer is saying. If writers follow the established conventions, readers could read very quickly and easily, but by contravening them, readers are slowed down.
Speaking of established conventions... My eyesight isn't what it used to be, and reading the output of those who eschew the upper case can be a problem. The older I get, the tinier those periods/full stops appear to be. What are you who don't use the shift key saving? A few seconds? A few calories?