First, i would like to say that i'm glad that we can have these kind of conversations and disagreements, yet know that everyone respects the others opinion.

Do you enter a play praty or a friend's home and say "Hello all with a capital a slash little a. How is everyone with a capital e slash little e tonight? I'm with a little i doing great and I with a little i hope everyone with a capital e slash little e is doing well, too."
No, i would not enter a party and speak like that, as i would not enter a party and say "Hello everyone,(comma) how are you tonight?(question mark)" i believe that in written text, we must use certain formats to indicate what we can't indicate with tone, inflection, etc. Just as i would say "Yes Ma'am, Yes Sir, No Ma'am, No Sir" in person to show respect to an elder or Dominant, i do the same while typing to a Dominant in a BDSM forum. i also believe that using capitalization shows the hierarchy of the participants in a BDSM forum. If we didn't use any capitalization, then what would be the difference in a D/s chatroom and a "vanilla" one?

You made a good point BDSM_Tourguide, a LOT of people do learn BDSM from online. For a lot of us practicing a D/s lifestyle, this is the only place to go for guidelines. If all you learn is to capitalize pronouns and are not taught that any other way is acceptable, that is what you do. Yet, the more time people are online and do more research, they find that it is not the ONLY accepted way to address Dom/Dommes. It seems, from my experience that it really depends on the amount of formality that a particular forum uses. And i will usually follow the lead of others in the room to test how formal a room or board it is.

If you think you MUST respect your dominant by typing his or her name in caps, then shouldn't you also HAVE to show him or her your respect by uncapping your name, too?
In my experience, i have not come across any sub that capitalizes their name. i believe that to be a common practice.

please try to remember that just because this is BDSM, that's not reason for you to lose your perspective. Remember, you're still a human, after all. Don't you want to be treated like one?
i don't believe that because one chooses to follow one of many sets of BDSM "rules" or guidelines that they lose their perspective or are treated any less than human. i can only speak for myself in my own relationship, but i am treated like a much treasured human. my D/s relationship is not online, it is 24/7 r/l, and it didn't start out that way. We decided to integrate some parts of BDSM into our relationship.

ENOUGH ENOUGH flower...geez!

flower{J}